Investigators in the Nancy Guthrie abduction are consulting with artificial intelligence experts to examine ransom notes to determine the validity and possible origins of the messages, sources told The Times on Monday.
As a second deadline given for the Guthries to pay $6 million in bitcoin at 5 p.m. Monday rapidly approaches, the family is racing against the clock. The 84-year-old grandmother has been gone for nine days with no evidence she’s receiving medication she needs or proof she’s still alive from kidnappers.
Guthrie’s disappearance was odd from the beginning, experts say, and the mystery has only deepened with time. In this case, 21st century technology has added a new dimension.
For decades, FBI profiles and veteran detectives parsed the grammar and syntax of ransom notes looking for clues that could reveal someone’s education level or socioeconomic background, among other details. Now, such messages can be written by AI, eliminating a writer’s signature voice. Adding to the issues in the case, the kidnappers are asking for money using cryptocurrency, which is much harder to track than the money drops of years past.
“Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, Nancy’s daughter, said the family will pay for her safe return.
“We received your message, and we understand,” Guthrie said in a new video posted on social media Saturday afternoon. She sat next to her brother and sister. “We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
Sources told The Times the ransom note felt credible because it included details about a specific damaged piece of property and the placement of an accessory in the home. The Times has not reviewed the note, but sources with knowledge of the investigation said it sought $6 million.
The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The ransom note contained a first deadline of 5 p.m. last Thursday and a second demand with a Monday deadline, the FBI said.
Harvey Levin, founder of celebrity news website TMZ, has reviewed one of the three identical letters that were sent to media outlets and told CNN on Thursday that “the Monday deadline is far more consequential.” TMZ reported receiving the note earlier this week via email, and said the letter demanded millions in cryptocurrency for Guthrie’s release. Levin said Thursday night that TMZ had confirmed the bitcoin address was real.
“They went to great lengths in sending this email to us in making sure that it stays anonymous,” he said. “It is a carefully crafted letter, and this is not something that somebody threw together in five minutes.”
No one has been named as a person of interest or suspect.
Guthrie was last seen by her family just after 9:45 p.m. Saturday, which officials said matched with when her garage door opened and closed that night.
About four hours later, at 1:47 a.m., officials said her doorbell camera disconnected. An empty frame for the camera had been previously noted at her home.
Then at 2:12 a.m., the security camera software at Guthrie’s home detected a person — or an animal — on one of the home’s cameras, but Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said they have not been able to recover that footage and don’t know which camera recorded the movement.
About 15 minutes later, at 2:28 a.m., Nancy’s pacemaker app shows a disconnect from the phone, Nanos said. That appears to be exactly when she left her home, as her phone was left behind.
Her family went to check on her at home just before noon Sunday, after she hadn’t shown up for church. They found she was missing and called 911, Nanos said.
Although Nancy Guthrie is of sound mind, family members have said she has physical ailments and uses a pacemaker. There has been no “proof of life” offered by the abductors, officials said last week.
“She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine,” Savannah Guthrie said in the video she posted to social media last week. “She needs it to survive and she needs it not to suffer.”