Pima County Sheriff releases ransom notes in Nancy Guthrie disappearance case

Six months after Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in Arizona released two ransom notes to the media. The notes, which were sent to local CBS affiliate KOLD-TV 13 News, claim to be from the kidnappers and contain demands for a Bitcoin payment and a later statement that the victim has died.

The first note, dated Feb. 2, was addressed to Savannah Guthrie and demanded $4 million in Bitcoin for her mother’s release by Feb. 5, with a higher amount and later deadline if the initial demand was not met. It warned that failure to pay by Feb. 9 at 5 p.m. would result in the victim’s death and referenced specific details such as a white smartwatch left at the foot of the bed and a broken backyard floodlight.

A second note, dated Feb. 6, announced that the victim had “perished shortly after she was taken” and expressed regret, stating that “nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome.” The note claimed the death was heart-related and said the body was “buried in nature.”

The sheriff’s department said the notes “purport to have been written by kidnappers” but did not verify their authenticity. Investigators hope that someone familiar with the writer’s “patterns of word choice, syntax and phraseology” may recognize the style and assist the investigation.

Authorities previously reported that Nancy Guthrie required daily medication and that missed doses could be life-threatening. Earlier, the FBI released images of a masked individual approaching her home, and a man from Hawthorne, California, later pleaded guilty to sending a fake ransom note in connection with the case.