Second ransom note in Nancy Guthrie case says she died

The second message in the Nancy Guthrie case sharpened the mystery and changed the stakes. Instead of asking for money, it said Guthrie had died, offering no apology, no proof of life and no request for payment for the release of her body.

That note was part of a broader string of at least three alleged ransom messages sent in the days after Guthrie disappeared from her home in Catalina Foothills, near Tucson, Arizona. Investigators were still checking the messages for authenticity and trying to determine whether the Feb. 6 note came from the same person or people behind the first message, which had surfaced a day earlier.

The timing of the messages added to the unusual pattern. One message reached Tucson TV station KOLD at about 5 p.m. Monday, and the second arrived at 11:45 a.m. Friday. The first note set a 5 p.m. deadline on Feb. 5 and warned of a second deadline on Feb. 9. The second message, by contrast, made no new demands and offered no evidence that Guthrie was alive.

That gap mattered because former FBI agents said the case was already unusual: the notes did not include direct communication with a kidnapper, and the first message did not lay out a clear ransom demand in the way investigators would normally expect. It reportedly referred to an Apple Watch and a floodlight, details that had already been publicly available, and it did not include contact information.

Guthrie, 84, was reported missing on Feb. 1, 2026, after she failed to appear for Sunday morning virtual church services at a friend’s house. Authorities said she was last seen the previous night around 9:45 p.m., and her family dropped her back at her home at 9:48 p.m. The garage door closed two minutes later, the doorbell camera disconnected at 1:47 a.m., software detected a person on camera at 2:12 a.m. and her pacemaker app disconnected at 2:28 a.m.

Investigators later described the home as a crime scene. Blood found on the porch tested positive for Guthrie’s DNA, and the FBI released images and video of a masked armed man outside the house and identified him as a suspect. On Feb. 5, the bureau announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to Guthrie’s recovery or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved.

The case drew national attention because Guthrie is the mother of TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, who later said she believed two of the ransom notes were real. The second note, with its blunt declaration of death and absence of bargaining, shifted the public picture of the disappearance from a possible ransom case toward something far darker.