The FBI has issued an update on the ransom notes in Nancy Guthrie’s abduction.
We’ve been following for some time now the ransom notes that surfaced in the investigation to find Savannah Guthrie’s mother, who was taken from her home in Tucson, Arizona, at 84 years old in February. In case you’re not up to date, multiple news outlets, including TMZ, received various ransom notes throughout this case. Some came very soon after her disappearance, seemingly from the alleged abductor(s), requesting money for her return. Though, according to recent reports, a quick follow-up revealed she had passed away.
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Other messages came from someone claiming to have information about the criminals. The sender went silent for months until last week, when they sent TMZ another email offering to reveal the location of a stashed mobile device with photos and videos of Nancy’s alleged kidnappers in exchange for one Bitcoin.
Speculation has run rampant amongst investigators, family, friends, and social media users sharing their opinions on whether or not the notes were legit, but the FBI just issued a final take.
On Tuesday, Reuters published an article claiming the FBI has determined all three ransom notes — two from February linked to each other and the third sent recently by someone claiming to know the kidnappers’ identities — are fake. The news came from an anonymous FBI official, who said:
“None of the ransom notes are believed to be genuine.”
A second law enforcement source familiar with the case confirmed the FBI’s assessment results, too. Oof.
The FBI official said the first two ransom notes were determined to have come from the same sender. The first one, per TMZ, demanded millions in cryptocurrency. NBC News reported last week that the second note said Nancy had died.
To test the authenticity of the first message, the FBI sent a small amount of money to the cryptocurrency account, but it was never touched. This, as well as other unspecified findings, led the agency to conclude the account was fake and the sender of these two messages was not actually connected to the case. However, what was not included in the article were details on how investigators determined the more recent note wasn’t legit.
Interestingly, this aligns with the Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos‘ opinion on the recent ransom note. Sad this apparently won’t lead to answers.
What are your reactions to this update? Let us know in the comments down below.
[Images via Savannah Guthrie/Instagram]