TMZ said the FBI confirmed a February ransom it received regarding the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie was “the real deal.”
The gossip site also said on Monday that rumors that the note said the missing woman was dead are inaccurate.
TMZ reported that it was sent roughly a dozen emails from someone claiming he knew who abducted the missing mother of NBC host Savannah Guthrie on Feb.1 and where she’d been taken.
Days after the 84-year-old mom disappeared from her Tucson, Ariz., home, one of those emails stated “time if of the essence” and reportedly asked for a Bitcoin payment equal to about $64,000.
An email sent the following day stated “time is no longer of the essence” leading TMZ to conclude Guthrie had died.
It’s not clear if the person who sent the ransom note and subsequent emails was the same individual. TMZ hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
The person who sent the emails reportedly insisted he wasn’t the kidnapper, but was afraid of being implicated by police. He also claimed to have feared retribution from people involved in the crime.
TMZ reported that it believed the emails were authentic because a scammer would be unlikely to give up leverage by admitting urgency was no longer an issue.
The site said it’s been trying to contact the FBI for the past month to further discuss the matter, but has received no response to its inquiries.
NBC News said Monday that a second note sent to select media outlets indicated she was no longer alive. It stated no monetary demand.
The FBI said at the start of its search that time was of the essence because the missing woman needs daily medication for a heart condition.
Savannah posted a Feb.7 video on Instagram telling her mother’s captors that the family is willing to pay for their matriarch’s return. The family offered a $1 million reward.Tucson outlet KGUN reported that one ransom note sent to local media asked for $6 million. It’s unclear if that demand was credible.
The non-profit organization Buscando Corazones de Nogales Sonoras said it searched an area near the Mexican border on more than one occasion after receiving a Mother’s Day tip that Guthrie was buried in a shallow grave south of the U.S. border in Nogales. Their volunteers found nothing during a May 16 dig or a follow-up search on June 10.
