Arizona Sheriff Contradicts Himself on Ransom Notes in Nancy Guthrie Case

On Thursday, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos sat down with CBS News and made a categorical statement: he had no ransom note in the Nancy Guthrie case. "I don't have a note," he said flatly, alongside his assertion that he had nothing to suggest the 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie was dead. Twenty-four hours later, he released two ransom notes to the public—messages that directly contradicted what he had just told the network.

The notes had been sent to the local CBS station in Tucson back in February, shortly after Nancy Guthrie's abduction. The first arrived a day after she was reported missing. It opened with a direct address to her daughter: "Hello Savannah, we have your mother." The sender demanded $4 million in bitcoin and promised to return her to a safe location in Tucson within twelve hours of payment. The message included specific details about Guthrie's white Apple Watch and the floodlights on her back porch—details precise enough that the FBI took the threat seriously.

Four days after that first note, a second one arrived. This one carried a starkly different message. "We never intended to hurt her," it said. "She perished shortly after she was taken. We believe it was heart related. She is buried in nature now." The ransom demand vanished. There was no offer to negotiate, no attempt to salvage the scheme. Just a claim that the victim was dead and hidden.

Both messages came through a tip line to KOLD-TV using fabricated email addresses and contained references to the Guthrie family. Investigators traced both notes to the same IP address, though that address was masked and they have not determined whose computer sent them. Nanos said he released the notes publicly hoping someone would recognize the author's distinctive wording and come forward with information.

Retired FBI supervisory special agent Lance Leising praised the decision to go public with the messages but questioned the timing. Releasing them months after they arrived, after a long silence from investigators, suggested a "haphazard" media strategy. Leising suspected the delay reflected deeper uncertainty about whether the notes were genuine at all. "I'm sure, and maybe even to this day, they're not 100% sure if these notes are legitimate," he said. The case had already seen false ransom notes submitted by others, adding to the confusion.

Another retired FBI supervisory special agent, Jason Pack, focused on what the second note revealed through its absence. A person motivated by money does not simply walk away from a $4 million demand when circumstances change. "The money is simply gone," Pack said. "No demand. No offer to sell a location. Nothing." He believed one person wrote both notes, but whether that person actually took Nancy Guthrie or was inserting himself into the case after seeing media coverage remained an open question.

When pressed about the notes' authenticity, Nanos offered a measured response: "We think every one of them's valid until we show otherwise." Six months after her mother's disappearance, Savannah Guthrie posted on Instagram asking someone to come forward, including anyone who might recognize the handwriting. "There is a way to end this situation and do the right thing," she wrote. Following a critical account in the Wall Street Journal of how local investigators had handled the case, Nanos took to social media to reassure the family and the public. "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." The FBI is offering up to $100,000 for information leading to Nancy Guthrie's location or the arrest of anyone involved, and the Guthrie family has added $1 million to that reward.