Nancy Guthrie case: Tipster demands one Bitcoin for video and location of kidnappers, TMZ reports
TMZ: New ransom note in Nancy Guthrie case
TMZ reports it has received another email from a person claiming to know the identities of those responsible for the abduction of Nancy Guthrie. The email has since been forwarded to the FBI. The 84-year-old mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie has been missing for nearly five months. TMZ's Harvey Levin talks about the new developments.
LOS ANGELES - The ongoing investigation into the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie took a dramatic turn after a recurring tipster contacted TMZ demanding digital currency to expose the kidnappers.
The FBI continues to track the sender as new details emerge regarding a second ransom note indicating Guthrie died shortly after her abduction.
What we know:
The anonymous tipster, who has sent about a dozen emails to TMZ since the beginning of the case, contacted the outlet early Friday morning.
The sender claims to have a short video of Guthrie and the primary kidnapper—believed to have been recorded on the day she died—stored in a safe deposit box.
To authenticate the message, the sender included a private Bitcoin wallet address that had never been made public.
The individual is demanding one Bitcoin (valued at approximately $60,000) to lead authorities to the mobile device containing the footage, as well as the names and physical addresses of the two abductors.
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TMZ has turned over all correspondence to the FBI, whose information technology teams have spent months attempting to trace the emails.
At one point, five federal agents were on a joint call with TMZ’s IT department trying to trace the digital footprint.
2nd ransom note adds new twist to Nancy Guthrie case
The note reportedly said the kidnappers didn’t mean to kill the mother of Savannah Guthrie, but she died shortly after her disappearance.
Additionally, details from a second ransom note sent to a single Tucson television station days after the initial abduction revealed that the kidnappers dropped their original $4 million to $6 million ransom demand.
Instead, the authors stated that Guthrie had died and explicitly wrote, "We didn't do it."
What we don't know:
Authorities have not yet verified whether the tipster actually possesses the video evidence or if the individual is a sophisticated fraudster.
It is also unknown exactly when or where Guthrie died, though investigators believe she may have succumbed to medical complications after being denied necessary medication.
The exact geographic location of her remains—previously rumored to be in Mexico—remains unconfirmed.
What they're saying:
During an interview on the FOX Local stream, TMZ founder Harvey Levin detailed the newsroom's attempts to communicate with the anonymous source through public posts.
"You've been contacting us for months. And we've been giving this to the FBI. For whatever reason, the FBI has not paid the money because they are not sure you're the real deal. You could be a fraudster. So prove you're not. And send us a screen grab of Nancy Guthrie from this video," Levin said.
According to Levin, the tipster refused to send a screenshot, replying that "the metadata would lead authorities to him" and that he feared the kidnappers would target him.
Levin also noted that the FBI explicitly requested TMZ not to pay the ransom for a documentary project because federal agents were actively making progress on the case.
Savannah Guthrie issues new plea in search for mom Nancy
Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of "Today" host Savannah Guthrie, has been missing since she was last seen being dropped off at her Tucson-area home on the night of Jan. 31.
Regarding the kidnappers' sudden silence after the second note, Levin added, "It feels to me like they freaked out when she died and that they thought, you know, they didn't consider that she was an 84-year-old woman with medical problems and no medication. They just figured they could get $4 million really quickly and release her and she died. And they flipped out and went silent ever since."
An FBI official recently reassured Levin that the case would eventually be broken by a lapse in operational security.
"We're going to solve this case... because somebody in six months… or a year or two years is going to go to a bar and start bragging about this. Or there's going to be a scorned ex that goes to police and says ‘so and so told me this.’"
What's next:
The FBI is continuing its behind-the-scenes digital forensics investigation to identify the sender of the emails.
Because the case has transitioned from a standard kidnapping into a felony murder investigation, federal agents are focusing their efforts on tracking both the kidnappers and the tipster's unpublicized Bitcoin infrastructure.
The Source: This report is based on a broadcast interview on the FOX Local stream featuring TMZ's Harvey Levin and FOX 11's Marla Tellez. The details regarding the email communication, the specific Bitcoin demands, and the contents of the second ransom note were provided directly by Levin, who has been in direct contact with FBI investigators and oversaw the authentication of the unpublicized digital wallet address by the TMZ IT team.