Six months after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson home, the Pima County Sheriff's Office has released the full text of two chilling ransom notes, and no suspect has been named.
The sheriff's office posted images and contents of both notes on its official X account on Friday, July 31, 2026, marking the first time the public has seen the complete demands sent by someone claiming to hold the mother of NBC "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie. The notes had been emailed to the news desk of KOLD-13, a local Tucson television station, on February 2 and February 6, the first arriving just one day after Nancy Guthrie was reported missing.
No arrests have been announced. No body has been recovered. And the Pima County Sheriff's Office has not publicly explained why it chose this moment to release the notes in full.
The first note, emailed February 2, was addressed directly to Savannah Guthrie. It opened with a blunt claim: "Hello Savannah, We have your mother Nancy. She is safe but scared. She will be held for ransom and once payment is received she will be released unharmed."
The sender demanded $4 million in bitcoin by 5 p.m. on "Thursday the 5th." If the family missed that deadline, the price would jump to $6 million, due by 5 p.m. on "Monday the 9th." The note promised Nancy would be returned to a drop-off location in Tucson within 12 hours of payment.
Then came the threat.
"If payment is not recieved [sic] by the last deadline on Monday the 9th at 5PM, she will be killed."
The sender, whose identity remains unknown, closed off any possibility of negotiation. "You will not be able to contact me from here on out, there will be no negotiation," the note read. "Do not play games, law enforcement will not be able to help you."
One detail stood out. The note referenced specifics from inside Nancy Guthrie's home: "She had a white smart watch on the floor of the foot of her bed and the white flood light in backyard was destroyed." Whether those details were accurate or fabricated to lend credibility, the New York Post reported that one line of the note was redacted in the published version, along with the bitcoin wallet address.
The second note arrived at KOLD-13's news desk on February 6, just four days after the ransom demand. Its tone was entirely different. Gone were the dollar figures and deadlines. In their place was something that read like a confession wrapped in an apology.
"Guthrie Family, 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 continued: "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."
The shift from a $4 million ransom demand to a claim that Nancy Guthrie had died of apparent heart failure, all within four days, raises obvious questions that the Pima County Sheriff's Office has not publicly answered. Was the second note an admission from the same sender? Was either note authentic? Had investigators verified any of the claims made in either message? None of that information appeared in the sheriff's office release.
Nancy Guthrie was 84 years old when she disappeared from her Tucson home around the end of January 2026. She was reported missing the following day. The Pima County Sheriff's Office has been investigating since, but six months later the case remains publicly unresolved.
Savannah Guthrie, who co-hosts NBC's "Today" show, was named directly in the first ransom note. Neither she nor the Guthrie family has made a public statement referenced in the sheriff's release.
The timeline itself is striking. Nancy Guthrie was reported missing around February 1. By February 2, a ransom note demanding millions in bitcoin had already reached a local newsroom, not the family, not law enforcement, but a television station. By February 6, a second note claimed the 84-year-old was dead and buried "in nature." And then, for nearly six months, nothing, until the sheriff's office released the notes to the public on July 31.
Why the notes went to a news desk rather than directly to the family or to law enforcement is a question the available information does not answer. Why the sheriff's office waited until the six-month anniversary to make them public is another.
The gaps in this case are wide. No suspect has been identified publicly. No bitcoin payment has been confirmed or denied. Nancy Guthrie's body has not been found. The sheriff's office has not said whether the notes were forensically analyzed, whether investigators traced the email accounts used to send them, or whether the details about the smartwatch and the backyard floodlight matched the scene at Nancy Guthrie's home.
The reference in the second note to Nancy's "physical condition" raises its own set of questions. Did the sender have genuine knowledge of her health? Or was the claim that she died of a heart-related event a convenient story designed to end the ransom scheme without further risk?
Even the dates inside the notes invite scrutiny. The first note set deadlines for "Thursday the 5th" and "Monday the 9th." If the notes were sent in February 2026, those calendar references would need to align with actual days of the week, a detail the sheriff's office did not address.
An 84-year-old woman disappeared from her home in Tucson. Someone emailed ransom demands to a local TV station. Four days later, that same someone claimed she was dead. Six months on, the public has the notes but not a single arrest, not a confirmed lead, and not a body. The people of Pima County, and the Guthrie family, deserve more than a social media post on an anniversary.
