Sheriff releases ransom note saying Nancy Guthrie died after kidnapping

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said he did not have a ransom note saying Nancy Guthrie was dead, then his department released one the next day. The contradiction put new pressure on a case that has gripped Tucson and Savannah Guthrie’s family since the 84-year-old woman vanished from her Catalina Foothills home.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department made the ransom notes public on July 31, six months after Nancy Guthrie was reported missing on Feb. 1 from her Tucson, Arizona, home. One note said, “We have your mother Nancy. She is safe but scared,” while the second said Nancy Guthrie had died and demanded payment in bitcoin. Investigators said the notes had been analyzed and reviewed by the FBI.

That timeline is what makes Nanos’ earlier statement so consequential. In an interview last Thursday, he said he did not have a note indicating Nancy Guthrie was dead. The next day, the sheriff’s department released a note that did exactly that. In a case with no identified suspect or person of interest, the mismatch raised immediate questions about what investigators knew, when they knew it, and how carefully they were briefing the public.

The notes themselves were not treated as disposable clutter in the file. NewsNation reported that they were sent to a Tucson television station shortly after Nancy Guthrie disappeared. Early in the investigation, authorities received two emails they took seriously, including what appeared to be a ransom note with a second deadline set for later that Monday. By Feb. 9, the search had entered its second week as that apparent deadline loomed.

The FBI said Wednesday that some ransom notes in the case had been “deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy,” even as law enforcement continued to treat the material seriously. Investigators also said they believed the writer used a distinctive style and hoped the public would recognize it, and the sheriff said they believed Nancy Guthrie was specifically targeted.

The case drew fresh attention after Savannah Guthrie posted publicly on Aug. 1 asking for answers again. With the sheriff’s public account and the released note now at odds, the credibility of the investigation itself became part of the story, especially for a family still waiting for a clear account of what happened to Nancy Guthrie.