An anonymous person who has sent roughly a dozen emails to TMZ founder Harvey Levin now claims to possess a video showing the "main guy" involved in the suspected kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie. The sender is demanding one Bitcoin, approximately $60,000, in exchange for leading authorities to a hidden phone containing the footage, the phone's password, and the names and addresses of two alleged kidnappers.
Levin revealed the latest demand Friday afternoon on "The Will Cain Show," telling viewers he had forwarded the email to the FBI. Fox News reported that the bureau is actively trying to identify the sender but is not paying the Bitcoin.
The development lands in a case already thick with unverified tips, bogus leads, and a family desperate for answers. Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson, Arizona, home in late January 2026. More than three months later, no arrests have been made, her whereabouts remain unknown, and the combined reward for information that cracks the case now exceeds $1.2 million.
The emailer's latest message, as relayed by Levin, reads in part:
"I have a phone stashed in a secure location guaranteeing both the information it stores and the safety of the phone. What it contains is my definition of delivering them on a silver platter, a short video of the main guy with Nancy the day that was probably her last, pictures of both involved, names and addresses and age."
The sender also took care to distance himself from a previous false lead, writing: "I am not the idiot who recently called in a tip about her burial site in Mexico." That earlier tip sent search teams across the border, and they found nothing.
Levin said the sender has contacted TMZ approximately a dozen times since the early days of the investigation, using different names and fabricated email addresses but a consistent Bitcoin account number that TMZ says it has used to authenticate the messages as coming from the same individual. In earlier emails, the sender sought various sums up to $100,000. The current ask, one Bitcoin, represents a lower figure but still a significant demand from someone who could, in theory, claim a far larger reward by simply cooperating with law enforcement.
Before appearing on the Will Cain program Friday, Levin posted a video online directly addressing the anonymous emailer. His message was blunt: "If you've got something, send it."
The sender responded within a couple of hours, having apparently watched the post. But the answer was no. Levin recounted the exchange on air:
"He responded a couple hours later. He had seen the post. He said, 'I'm not gonna do it, because the metadata is gonna lead authorities to me.'"
That refusal deepens the credibility problem. Levin told viewers that TMZ's IT team and FBI agents have spent hours trying to trace the sender's digital trail without success. Reports had emerged suggesting the sender might be female; the sender disputed that characterization. What is clear is that the person is following news coverage of the case closely, reacting to Levin's public statements and referencing the Mexico tip in near real time.
Jim Clemente, a retired FBI supervisory agent, offered a withering take on the emails' credibility. As he told Fox News:
"Either the author of those emails is a complete fool or it's completely fake. Why would you offer up exactly what the Guthrie family has been looking for and offered a $1 million reward for an exchange for one Bitcoin when if you actually give them the information that they need and that you say you have, you can get $1 million instead? In Bitcoin if you want it."
The logic is hard to argue with. Savannah Guthrie has offered more than $1 million for her mother's safe return. The Tucson Crime Stoppers affiliate, 88-Crime, is offering $102,500 for information leading to an arrest. If the sender actually possesses what he claims, he is leaving more than $1 million on the table by demanding $60,000 in cryptocurrency through a back channel.
That contradiction has not been lost on criminal profilers who have examined the ransom notes circulating in this case and questioned whether they are staged.
This is far from the first time an anonymous figure has tried to leverage Nancy Guthrie's disappearance for payment. The Washington Examiner reported that TMZ received a fourth note from a tipster who claimed to have seen Guthrie in Mexico five days earlier, with Levin publicly urging the person to share verifiable information so the FBI could establish a record. That tipster cited a prior burglary conviction as a reason for not coming forward directly.
The New York Post reported that TMZ received two additional purported ransom notes from the same mystery sender who first emerged around February 11. Those notes contained flatly contradictory claims, one stated Nancy Guthrie was dead, while another said the sender had seen her alive with unidentified individuals in Sonora, Mexico. The sender demanded half a Bitcoin upfront and the other half upon a public arrest.
Earlier in the investigation, a purported ransom note surfaced with a "consequential" Monday deadline and specific details about the interior of Guthrie's Tucson home. Breitbart reported that Levin described the note as sophisticated, well-organized, and not AI-generated, stating that certain phrasing suggested the writers were in the Arizona area. That deadline passed without resolution.
The ransom notes have contained clues that gave investigators some hope, but none has yet produced a breakthrough.
Both the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department declined to comment on the latest TMZ emails. But Levin's account suggests the bureau is not dismissing the sender entirely. He told Will Cain:
"We've been in constant touch with the FBI over this person, and we know they are trying to find out who it is. So it's not like they're dismissing this person out of hand. But at the same time, they're not paying the Bitcoin."
The Pima County Sheriff's Office has confirmed it is aware of reports about ransom notes and stated that all tips go directly to detectives coordinating with the FBI. Investigators found no footprints or tire tracks at the scene of Guthrie's disappearance, and DNA results have not pointed to any suspects, leaving the case frustratingly thin on physical evidence.
Sources close to the investigation remain split. Some believe the ransom demands are bogus. Others are reluctant to reach that conclusion while an 84-year-old woman's whereabouts remain unknown.
Savannah Guthrie returned to "Today" after a two-month absence following her mother's disappearance. She has publicly pleaded for answers as notes claiming her mother was killed have surfaced alongside contradictory claims that Nancy was seen alive.
The FBI released photos on February 10, 2026, showing an armed individual reaching toward a Google Nest camera at Nancy Guthrie's front door in Tucson. Aerial drone shots of the home and grounds were taken on February 3, with reports at the time noting that Guthrie was suspected of having been abducted "earlier this week."
Months later, the case remains open, the leads remain unverified, and a family with the resources to offer more than $1.2 million in reward money still has no answers. Meanwhile, anonymous emailers keep surfacing, demanding cryptocurrency, refusing to prove their claims, and citing metadata fears as their reason for staying in the shadows.
The strained relationship between the Pima County sheriff and the Guthrie family has only added to the sense that this investigation lacks the coordination a case this serious demands.
Anyone with genuine information about Nancy Guthrie's fate can contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit an anonymous tip to 88-Crime at 1-520-882-7463. More than $1.2 million awaits the person who helps crack this case, no Bitcoin wallet required.
That reward sits unclaimed. And every anonymous emailer who demands a fraction of it in cryptocurrency rather than simply picking up the phone tells you everything you need to know about the quality of the "evidence" on offer.
