Everything We Know About Nancy Guthrie Ransom Notes As Veracity Scrutinized

In the five months since Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home near Tucson, Arizona, a series of messages related to her apparent kidnapping were sent to some media outlets. But Reuters reported on Tuesday that the FBI believes none of the notes is genuine, raising questions about whether Guthrie was kidnapped for ransom.

Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on February 1. Authorities said they believed she had been kidnapped and that drops of her blood were found on her front porch.

The FBI has deemed the two notes sent in early February and the most recent message sent to TMZ to be fake communications, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

"None of the ransom notes are believed to be genuine," an FBI official told the outlet while speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of an active investigation.

The FBI, which has taken charge of examining purported ransom notes in the Guthrie case, has not publicly said whether any of the messages it was reviewing were considered legitimate.

A spokesperson for the Pima County Sheriff's Department, which is leading the investigation into Guthrie's disappearance, referred questions about the ransom notes to the FBI.

"This case is an active and ongoing investigation," Angelica Carrillo told Newsweek in an email on Wednesday. Forensic analysis of DNA and video evidence collected in the case "remains underway," she said. "If and when there is a significant development in this case, it will be shared with the public."

The first note was sent to two local Tucson TV stations and TMZ on February 2, demanding millions of dollars in Bitcoin.

The second note, sent on February 6, indicated that Guthrie had died, several news outlets reported last week.

According to NBC News, that note expressed regret for her passing, but did not contain an apology or make a request for payment for the return of her body.

The FBI official told Reuters that investigators determined the first two notes sent in February were from the same sender, though the official did not say how that conclusion was reached.

The official said that to test the authenticity of the first note, the FBI had deposited a small amount of cryptocurrency in an account as directed in the note, but the money was left untouched in the account. Based on that and other unspecified methods, the FBI reached the conclusion that the two notes were sent by an individual or individuals who are not connected to Guthrie's disappearance, the official said.

In an interview on Friday, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos had dismissed that note as fake.

Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent, told Newsweek on Wednesday that if the first two notes are not genuine, it makes "no sense" why the FBI had Savannah Guthrie post several videos on social media, some of them alongside her siblings, that referenced the ransom demands and appeared to her mother's kidnappers in the weeks after their mother disappeared.

"If [the FBI] thought they were not real, it makes no sense that you would do this to this family," Coffindaffer said.

Coffindaffer said she still believes that Guthrie's disappearance is a case of kidnapping for ransom, and it is possible that she may have died before her abductors made a demand.

"The possibility exists that she died and they never made a ransom demand because she died soon after the abduction," she said.