A ransom note demanding money in exchange for the return of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother was “carefully crafted” and included details not previously released to the public, according to people who have read it.
The note has taken center stage as authorities are still frantically trying to find Nancy Guthrie, 84, five days after her apparent abduction from her Tucson-area home. Her family has now made two heartfelt videos pleading with her suspected kidnappers to communicate with them.
Two deadlines
Although the entire note has not been released, some details have. The letter contained a first deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday and a second demand with a Monday deadline, Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix division said. He declined to say what, if anything, was threatened if the deadlines weren’t met.
Nancy’s son, Camron Guthrie, issued a video pleading with the kidnapper Thursday afternoon, around the time of the ransom letter’s first deadline.
“Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you,” he said. “We haven’t heard anything directly. We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward.”
Harry Levin, founder of celebrity news website TMZ, told CNN he has reviewed one of the three identical letters that were sent to media outlets and said, “the Monday deadline is far more consequential.”
TMZ has reported the alleged note demanded millions in cryptocurrency for Guthrie’s release. Levin said Thursday night that TMZ confirmed the bitcoin address was real.
The family and authorities are worried because Nancy Guthrie has many physical ailments and requires a daily medication that she appears to be without. Officials said they haven’t yet received any proof that Guthrie is alive, but they are operating on that assumption despite real concerns she could be dead.
“I’m fearful of that, I think we all are,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said. “This is Day 4 or 5 and still we don’t know that she’s getting her medication and that could in itself be fatal.”
‘Carefully crafted letter’
Levin and a Tucson-area journalist, both who said they’ve seen the ransom note, offered a few additional details.
“This is a letter that really spells out precisely what they want done, what the consequences are if they don’t get what they want,”Levin said in another interview with CNN.
“They began the letter by saying that Nancy is OK but scared,” Levin said. “The letter says, you will have no way of contacting me. … They went to great lengths in sending this email to us in making sure that it stays anonymous.”
“It is a carefully crafted letter, and this is not something that somebody threw together in five minutes,” he added.
Unique details
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’s home that hadn’t been made public.
Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix division, said that there were details about an Apple Watch and a floodlight, but declined to go into specifics.
According to Levin, the note mentioned a specific detail of the Apple Watch, which he found to be key.
“That placement of the Apple Watch, if this is true, is something where they would immediately take this seriously,” Levin told CNN.
Mary Coleman, an anchor at KOLD-TV, added: “A lot of it is information that only someone who is holding her for ransom would know — some very sensitive information and things that people who were there when she was taken captive would know.”
Race against time
Authorities describe the search as a race against time.
“Right now we believe Nancy is still out there. We want her home,” Nanos said at Thursday’s news conference. A massive team of local and federal partners would continue to work “round the clock” on the case, he said.
“There has been no proof of life,” Janke said. “… Time is of the essence.”
Although Guthrie is of sound mind, family have said she has physical ailments. She uses a pacemaker and is often in pain, the family said.
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings shared an emotional video pleading with their mother’s potential captors.
“She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine,” Savannah Guthrie said. “She needs it to survive and she needs it not to suffer.”
She begged for the suspected abductor to contact them.
“We 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,” she said in the video shared on Instagram. “We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us.”
