Speculation has grown about the fate of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today anchor Savannah Guthrie, as investigations into her disappearance enter their eighth week. Nancy went missing on February 1 from her home in Tucson, Arizona, and the family have since offered a $1 million reward to whoever can provide information that leads to her discovery.
Amongst several ransom notes that Savannah and her family received in the days after Nancy’s disappearance, two were believed to have been real, as she shared in an interview with Hoda Kotb for Today. One alleged ransom note was sent to KOLD News 13, while another was sent to TMZ and demanded a large payment in Bitcoin.
Almost two months after news of these ransom notes came to light, two former FBI special agents, James Hamilton and Maureen O’Connell, shared their thoughts on whether the messages actually indicated that Nancy had passed away.
The pair spoke on The Megyn Kelly Show on March 28, after the host shared an X post from @Nerdy_Addict that claimed one of the ransom letters “allegedly states the sender apologized, claiming they did not realize how serious her heart condition was and that she had ‘gone to be with God.'” Nancy requires daily medication to alleviate her heart issues and also wears a pacemaker.
“Why didn’t the Guthrie family ever pay a ransom if they believed, as Savannah told us yesterday, that two of those ransom notes they received were authentic?” Megyn asked the former agents. “Was there something in the second note that made them believe it was fruitless to pay money to the kidnapper?”
“I think that the FBI was probably telling her, ‘Without proof of life, do not pay these people. It will never end,'” Maureen shared. “And if they can’t provide proof of life, then we could very well be dealing with the wrong people.”
© WireImageMeanwhile, James pointed to the “lack of personalization” in the ransom notes, with one mentioning details about the disappearance that are public knowledge. “So if you’re going to apologize and I’m going to take it seriously, I would have liked to have seen something like, you know, ‘I apologize for knocking over the picture in the room,’ or more specificity…Something not released to the public.”
Learn more about the family’s reward below…
James added that the ransom notes sounded like “scam artists” who “prey upon grief [and] prey upon your vulnerability”.
“They’re saying anything they can to get paid. It really doesn’t move the needle a lot for me.” Savannah previously admitted that her mother may have already passed on in an Instagram video posted in late February. “We still believe. We still believe in a miracle. We still believe that she can come home – hope against hope, as my sister says: We are blowing on the embers of hope,” she shared.
© Instagram“We also know that she may be lost. She may already be gone. She may have already gone home to the Lord that she loves and is dancing in heaven with her mom and her dad, and with her beloved brother Pierce, and with our daddy.”
© Getty Images“And if this is what is to be, then we will accept it,” the 54-year-old added. “But we need to know where she is. We need her to come home. For that reason, we are offering a family reward of up to $1 million for any information that leads us to her recovery.”
Nancy enjoyed a game night with her other daughter, Annie, and Annie’s husband, Tommaso, on January 31, before being driven home by her son-in-law just before 10 p.m. Her doorbell camera was then disconnected at 1:47 a.m. on February 1, and her pacemaker app disconnected from her phone at 2:28 a.m. When Nancy missed church on Sunday morning, her friends raised the alarm to her family, and she was reported missing around noon.
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