Investigators in the Nancy Guthrie case should pay close attention to the “fingerprints” hidden in her kidnapper’s alleged ransom note.
“There are ‘fingerprints’ on the ransom communications,” former FBI agent Jason Pack told Page Six on Tuesday.
Important factors to pay attention to are word choice, tone, and how the other person frames the request, Pack explained.
“If the first two[ransom notes]read like they were written by the same person, and everything after that is different, that tells the task force something meaningful about who they’re actually dealing with and who decided to participate in a story that spread internationally,” he said.
Pack said if the notes were “authentic,” investigators would be able to extrapolate “meaningful” information.
“The initial memo appears to have included specific operational details that were not publicly available at the time,” Pack explained. “What she was wearing. A damaged floodlight. That’s not a detail you get from news reports.”
“Someone could have been there,” he continued. “Based on what’s being reported, the real analytical work is now in comparing the language and tone of the first two memos to everything that follows.”
Pack also spoke out after reports emerged that officials searching for Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother made serious mistakes early in the investigation.
Officials told Airmail that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and FBI suspect they missed an opportunity to find Nancy in early February. The source claimed that a potentially credible ransom note was sent hours after Nancy was reported missing from her Arizona home on February 1st.
The memo gave exact details about Nancy’s clothing at the time of her disappearance, the damage to a floodlight in her Tucson-area backyard, and asked for $4 million in Bitcoin to be paid to a Bitcoin address by February 5th.
However, instead of paying the full amount, investigators only sent $152 to a Bitcoin address in hopes of being able to trace the money in case it was cashed out. (As of Tuesday, that balance had not yet been cashed out.)
A few days later, on February 6th, a ransom note was allegedly sent from the same IP address as the first, but the tone was more “sputtering,” “effortful,” and “less confident” than the first note.
The alleged kidnapper reportedly apologized for Nancy’s death and demanded a ransom payment in exchange for the return of the elderly woman’s body.
“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 already too late,” the outlet claimed, adding that “the damage had already been done.”
Pack told Page Six on Tuesday that the public may not understand the full story of why investigators chose not to pay the ransom when they had the chance.
“The task force had information that the public did not have and will never have,” Pack said. “Families were included in those conversations. Everyone involved made the best decisions based on what they knew at the time, not what they thought they knew when they read a news report five months later.”
A retired federal nutrition official warned the public not to question investigators’ decisions based on publicly available information.
“From what’s been publicly reported, it seems like the mousetrap didn’t spring,” Pack said. “For some reason, the other side didn’t respond the way investigators expected.
“Based on what we know publicly, that’s not wrong. Things go that way sometimes, and the big picture can be very different from what we see from the outside.”
Nancy was last seen alive on January 31st, when her family dropped her off at her home after dinner, but she was reported missing the next day. After finding bloodstains outside the house, police concluded that Nancy was probably taken from her home against her will in the middle of the night.
In February, police released horrifying video of masked and armed individuals breaking into her home the night she went missing. Investigators also reportedly conducted DNA tests on hair samples. However, no formal suspects have been named.
Multiple ransom notes demand Bitcoin payments in exchange for Nanny’s release, and Savannah and her family have announced that they are willing to pay but require proof of survival.
Savannah, who made her emotional return to NBC on April 6, tearfully spoke on Tuesday’s “Today” show about the latest information on the contents of the ransom note.
“I just wanted to take this opportunity to really ask people and really implore people to come forward because they know something,” Savannah, 54, said.
“This is the news story that’s getting your attention today, but this is what my sister (Annie Guthrie) is alive, this is what I’m alive, this is what my brother (Camron Guthrie) is alive, this is what our extended family is alive, this is what our children are alive every day,” she added.
