FBI reviews ransom demands in Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case

The FBI says some ransom demands tied to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, may still be legitimate, clarifying the status of the investigation five months after she vanished from her Tucson, Arizona, home.

“The FBI and its task force partners have received several ransom notes over the course of this investigation,” an FBI official said Wednesday in a statement to CBS News. “Some have been deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy. Other ransom demands may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such.”

The agency said the case “continues to be investigated as a kidnapping for ransom case.” The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is the lead agency, while the FBI is assisting and has handled digital forensic work on the ransom notes, CBS News reported, citing law enforcement sources. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has directed questions about ransom notes to the FBI.

The FBI’s statement came after Reuters reported, according to The Guardian, that kidnapping notes received in Guthrie’s case were fake. An unnamed FBI official told Reuters that “none of the ransom notes are believed to be genuine.” The FBI later said some demands were deemed illegitimate but others remained under investigation.

Guthrie was reported missing on Feb. 1. Police found blood near her front door and believe she was abducted from her home, The Guardian reported. Surveillance video released by the FBI showed a masked man on her porch the night she disappeared, and search teams later scoured nearby desert areas.

Investigators have sorted the communications into three broad categories, CBS News reported: two notes sent during the first week of Guthrie’s disappearance that investigators believe are likely legitimate; notes that could be legitimate but lack clues supporting that conclusion; and messages authorities describe as money grabs from would-be extortionists.

The first note arrived Feb. 2 through tip lines to two local news stations and TMZ, according to CBS News. It was addressed to Savannah Guthrie and used a Gmail contact address. The message demanded an initial $4 million in bitcoin within days, then increased the demand by $2 million in bitcoin if the deadline was missed. It included details about Nancy Guthrie’s home that led investigators to take it seriously, including the placement of her Apple Watch with a white wrist band on the floor next to her bed and an out floodlight on the back porch.

The family worked with the FBI on a response, but received no reply. A second note arrived Feb. 6 through tip lines, and the FBI later determined it came from the same IP address as the first, law enforcement sources told CBS News. That note indicated Nancy Guthrie had died.

Savannah Guthrie and her siblings responded at the time with a video message: “We received your message and we understand… This is very valuable to us and we will pay.” They did not hear again from the possible kidnappers.

“There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came,” Savannah Guthrie told Hoda Kotb in a March interview. “And I think most of them, it’s my understanding, are not real. … But I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real.”

TMZ founder Harvey Levin told CBS News that his outlet continued receiving tips and passed about a dozen messages to the FBI. One demanded 1 bitcoin, about $60,000, for information about the kidnappers. Levin said the FBI later asked him not to pursue a documentary plan that would involve placing money in a bitcoin address, saying agents believed they were close to identifying the sender. There is no indication those TMZ messages are legitimate, CBS News reported.

Federal prosecutors have charged Derrick Callella, a California man, with sending a fake ransom note by text message to Savannah Guthrie’s family in an early instance authorities consider an extortion attempt. He allegedly wrote, “Did you get the bitcoin were [sic] waiting on our end for the transaction,” according to charging documents. Callella has pleaded not guilty, and his next hearing is scheduled for July 2 in federal court in Tucson.

The Guthrie family is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to Nancy Guthrie’s whereabouts. The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward and asks anyone with information to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.