On Monday 22 June, reports from a number of news outlets claimed that investigators and the Guthrie family had received several early ransom notes concerning the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. The 84-year-old was taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona at the end of January and has not been seen since.
Although there was some conflicting information from other sources, including TMZ, the general consensus was that the second of the two ransom notes claimed that Nancy Guthrie had passed away some time after she was kidnapped.
Now, new details have surfaced that provide some additional information about the ransom notes and exactly what they mean for the investigation.
Police Sources Confirm Ransom Notes Are Genuine
According to BBC and its US news partner CBS, the ransom notes were received in early February. However, law enforcement agencies requested that news media did not release information about what the ransom notes contained to help protect the investigation.
The reports say that the second of the ransom notes explained that those responsible did not mean for Nancy Guthrie to die and offered an apology to the Guthrie family for what had happened.
Meanwhile, CBS spoke to sources close to the investigation and was told that law enforcement believes that the person or people responsible for sending the two first ransom notes. This includes the note that claims that Nancy Guthrie died.
This is because they have seemingly been able to verify that the notes were consistent with each other in terms of style and the type of language used and were likely sent from the same computer that is using the same IP address.
Savannah Guthrie has also previously revealed that they believe two of the ransom notes are genuine.
“There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came, and I think most of them — it’s my understanding — are not real, and I didn’t see them,” she said. “But I believe the two notes that we received, that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real.”
Conflicting Reports About Ransom Notes
Despite the large number of reports from different outlets, TMZ has outlined that the ransom notes that it was sent did not include any information about Nancy Guthrie’s death. These early notes were described by the site as the “real deal” and were apparently verified by the FBI.
According to TMZ, the notes it received contained no apology as reported at other outlets and also did not explicitly say that the victim had passed away.
TMZ also went on to say it was sent “close to a dozen” emails from an anonymous man who claimed he had knowledge of the kidnappers and Nancy Guthrie’s location. They also explained that they had exchanges with the FBI about creating a documentary about the informant and sending a ransom of one bitcoin to get the information.
However, the outlet claims that the FBI later “ghosted” them and did not give the go ahead. “The FBI have always been responsive and they genuinely want to solve this case,” said TMZ but that the proposal “struck a nerve and we don’t know why.”
