Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
New York: A ransom note addressed to US TV host Savannah Guthrie a day after her 84-year-old mother was kidnapped said that Nancy Guthrie was “safe but scared”, but another note sent several days later said that she had died unexpectedly of a medical condition.
The notes, released on Friday (US time) by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in Arizona, suggested that whoever was responsible for her abduction may not have intended to kill her. And their release, nearly six months after Guthrie’s disappearance, was also a sign of how little apparent progress the investigation has made.
The sheriff’s department released the notes without saying whether they were authentic, but said that investigators hoped someone would recognise the writer’s “patterns of word choice, syntax and phraseology”.
“We believe these distinctive linguistic characteristics may be recognisable to someone who knows or has interacted with the notes’ writer,” the department said.
Savannah Guthrie, who hosts the Today show, has said that she believes that the two ransom notes were most probably authentic. Over the months, she has also indicated that she believes her mother may no longer be alive, but has been adamant that her family still needs to know what happened to her.
The two ransom notes were sent to news outlets in the days after the kidnapping, which took place in the early hours of February 1 at Nancy Guthrie’s home near Tucson, Arizona. Investigators have released images and video from Guthrie’s doorbell camera that show a masked and armed man at her door, but they have not been able to identify the person.
The first note, on February 2, demanded $US4 million ($5.7 million) in bitcoin from Savannah Guthrie for the release of her mother by February 5. If that deadline passed, the note said, the ransom would rise to $US6 million and would need to be paid by February 9.
‘She is buried in nature now.’
Ransom note purportedly from Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapper
“If payment is not received by the last deadline on Monday the 9th at 5 p.m., she will be killed,” the note said. “Your mother is aware of this and her life is in your hands.”
The note included two details about the state of Guthrie’s home – a broken floodlight in the backyard and a white smartwatch on the floor of her bedroom – that indicated it could be authentic.
Around that time, Savannah Guthrie said in a video online that her family was willing to pay but needed to know that the person being paid actually had her mother.
The second note was sent on February 6, notably before the final deadline the first note had given, and was addressed to the Guthrie family.
In it, the author said that “we did not fully grasp the seriousness” of Guthrie’s physical condition.
‘Nothing could have changed the outcome’
“We never intended to hurt her, that was not our intention,” it read. “She perished shortly after she was taken. We believe it was heart related. She is buried in nature now.
“Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome,” it continued. “We want your family to know this and hope you all can find peace. We are truly sorry.”
In addition to asking the public to consider the author’s writing style, investigators in Tucson asked people to consider whether any men they knew had changed their mood or appearance, had unexplained injuries or left the region around the time she was abducted.
In the weeks after the kidnapping, Savannah Guthrie and her two older siblings had issued several videos in which they pleaded for their mother’s release and said they would pay for her return but wanted proof that the ransom notes’ author actually had her.
In one video issued on February 7, the day after the second note was sent, Guthrie said that she and her siblings had received the kidnapper’s message.
“We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” she said. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
Later that month, Savannah Guthrie issued a $US1 million reward for any information leading to the discovery of her mother, in addition to the $US100,000 the FBI had offered for tips.
Earlier this week, she had made another plea to whoever is responsible for her mother’s abduction, saying she was begging them “to do the right thing now”.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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