The three notes sent to media outlets involving Nancy Guthrie‘s abduction were phony and not connected to the disappearance of Today host Savannah Guthrie’s octogenarian mother, federal investigators told Reuters this week.
Two notes were sent to local media outlets and to TMZ in the days after Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her Tucson-area home on Jan. 31. The first note demanded two Bitcoin payments of millions of dollars into an anonymous account on Feb. 5 and Feb. 9; the second note, reported just last week, indicated that the 84-year-old was dead and demanded ransom funds. A third note sent to TMZ last week claimed to know the identities of Nancy Guthrie’s abductors and to have video of the “main guy” involved in the kidnapping, as well as video of the victim on the day of her death.
“None of the ransom notes are believed to be genuine,” an anonymous FBI official told Reuters. The news agency reported that it had confirmed the bureau’s conclusion with a second agent.
To test the veracity of the evidence, the FBI sent a small payment to the Bitcoin address provided. The funds have gone untouched to date, the source within the bureau told Reuters. That fact, along with “other unspecified means,” led investigators — who have taken the lead on all ransom- and suspect-related elements from local police — to conclude the notes were fraudulent.
