Nancy Guthrie ‘is dead’ – News site TMZ received two more ransom demands Monday local time, demanding “half a bitcoin” to reveal the whereabouts of 84-year-old mother Savannah Guthrie’s body and who is responsible for her kidnapping.
The remarks came the same day Savannah returned to the “Today” show for the first time since her mother went missing on Feb. 1.
According to The New York Post, these latest ransoms were sent by the same mysterious person who demanded one bitcoin nearly two months ago in exchange for information about Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
Read also | Savannah returns to ‘Today’ since her mother’s disappearance: ‘Good to be home’
What did the new ransom notes say?
“Today we got another letter from this person, an email that said, ‘I know where her body is and who the kidnapper is, give me half a bitcoin and I’ll tell you,'” TMZ founder Harvey Levin said Monday on ‘TMZ Live.’
“She’s dead,” the note claimed.
“Unbelievable that millions have been squandered and yet here I am willing to deliver them on a silver platter from February 11th for Bitcoin but I’m being overlooked as a scam… they’re free and the case is frozen but the ego stays hot when it comes to me,” the first letter allegedly said.
“Arrogance at its finest.”
After that message was addressed on the air, Levin said another message came from the same person saying, “I saw her alive with them in the state of Sonora, Mexico.”
Citing the note, the portal said the person would hand over the information for half a bitcoin, with the other half transferred to their wallet after a public arrest.
The person, while claiming to hold valuable information, said he had nothing to do with the “horrific crime” and insisted he had been out of the US for more than five years, TMZ reported.
In the second letter, the person claimed that he was not motivated by greed.
“I just want what’s fair and to live in peace, with enough to start my life over quietly without having to go into the witness protection program,” the note read.
Read also | Missing Nancy Guthrie case: Pima County Sheriff reveals significance of January 11th
TMZ said it alerted the FBI.
Levin noted that the sender was “persistent” despite knowing he could face felony charges for fraud.
However, in one of the most recent notes, the person behind the notes said law enforcement “disregarded them as a hoax.”
‘All tips and advice taken seriously’: Police
The Pima County Sheriff’s Office, which is handling the Nancy Guthrie case, said it is aware of reports of possible ransoms connected to the case, The Post reported.
“All tips and leads are taken seriously and are passed directly to our detectives who coordinate with the FBI,” a sheriff’s office spokesman told The Post.
Sheriff Chris Nanos and his team have not yet identified any suspects in the case.
The case of Nancy Guthrie
The Nancy Guthrie missing person case is filled with mystery and frustration, including a series of messages sent to the Guthrie family and the media in early February.
Savannah said in an interview late last month that most of the ransom notes sent to her family were fake, but “I do believe that the two notes that we received and responded to, I tend to believe that they are real.”
Read also | Nancy Guthrie missing case update: “Family in agony, says Savannah Guthrie
Nancy Guthrie needs daily life-saving medication and has a pacemaker. She was last seen alive on the evening of January 31 when her son-in-law Tommaso Cioni, who is married to her older daughter Annie, dropped her off at home.
