Nearly eight months after Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson-area home, investigators are reviewing a possible new ransom note, and the social media chatter swirling around it.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI’s Guthrie task force were recently made aware of the alleged note and are working to determine whether it is credible. Officials also said they are examining related social media comments tied to the claim.
USA TODAY reported the development after a Monday statement from the sheriff’s office, as the search for the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show cohost Savannah Guthrie remains unresolved.
“Guthrie task force was recently made aware of a new possible ransom note in the Nancy Guthrie investigation,” the sheriff’s office said. “Investigators are also aware of social media comments being made regarding this note and are looking further into this and working to determine credibility.”
No full text of the new note has been released. No arrests have been announced. And key questions about who took Nancy Guthrie, and why, are still open.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen around 9:45 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31. Her family reported her missing the next day from her home in the Catalina Foothills community just north of Tucson.
National Review has detailed evidence from the scene that points to a violent break-in rather than a quiet departure. FBI-released doorbell camera images showed a masked person with a backpack and what appeared to be a gun in a waist holster trying to cover or disable the camera. The camera disconnected at 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 1. Her pacemaker app disconnected at 2:28 a.m. Bloodstains confirmed as Guthrie’s were found at the home, with analysis describing a drip trail consistent with bleeding from a person or object.
That is the hard record families and taxpayers are left with: an elderly woman taken from her own home, forensic traces left behind, and months of public silence broken only by thin updates.
In early February, two communications were sent to Tucson’s KOLD-TV 13. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department later made their contents public.
The first note, dated Feb. 2, claimed kidnappers were holding Nancy Guthrie and demanded a Bitcoin ransom. It said she was “safe but scared,” promised release within 12 hours of payment to a drop-off location back in Tucson, and threatened to kill her if payment was not received by 5 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 9. The demand was $4 million if paid by Feb. 5, or $6 million by the later deadline, with a stated maximum hold of seven days.
The second note, dated Feb. 6, reversed course. It claimed she had already died.
“We did not fully grasp the seriousness of her physical condition. We never intended to hurt her, that was not our intention. She perished shortly after she was taken. We believe it was heart related. She is buried in nature now,”
the note said. It added: “Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome. We want your family to know this and hope you all can find peace. We are truly sorry.”
Just the News reported that when the sheriff’s department released the notes, officials highlighted distinctive word choice, syntax, and phraseology, linguistic markers they hoped could help identify the writer. The department redacted portions of the documents while putting that writing style in front of the public.
By July 1, the FBI’s office in Phoenix said not every ransom-related item deserved equal weight. “Some have been deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy,” the office posted. “Other ransom demands may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such.”
That distinction matters. False notes waste investigative time, torment a family, and muddy a case already short on public answers. Legitimate leads, if any exist, have to be separated from noise.
On July 28, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said investigators still faced a heavy evidence load. They had “so much DNA to sort through” and “so much in terms of video evidence to look at.”
Before the Sept. 28 statement on the newest possible note, the most recent major public update came Aug. 17, when the sheriff’s department announced that human remains found in a desert area outside Tucson were not connected to Nancy Guthrie’s case.
Breitbart noted the broader picture after the new-note disclosure: no suspects have been arrested, and basic questions remain unanswered, including how many people were involved and whether the abductor knew her.
Savannah Guthrie and her family have vowed to keep searching for the 84-year-old. A reward totaling more than $1.2 million has been offered for information leading to Nancy Guthrie’s recovery.
Tip lines remain open through the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI and tips.fbi.gov, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900, and 88-CRIME.
USA TODAY reached out to the FBI for comment on the newest development. No response was included in that reporting.
Nearly eight months in, the public record is still thin on resolution. Investigators say they have DNA, video, prior notes, and now another possible ransom communication to assess. What they have not produced is a named defendant in custody or a clear accounting of what happened after Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her home.
When an elderly woman can be taken from her own house and the trail can stay this cold for this long, families deserve more than another unverified note and another round of online speculation, they deserve answers, and officials owe them the work to deliver them.
