Two more purported ransom notes landed at TMZ on Monday, each claiming knowledge of where Nancy Guthrie is and who took her.
The notes arrived from the same anonymous source who first demanded one bitcoin nearly two months ago in exchange for information about the 75-year-old mother of "Today" show anchor Savannah Guthrie, who vanished on Feb. 1 from her Tucson-area home.
According to the New York Post, TMZ has alerted the FBI about the communications. The first note was blunt: "She is dead." But after TMZ founder Harvey Levin discussed it on air, a second note from the same sender arrived contradicting the first, claiming, "I saw her alive with them in the state of Sonora Mexico."
The sender now demands half a bitcoin upfront and the other half upon a public arrest. That's the ask. Whether any of it is credible remains an open question, but the spectacle of a missing persons case being mediated through a celebrity gossip outlet tells you everything about where this investigation stands.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department, led by embattled Sheriff Chris Nanos, has produced zero suspects in over two months. An agency spokesperson offered the predictable assurance that "all tips and leads are being taken seriously and are forwarded directly to our detectives, who are coordinating with the FBI." That's boilerplate, not progress.
Nancy Guthrie requires lifesaving daily medication and has a pacemaker. She was last seen alive on the evening of Jan. 31 when her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, dropped her off at home. Every day without answers is a day her survival becomes less likely, if the worst hasn't already happened.
The case has been plagued by mysterious twists from the start, including a series of messages sent to media outlets in early February. Savannah Guthrie herself acknowledged last month that most ransom notes sent to her family were fakes. But she drew a distinction: "I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real."
That a grieving daughter is publicly parsing which ransom notes she considers legitimate, while the sheriff's office offers nothing but platitudes, captures the dysfunction perfectly.
The anonymous sender's messages reveal someone deeply frustrated at being ignored. The first letter reportedly vents:
"It's unbelievable that millions have been wasted and yet here I am willing to deliver them on a silver platter since the 11th of february for a bitcoin but I am disregarded as a scam … they are free and the case is frozen but the ego's remain hot when it comes to me."
The person claims to have been outside the United States for more than five years and insists they had nothing to do with the "horrific crime." They say they aren't motivated by greed. As the Post noted, Levin observed that the sender has been "persistent" despite knowing they could face criminal charges if this turns out to be a hoax.
Persistent, contradictory, and increasingly agitated. That profile could belong to someone who actually knows something. It could also belong to a disturbed opportunist feeding on a family's nightmare. Either way, the FBI should be running this down with urgency, not leaving TMZ to serve as a clearinghouse for leads.
There is something deeply wrong when a celebrity news outlet is receiving, evaluating, and publicly airing ransom communications in a missing persons case. TMZ did the right thing by alerting the FBI. But the fact that this person keeps sending demands to a gossip show rather than law enforcement suggests they've concluded the sheriff's department either can't or won't act on what they're offering.
Meanwhile, Savannah Guthrie returned to the "Today" show Monday morning, making no mention of her mother's disappearance on air. "Good morning and welcome to 'Today' on this Monday morning. We are so glad you started your week with us and it is good to be home."
That composure under unimaginable pressure deserves respect. No one should have to perform normalcy on national television while their mother is missing and anonymous strangers are trading claims about her fate for cryptocurrency.
Two months. No suspects. A sheriff's department under scrutiny. A family left to sift through real and fake ransom notes on their own. And a case that increasingly resembles something out of a true crime podcast rather than an active law enforcement priority.
If the Pima County Sheriff's Department can't deliver results, it's time to ask whether this investigation belongs entirely in federal hands. Nancy Guthrie's family has waited long enough. The public has waited long enough. Someone either knows where she is or is exploiting her disappearance for bitcoin. In either case, the answer isn't more boilerplate statements. It's results.