TUCSON, AZ — A new anonymous email sent to TMZ on June 26 claims its author possesses a hidden phone containing video footage of the man who allegedly kidnapped Nancy Guthrie, 84, on the day she is believed to have died, nearly five months after the TODAY show anchor’s mother vanished from her Arizona home.
The email is the latest in a series of ransom communications that have emerged since Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson home in the early hours of Feb. 1. Federal and local investigators have spent months following leads that have so far not produced a confirmed location for Guthrie or identified any publicly named suspect. The new note adds pressure to a case that has generated more than 19,000 tips and drawn national attention, largely because of the high profile of Guthrie’s daughter, NBC TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, who made a tearful public plea for information on June 23.
In the email obtained by TMZ, the anonymous sender claimed two people were involved in the kidnapping and said the phone contained 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 writer described the device as being stored “in a secure location” and said its contents would amount to “delivering them on a silver platter.” The sender added that the phone’s location would be disclosed, along with a password, in exchange for a Bitcoin payment, the amount of which was not specified in published reports. The email also directly distanced its author from a separate tip that sent volunteer search group Buscando Corazones Nogales to the Arizona-Mexico border in search of a burial site. That search came up empty. “I am not the idiot who recently called in a tip about her burial site in Mexico,” the email stated, according to TMZ.
Investigators are treating the communications carefully. Federal authorities have noted that the ransom letters — including this newest one — suggest their author is articulate and knowledgeable about cryptocurrency, which does not fit the profile of a cartel-connected operative that investigators initially considered. The fact that an earlier note offered an apology for Guthrie’s death has led investigators to theorize the suspect may be a local opportunist rather than a professional criminal. Authorities are also examining whether a second individual may have been involved. Surveillance footage recovered from Nancy Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera — obtained by the FBI through residual data on backend servers after Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos initially said no footage was available because Guthrie lacked a cloud storage subscription — showed a masked person at her front door at approximately 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 1. That individual, described by the FBI as approximately 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-10 with an average build, was wearing a balaclava, gloves, a black 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker backpack, and had a holstered firearm visible at the front of the body. Investigators noted the person’s clumsy attempt to cover the camera lens with a clenched fist, then rip flowers from the entryway to obstruct the lens, appeared inconsistent with the cunning profile suggested by the written communications, raising questions about whether more than one person carried out the abduction.
The ransom note timeline stretches back to the days immediately following Guthrie’s disappearance. Nancy Guthrie was last seen on the evening of Jan. 31, when a family member dropped her off at her home after dinner. She was reported missing the following morning after she failed to attend church. On Feb. 2, Tucson television station KOLD News 13 received the first note, which contained specific details about her home and what she was wearing that night, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. TMZ also reported receiving an alleged note on Feb. 3 demanding cryptocurrency in exchange for her release, with a deadline of 5 p.m. on Feb. 5 and a secondary deadline of Feb. 9. The initial notes said Guthrie was “safe but scared” and requested $4 million in Bitcoin, rising to $6 million if unpaid by the second deadline. On Feb. 5, the FBI arrested a Southern California man on suspicion of transmitting a false ransom demand, though that individual is separate from the sender of what investigators considered potentially credible communications. A second note arrived at the Guthrie family home on Feb. 6 — confirmed to come from the same IP address as the earlier credible emails — and stated that Nancy Guthrie had died accidentally and offered to return her body for $4 million. NBC News, ABC News, and CBS News all reported the contents of that second note on June 22, more than four months after it was received, because law enforcement and media outlets had agreed to withhold the details to avoid compromising the investigation.
In March, Savannah Guthrie, 54, sat down with former co-anchor Hoda Kotb for her first on-air interview since stepping away from TODAY in February. She acknowledged the notes publicly for the first time, saying she believed two of them were authentic. “There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came, and I think most of them, it’s my understanding, are not real,” Savannah Guthrie said. “But I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to — I tend to believe those were real.” She returned to the TODAY anchor desk in early April. Physical evidence recovered near Nancy Guthrie’s home has been limited: a single strand of hair and a glove. DNA from those items was initially processed by a private laboratory in Florida before being transferred to an FBI crime lab for more extensive testing. Nanos acknowledged the pace has been slow, saying “the testing moves at a snail’s pace.” No suspects have been publicly identified. The Guthrie family is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to Nancy’s recovery, and the FBI has separately offered $100,000.
On June 23, two days before the new TMZ email surfaced, Savannah Guthrie appeared visibly emotional at the TODAY anchor desk after NBC News correspondent Liz Kreutz reported on the contents of the Feb. 6 note. Co-anchor Craig Melvin described Savannah’s decision to keep showing up to work as “nothing short of remarkable.” Savannah said she had no comment on the story and was not involved in the network’s coverage of her mother’s case, but she used the moment to appeal directly to the public. “I don’t have any comment on this story. I’m not involved in our coverage, but I can’t pretend I’m not here,” she said. “Somebody knows something. This is a news story today that is on your radar, but this is the life that my sister lives, that I live, that my brother lives, that our extended families live, that our children live every day. And we are in agony. We cannot be at peace.” She added, “Please, if you’re watching — no matter how small, the reward is there. You can tell us. It can be anonymous. Please do the right thing for us, for our family, for our children. We love our mom, and we’ll never stop looking for her, ever.” Her siblings — sister Annie and brother Camron Guthrie — have also made multiple video appeals since February, with Camron posting a message on Feb. 5 directly addressing whoever might be holding his mother and asking for direct contact.
The investigation remains active and ongoing, with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department continuing to work alongside the FBI as agents follow up on leads. Authorities have not confirmed whether the June 26 email to TMZ has been reviewed for authenticity, and no charges have been filed in connection with the suspected abduction. The next investigative focus is expected to center on tracing the origin of the latest communication and assessing whether the alleged hidden phone, if it exists, can be located and verified.
sound like total BS.