{"id":167167,"date":"2026-02-06T20:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/167167\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T20:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:20:07","slug":"california-man-arrested-for-fake-nancy-guthrie-ransom-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/167167\/","title":{"rendered":"California Man Arrested for Fake Nancy Guthrie Ransom Demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCalifornia man Derrick Callella has been arrested for sending what authorities believe to be a fake ransom demand in the suspected Tucson, Arizona, kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie<\/a>, the mother of Today<\/a> show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie<\/a>. The Pima County Sheriff\u2019s Office in Arizona and FBI are still investigating a separate ransom demand that was received two days before Callella\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\n\tCallella, born in 1983, is charged with two federal crimes. The first is for transmitting an interstate \u201cdemand for ransom \u2026 for the release of any kidnapped person.\u201d The second is for using a telephone to send an interstate text message and make an interstate call \u201cwithout disclosing his identity,\u201d and \u201cwith intent to abuse, threaten or harass any specific person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Feb. 2, 2026, KOLD, the CBS affiliate in Tucson, received a ransom demand via its online tip portal. The demand included a \u201cBitcoin wallet address to receive the ransom payment.\u201d This demand has \u201cnot been linked\u201d to Callella\u2019s demand. The Bitcoin detail from the Feb. 2 demand was reported by the media.<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo days later, Nancy Guthrie\u2019s daughter (Savannah Guthrie<\/a>\u2018s sister) Annie Guthrie (identified in the Callella complaint as \u201cA.C.\u201d for Annie Cioni) and her husband Tomasso Cioni (\u201cT.C.\u201d) separately received a text message from the same phone number. The message read: \u201cDid you get the bitcoin were [sic] waiting on our end for the transaction.\u201d Three minutes after the text messages, a member of the Guthrie family received a call from the same number that lasted nine seconds.<\/p>\n

\n\tUsing \u201copen-source methods,\u201d law enforcement determined the phone number was associated with a voice over internet protocol (VOIP) text and call app that \u201callows users to obtain another phone number for their mobile device separate from the number assigned to them by their wireless carrier,\u201d per the complaint. An emergency disclosure for the request showed the phone number was registered to email address derrickcallella@gmail.com. Law enforcement was further able to trace the VOIP\u2019s access point to an IP address \u201cassociated with Callella\u2019s residence in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCallella was arrested and, after being read his rights, admitted to sending the two text messages, the complaint continus. He said he got the family members\u2019 contact information from a \u201ccyber website.\u201d Callella had been watching television coverage of the case, and said he \u201cwas trying to see if the family would respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNancy Guthrie went missing from her home at some point between Saturday night and lunch time on Sunday. The scene, which included a trail of Nancy\u2019s blood on the walkway, strongly suggests a kidnapping. At a Thursday press conference, local and federal law enforcement said they have not identified a person of interest or a suspect<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California man Derrick Callella has been arrested for sending what authorities believe to be a fake ransom demand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,22832,78112,2335],"class_list":["post-167167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-nbc-news","tag-savannah-guthrie","tag-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}