When investigators in the Arizona disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie, released two ransom notes Friday, one of the messages directly contradicted what Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told CBS News in an interview one day earlier.
“I have nothing to indicate she’s dead,” Nanos said Thursday. “I don’t have a body. I don’t have a burial site. I don’t have any note.”
But he did have a note. On Friday, Nanos released the two notes to the public for the first time. The messages had originally been sent to the local CBS station in Tucson in February, shortly after the 84-year-old’s abduction.
Nanos said he released the ransom notes hoping someone would recognize the author’s potentially distinctive wording and help identify who sent them.
The first, submitted a day after Guthrie was reported missing, opened with “Hello Savannah, we have your mother,” demanded a $4 million ransom be paid in bitcoin, and promised to return her to a “safe drop off location” in Tucson within 12 hours of the ransom’s deposit.
The second note, sent just four days later, says, “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 first note included details about Nancy Guthrie’s white Apple Watch and the floodlights on her back porch, leading the FBI to take them seriously.
Both notes were sent via a tip line to CBS affiliate KOLD-TV using email addresses that appeared to be made up and used references to the Guthrie family.
CBS News has previously reported that investigators believed both notes were sent from the same IP address. That address was masked and investigators don’t know whose computer it was sent from.
Lance Leising, a retired FBI supervisory special agent, told CBS News that releasing the notes to drive more tips from the public was a great thing to do.
“However, so late in the case and after a period of time where they have had no communication with the public, it just seems that the media strategy here is a little haphazard,” Leising said.
Leising said the months-delayed release could be due to questions of authenticity.
“I’m sure, and maybe even to this day, they’re not 100% sure if these notes are legitimate,” Leising said. “I mean, they’ve already arrested and charged people for sending hoax and fake notes in.”
Jason Pack, another retired FBI supervisory special agent, noted that the second message dropped the ransom demand.
“The money is simply gone,” Pack told CBS News on Friday. “No demand. No offer to sell a location. Nothing. People motivated by money do not walk away from $4 million when the plan falls apart. They try to salvage something. This writer asked for nothing at all.”
Pack believes one person wrote both notes.
“Same channel, same habits, same distance from responsibility,” he said. “Whether that person took Nancy or watched the coverage and decided to insert himself is the open question.”
When CBS News asked Nanos about the messages, he said, “Those hostage notes: Are they valid, do we believe they’re valid? We think every one of them’s valid until we show otherwise.”
In an Instagram post Saturday marking six months since her mother’s disappearance, Savannah Guthrie again urged “someone to come forward,” including anyone who might recognize the writing in the ransom notes. She said, “There is a way to end this situation and do the right thing.”
Following a lengthy, and at times unflattering, account in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend of how local investigators handled the Guthrie investigation, Nanos took to social media to address the Guthrie family and concerned citizens.
“We’re still here, we’re not going away,” Nanos said. “If you could just see the team working, you would see the energy, the concern. They’re fired up, and we’ll continue to work this case hard.”
Nanos said he has no doubt the case will be solved.
As the search for Nancy Guthrie continues, the FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to her location or the arrest of anyone involved in her disappearance, and the Guthrie family has offered a reward of $1 million.