{"id":167458,"date":"2026-02-07T00:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/167458\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T00:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:29:09","slug":"the-nancy-guthrie-ransom-note-was-carefully-crafted-listed-deadlines-provided-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/167458\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nancy Guthrie ransom note was \u2018carefully crafted,\u2019 listed deadlines, provided details"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A ransom note<\/a> demanding money in exchange for the return of \u201cToday\u201d show host Savannah Guthrie\u2019s mother was \u201ccarefully crafted\u201d and included details not previously released to the public, according to people who have read it.<\/p>\n

The note has taken center stage as authorities are still frantically trying to find Nancy Guthrie, 84, after her apparent abduction from her Tucson-area home<\/a>. Her family has now made two heartfelt videos pleading with her suspected kidnappers to communicate with them.<\/p>\n

Officials say they are taking the ransom note seriously, but still have not identified any suspects in the case. On Friday, the fifth day since Guthrie disappeared, Arizona news outlet KOLD reported<\/a> it received a new note from the alleged abductor. The station did not report details from the new letter, but said that \u201cthe new note contains information the senders seem to think will prove to investigators they\u2019re the same people who sent the first note.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBI and Pima County Sheriff\u2019s officials confirmed they were aware of the message and said they are \u201cactively inspecting the information provided in the message for its authenticity.\u201d Members of a federal forensic task force were visible at the news station Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been years since such a high-profile abduction case, particularly one with alleged ransom demands, has captured the nation\u2019s attention quite like this. Experts who work on such cases say Guthrie\u2019s abduction appears to have been intricately planned, given the lack of DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene and how officials \u2014 even the nation\u2019s top internet-based exploitation investigators \u2014 do not appear to have traced the ransom letter\u2019s origin. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever did this came very prepared,\u201d Tracy Schandler Walder, a former FBI agent who has been following the case, said on Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Two deadlines<\/p>\n

Although the entire note has not been released, some details that were included have been shared publicly. The letter contained a first deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday and a second demand with a Monday deadline, said Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI\u2019s Phoenix division. He declined to say what, if anything, was requested at each deadline, or if there was a threat if the deadlines weren\u2019t met.<\/p>\n

Nancy\u2019s son, Camron Guthrie, issued a video<\/a> pleading with the kidnapper Thursday afternoon, around the time of the ransom letter\u2019s first deadline. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you,\u201d he said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t heard anything directly. We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cthe Monday deadline is far more consequential.\u201d<\/p>\n

TMZ reported<\/a> receiving the alleged note earlier this week via email, and said the letter demanded millions in cryptocurrency for Guthrie\u2019s release. Levin said Thursday night that TMZ had confirmed the bitcoin address was real.<\/p>\n

The family and authorities are particularly worried because Nancy Guthrie has many physical ailments and requires a daily medication that she appears to be without. Officials said they haven\u2019t yet received any proof that Guthrie is alive, but they are operating on that assumption \u2014 despite real concerns she could be dead. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fearful of that. I think we all are,\u201d Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said. \u201cThis is Day 4 or 5 and still we don\u2019t know that she\u2019s getting her medication, and that could in itself be fatal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Carefully crafted letter\u2019<\/p>\n

Levin and a Tucson-area journalist, both who said they\u2019ve seen the ransom note, offered a few additional details.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a letter that really spells out precisely what they want done, what the consequences are if they don\u2019t get what they want,\u201d Levin said in another interview with CNN.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cThey began the letter by saying that Nancy is OK, but scared,\u201d Levin said, adding that it includes a line saying there will be no way to reply or contact the sender. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey went to great lengths in sending this email to us in making sure that it stays anonymous,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a carefully crafted letter, and this is not something that somebody threw together in five minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unique details<\/p>\n

Law enforcement sources, who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity, said the ransom note is being considered legitimate because it contained at least two details about Guthrie\u2019s home that hadn\u2019t been made public. <\/p>\n

Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI\u2019s Phoenix division, said that there were details about an Apple Watch and a floodlight, but declined to elaborate. <\/p>\n

According to Levin, the note mentioned a specific detail about the Apple Watch, which he found to be key. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat placement of the Apple Watch, if this is true, is something where they would immediately take this seriously,\u201d Levin told CNN. <\/p>\n

Mary Coleman, an anchor at KOLD-TV, added:<\/a> \u201cA lot of it is information that only someone who is holding her for ransom would know \u2014 some very sensitive information and things that people who were there when she was taken captive would know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Race against time<\/p>\n

Authorities describe the investigation as a race against time.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now we believe Nancy is still out there. We want her home,\u201d Nanos said at Thursday\u2019s news conference. A massive team of local and federal partners continue to work \u201cround the clock\u201d on the case, he said, including specialized agents with the FBI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been no proof of life,\u201d Janke said. \u201c…Time is of the essence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Guthrie is of sound mind, family have said she has physical ailments and uses a pacemaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine,\u201d Savannah Guthrie said in the first video<\/a> she posted to social media about her mother\u2019s abduction, where she also appears to address the captors directly. \u201cShe needs it to survive and she needs it not to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n

She begged for whoever took her mother to contact the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive and that you have her,\u201d she said in the video shared on Instagram. \u201cWe want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBI officials have said they are working with the family, but ultimately any decision about how to respond to the ransom demand is up to the Guthries.<\/p>\n

Horace Frank, a former assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department who oversaw kidnapping investigations, said the family\u2019s videos try to appeal to the captor\u2019s humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are trying to make it difficult for the those behind this,\u201d Frank said. He said he\u2019s glad the entirety of the note hasn\u2019t been released, because the case becomes more difficult as more details are made public. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you give too much information, the problem is you could be compromising some of these deadlines,\u201d Walder, the former FBI agent, said on Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n

While experts have called this case unique, both for its circumstances and the media involvement, it is not the first kidnapping and ransom scenario to fascinate the public.<\/p>\n

In 1974, Patty Hearst, the 19-year-old granddaughter of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst was kidnapped. She was abducted from UC Berkeley by a small cadre of Bay Area militant radicals, who demanded her family pay to feed the poor en masse. Her parents complied with the ransom, but Patty Hearst remained with her captors. It\u2019s now unclear, however, how much of that decision was hers, or the group\u2019s, because she would go on to pledge her allegiance to her captors and their cause and even robbed a bank with them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1963, Frank Sinatra\u2019s son was kidnapped from a Lake Tahoe lodge. His family worked with the FBI<\/a> to comply with a ransom demand for $240,000, and their 19-year-old son was released. The entire ordeal lasted just four days. <\/p>\n

Several decades earlier, however, a ransom payment didn\u2019t end well for the family of Charles Lindbergh, famed American aviator, whose 1-year-old son was kidnapped from his New Jersey home in 1932. The Lindbergh family ended up paying $50,000 through a mediator, but the baby was not returned as promised, and later found dead. <\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/p>\n