Five months after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her home just outside Tucson, the FBI disclosed Wednesday that it has dismissed some of the ransom notes that surfaced in the case as opportunistic extortion, but is still treating others as potentially legitimate communications from whoever took her.
The distinction matters. If even one note is genuine, investigators may still have a thread connecting them to Guthrie's abductors. If none are real, the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department are left with no verified contact from the people who authorities believe kidnapped the mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie on the night of February 1.
Either way, the case remains classified as a kidnapping for ransom, the Associated Press reported, citing an FBI statement that said plainly: "This case continues to be investigated as a kidnapping for ransom case."
The FBI said it has received "several" ransom notes but did not specify an exact count. The bureau did not identify which notes it considers fraudulent or which remain under evaluation.
What is known: Tucson television station KOLD said it received two notes. One demanded millions in Bitcoin in exchange for Guthrie's safe return. The other claimed she had died. TMZ also received a separate note, though its contents have not been publicly detailed.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department declined to comment on the notes Wednesday but said it is taking every tip in the investigation seriously.
The volume of bogus communications has complicated what was already a baffling case. Newsmax reported that an anonymous FBI official told Reuters flatly: "None of the ransom notes are believed to be genuine." That assessment, if taken at face value, would mean investigators have received zero verified contact from whoever abducted Guthrie, a grim development for a family that has spent months pleading for her return.
The FBI tested at least one note's authenticity by depositing a small amount of cryptocurrency into an account specified in the instructions. The money was never claimed or touched, a strong signal, investigators concluded, that the sender had no actual connection to the kidnapping.
Two of the fake notes appear to have originated from the same sender, the New York Post reported, and the FBI concluded that person had no link to Guthrie's disappearance. A suspect named Derrick Callella is expected to plead guilty in federal court for sending fake ransom texts, Fox News reported.
Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped, abducted, or otherwise taken against her will from her home just outside Tucson on the night of February 1. Blood was found near the front doorstep. The FBI later released surveillance video showing a masked man on the porch that same night.
No arrests have been announced. No suspects have been publicly identified in connection with the actual abduction, only in connection with the fraudulent ransom communications.
A retired FBI profiler previously analyzed the blood evidence at the scene and suggested the physical indicators pointed to a single abductor, raising questions about the scale and planning behind the crime.
In the weeks after Guthrie vanished, volunteers and search teams combed nearby desert terrain filled with cactuses, bushes, and boulders. More recently, a volunteer group conducted a search for her body near the Arizona-Mexico border. Neither effort has produced a breakthrough.
The fake ransom notes have inflicted a particular cruelty on the Guthrie family. Savannah Guthrie posted a social media video plea directed at whoever might be holding her mother, saying simply, "We will pay."
That desperation made the family a target. Every fraudulent note forced investigators to spend time and resources running down leads that went nowhere, time that could have been spent pursuing the actual perpetrators.
Savannah Guthrie broke down on air after one note claimed her mother was dead, a moment that underscored just how ruthlessly opportunists have exploited the family's anguish.
Fox News reported that Savannah Guthrie has acknowledged some of the notes may still be real, a position that tracks with the FBI's own Wednesday statement, which stopped short of ruling out every communication.
There is a tension between the FBI's public statement Wednesday, which said the bureau is still evaluating some notes as potentially legitimate, and the anonymous FBI assessment relayed through Reuters, which said none of the notes are believed genuine. Whether this reflects an evolving investigation, internal disagreement, or simply imprecise language from different officials remains unclear.
The Washington Examiner noted that if all three known notes are indeed fake, investigators have no verified leads from the perpetrators, and the kidnappers' motivations remain entirely unknown. That would leave the FBI with surveillance footage, blood evidence, and not much else to work with publicly.
A former FBI official has previously raised pointed questions about how the bureau has handled the investigation, questions that take on added weight now that the ransom-note trail appears to be collapsing.
The case has now stretched past twenty weeks. President Trump voiced hope for Guthrie's safe return as the investigation entered that milestone without an arrest.
The FBI has not said how many total notes it has received beyond "several." It has not disclosed whether KOLD or TMZ turned their notes over to law enforcement, or when. It has not identified any suspect in the actual kidnapping.
The cryptocurrency test, depositing funds into an account specified by one note and watching them go untouched, is a telling investigative technique. But it only proves a negative: that particular sender was not the kidnapper. It does not explain who was.
Meanwhile, the question that has hung over this case from the beginning remains unanswered: if the ransom notes are fake, what was the motive for taking an 84-year-old woman from her home in the Arizona desert?
Five months, no arrests, and a stack of fraudulent notes. The people who owe answers, and the family that deserves them, are no closer to either.
