Officials searching for Nancy Guthrie made a big mistake early in the investigation, according to a new report.
Officials told Airmail that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI allegedly destroyed their chances of finding the 84-year-old’s kidnapper in early February.
The outlet claimed on Saturday that a supposedly credible ransom note was sent to Savannah Guthrie on February 1, hours after her mother was reported missing from her Arizona home, as the outlet reported at the time.
By February 5th, the suspected kidnappers, who provided exact details about Nancy’s clothing at the time of her disappearance and the damaged floodlight in her Tucson backyard, demanded $4 million in Bitcoin.
The note, which described Nancy as “safe but scared,” ended with the words “or else.”
Instead of paying the full amount when the Bitcoins turned into cash, potentially tracking down the kidnappers, and returning the money to the Guthrie family, authorities used a “tickling the wire” tactic.
Investigators transferred $152 to a Bitcoin address in hopes of withdrawing the amount and uncovering new leads.
However, the move did not “tempt” the alleged kidnappers, who were seen in gruesome surveillance footage from Nancy’s home, and the bitcoins remained untouched.
On February 6th, an email was received from the same IP address, but a person close to the incident said the message was “sputtering,” “labor-intensive,” and “less confident” than the previous one.
The person demanded an “apology” for Nancy’s unexpected death and a ransom payment for the return of Nancy’s body.
The paper claimed, “The task force was forced to throw up its hands in dismay and admit… Nothing in the carefully analyzed collection of notes brought them any closer to finding the culprit… It was too late. The damage had already been done.”
Savannah and her siblings, Camron and Annie Guthrie, addressed the dark ransom note in an Instagram petition the next day.
“We received and understood your message,” the NBC personality said. “We are now asking you to give our mother back to us so we can celebrate with her. We will pay for this, because this is very precious to us.”
Later that month, she admitted in another social media video that her mother may have died.
“We know she could go missing,” the news anchor said at the time. “She may be gone. She may be home with her beloved Lord, dancing in heaven with her mom and dad, her beloved brother Pierce, and our dad.”
When Savannah first interviewed her colleague Hoda Kotb about the tragedy in March, she spoke about the truth of the ransom note she received.
“I think we responded to two notes that we received, but I’m inclined to believe they are genuine,” she said.
She then returned to her duties on the “Today” show with co-host Craig Melvin, and on her first day back, she wore a yellow dress to honor her missing mother.
Savannah recently tearfully acknowledged Nancy’s absence on air, admitting, “I cry on the way to work every morning, and I cry on the way home every morning.”
The search for Nancy lasted more than five months.
