Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told CBS News he had no note suggesting Nancy Guthrie was dead, but the ransom letters he released one day later said exactly that.
On Thursday, Nanos sat for an interview and made a flat denial. "I have nothing to indicate she's dead," he told CBS News. "I don't have a body. I don't have a burial site. I don't have any note." On Friday, less than 24 hours later, Nanos released two ransom notes to the public. The second note, which had been in investigators' hands since February, states plainly that Nancy Guthrie "perished shortly after she was taken."
The contradiction is not a matter of interpretation. Nanos said he had no note. He had two. One of them claimed the 84-year-old Tucson, Arizona, woman was dead and buried. The sheriff either misspoke on a matter central to a high-profile kidnapping investigation, or he chose to mislead the public about what his office knew. Neither explanation inspires confidence six months into a case that has produced no arrest, no recovered victim, and mounting questions about how local law enforcement has handled the investigation from the start.
Both ransom notes arrived at the tip line of KOLD-TV, the CBS affiliate in Tucson, in February. The first came approximately one day after Nancy Guthrie was reported missing. It opened with a direct address: "Hello Savannah, we have your mother", a reference to Savannah Guthrie, the "Today" show co-host and Nancy's daughter. The note demanded $4 million in bitcoin and promised to return Nancy to a "safe drop off location" in Tucson within 12 hours of payment.
The FBI took the notes seriously. The first letter included specific details about Nancy Guthrie's white Apple Watch and floodlights on her back porch, information that suggested some familiarity with the victim or her home. Investigators determined that both notes were sent from the same IP address, though that address was masked. They still do not know whose computer sent them.
Four days after the first note, a second arrived at the same tip line. Its tone had shifted entirely. Gone was the ransom demand. In its place was a claim that Nancy Guthrie had died. "We never intended to hurt her, that was not our intention," the note read. "She perished shortly after she was taken. We believe it was heart related. She is buried in nature now."
The ransom notes had been in law enforcement's possession for months before Nanos released them publicly on Friday. He posted them on the Pima County Sheriff's Office account on X, saying he hoped someone might recognize the author's wording.
Nanos framed the release as a proactive step. "Those hostage notes: Are they valid, do we believe they're valid? We think every one of them's valid until we show otherwise," he said. But the timing, releasing notes months after receiving them, and one day after denying their existence on camera, drew pointed criticism from retired federal investigators.
Lance Leising, a retired FBI supervisory special agent, told CBS News the approach lacked coherence. "So late in the case and after a period of time where they have had no communication with the public, it just seems that the media strategy here is a little haphazard," Leising said. He added that investigators may still not know whether the notes are genuine, noting that people have already been arrested and charged for sending hoax notes in connection with the case.
Jason Pack, another retired FBI supervisory special agent, focused on what the second note revealed about the writer's motives. The abrupt abandonment of a $4 million demand struck him as significant.
"The money is simply gone. No demand. No offer to sell a location. Nothing. People motivated by money do not walk away from $4 million when the plan falls apart. They try to salvage something. This writer asked for nothing at all."
Pack told CBS News on Friday that he believed the same person wrote both notes. "Same channel, same habits, same distance from responsibility," he said. "Whether that person took Nancy or watched the coverage and decided to insert himself is the open question."
That distinction matters. If the notes are genuine, they represent the only direct communication from whoever took Nancy Guthrie. If they are hoaxes, written by someone who followed the case and used publicly available details to fabricate a kidnapping claim, then the investigation has been shaped in part by a fraud. Either way, the sheriff's credibility in managing the public face of this case has taken another hit.
On Saturday, Savannah Guthrie posted on Instagram marking six months since her mother's disappearance. She urged anyone who might recognize the writing in the ransom notes to come forward. "There is a way to end this situation and do the right thing," she wrote.
The FBI is offering up to $100,000 for information leading to Nancy Guthrie's location or the arrest of anyone involved in her disappearance. The Guthrie family has put up a separate $1 million reward.
The notes were sent to KOLD-TV using email addresses that appeared to be fabricated. The masked IP address has not been publicly traced to a specific individual or location. No body has been recovered. No burial site has been identified. And the sheriff who oversees the local investigation told the public he had "no note" the day before he released two of them.
Nanos responded to scrutiny over the weekend after the Wall Street Journal published a lengthy account examining how local investigators handled the Guthrie case. In a social media video, Nanos pushed back. "We're still here, we're not going away," he said. "If you could just see the team working, you would see the energy, the concern. They're fired up, and we'll continue to work this case hard."
Energy and concern are welcome. But this investigation has faced persistent questions about the Pima County Sheriff's Office conduct, from allegations that detectives dismissed blood evidence on Nancy Guthrie's porch for hours to accusations from FBI Director Patel that the sheriff's office blocked the bureau from the case during critical early days. Nanos has disputed those claims. But a pattern of contradictions, delayed disclosures, and defensive posturing does not build public trust in a case where an 84-year-old woman remains missing and a family remains without answers.
The facts here are not complicated. Sheriff Nanos told a national television audience he had no note. He had two. One of those notes claimed a kidnapped woman was dead. He released both notes the following day. No explanation has been offered for the discrepancy between what he said Thursday and what he disclosed Friday.
Whether the notes are genuine remains an open question. Leising acknowledged that investigators may still harbor doubts, given the hoax notes that have already surfaced. But the existence of the notes was never in doubt, Nanos's own office had them since February. His denial on camera was either a mistake or a choice, and neither reflects well on the man running the investigation.
The Guthrie family has renewed its plea for answers, offering $1 million of its own money to find the truth. Savannah Guthrie asked the public to help. The FBI is working the case. Retired agents are raising questions publicly about the local strategy. Six months in, the people closest to this investigation, and the family living through it, deserve better than a sheriff who says one thing on Thursday and does the opposite on Friday.
When the man in charge of finding answers cannot keep his own public statements straight for 24 hours, the question stops being just about who took Nancy Guthrie, and starts being about whether the people responsible for finding her are up to the job.