Did investigators make an incredibly costly mistake in the Nancy Guthrie case?
Crypto experts are now chiming in on the apparent kidnapping for ransom case — and they think investigators royally screwed up!
As Perezcious readers know, a ransom email with unique details about Nancy and her home that hadn’t been released to the public yet demanded $4 million in crypto for her return shortly after her disappearance in February. But a followup email from the same IP address later announced she’d died, according to recent reports. Very little money was ever exchanged, and it didn’t help identify the suspect. Now, this is where some experts think the authorities went wrong!
Related: FBI Source Shares New Detail Who They Believe Sent THOSE Bitcoin Notes!
According to Air Mail on Saturday, detectives from the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department are second-guessing decisions they made not to pay the ransom. Instead, the FBI reportedly paid $152 into the wallet, hoping the kidnapper would withdraw the money and expose a way to track them down. But the money is reportedly still sitting in the account to this day. Wow.
Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, a data firm that works with law enforcement on crypto-based crimes, told The Post on Wednesday:
“[The suspects] would want to get those $4 million off chain as fast as they can. … They are typically using mainstream exchanges like Coinbase or Kraken that have that user information. … Law enforcement can then subpoena them for that information.”
But the FBI went with a plan known as “tickling the wire” in hopes they’d get the info they wanted without sending all the money. But $152 was clearly not tempting enough. And why would it be?! That’s hardly anything compared to the $4 million the criminal wanted! It’s hard to imagine they believed someone who went to such great lengths for cash would give in to that little. If anything, they may have only tipped the person off that the authorities were trying to get information rather than just complying with the demand.
That said, attorney Todd Spoden stood up for the law enforcement:
“Law enforcement is often placed in a Catch-22 situation, damned if they do, dammed if they don’t. … They could have sent a large sum of money, and it could have gone nowhere. The suspects might have panicked and left it sitting in the wallet for 10 years. Or forever. It’s hard to negotiate with a terrorist. These are not rational people.”
True. There are no guarantees giving more money would’ve amounted to answers, especially if Nancy died as fast as the ransom note alleged. Maybe the kidnapper was never going to accept any money once they had a death on their hands?? We may never know.
The detectives haven’t given up yet, though. They’re still trying to determine who sent the ransom notes by following the chain of proxy servers that the senders used to protect their identities.
As for whether or not this crime was conducted by “sophisticated” criminals, Todd doubts it:
“An actual, sophisticated operation wouldn’t have gotten involved in a kidnapping conspiracy-turned-homicide. That alone says it’s rookie s**t.”
Even if the suspect — seen fumbling with a doorbell camera outside the home — was attached to someone very computer-savvy, the lawyer teased:
“It sounds like some f**king, and I don’t know any other word than the Yiddish, but some farkakte plan.”
And yet, somehow, the kidnapper has vanished into the night with a woman… and not gotten caught months later! Smart or not, they’ve been able to pull the unthinkable off. Ugh.
It’s inneresting that authorities have been so unwilling to give into the money requests! They’ve even stopped TMZ from paying the Bitcoin request from someone claiming to have information. Hmm. We hope that means they’re onto something and don’t need the help.
We hope authorities will get to the bottom of this to bring peace to the Guthrie family.
Thoughts? Let us know (below).
[Image via Savanna Guthrie/Instagram & Pima County Sheriff’s Department/X (Twitter)]
