Nancy Guthrie was taken from her Tucson home in the middle of the night while her family slept.
This week a crime scene investigator read every ransom note line by line and came away with questions.
Her answer has been sitting outside Nancy Guthrie's front door since the night she disappeared.
The Nancy Guthrie Fake Ransom Notes the FBI Confirmed Were Extortion
Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, was abducted from her Tucson home in the early hours of February 1. Blood was found on her front porch leading to the driveway, her doorbell camera had been disabled, and she hasn't been seen since.
Within days, ransom notes began arriving at media outlets.
The first note landed at TMZ two days after the disappearance, demanding millions in Bitcoin and giving the family a hard deadline. T
A second note, sent days later, claimed Nancy had died of heart issues and been "buried in nature." A third note, sent weeks later to TMZ, claimed the sender knew the kidnappers' identities and wanted one Bitcoin to talk.
The FBI confirmed earlier this month that all three are fake.
A California man has already pled guilty to charges related to one of the fraudulent demands. Special Agent Heith Janke of the FBI's Phoenix division called him a "total imposter" – someone trying to profit from a family's worst nightmare.
What Crime Scene Investigator Sheryl McCollum Found on Nancy Guthrie Front Porch
Crime scene investigator Sheryl McCollum walked through the ransom notes in detail on Jesse Weber Live – and she wasn't impressed.
Her biggest red flag wasn't the cryptocurrency demand or the shifting deadlines. It was the location of the blood.
Two details in the first note briefly caught investigators' attention: a destroyed floodlight in the backyard and a white smartwatch left on the floor near Nancy's bed. Investigators interpreted those as proof the author had been inside the home.
McCollum wasn't buying it.
"If everything you did was in the back, how did her blood get on the front porch – and explain the pattern?" she said. "Don't explain a broken flashlight in the backyard. The backyard to me is not in play. Where her blood is, is in play."
The note's author explained the backyard. The front porch – where the real crime left its mark – went completely unaddressed.
McCollum also flagged the timing. A genuine kidnapper who wants money moves fast. Two days of silence before the first demand gives investigators the window they need and reduces pressure on the family to pay.
"If this were a real demand, it would have been sent immediately," she said.
She pointed to the dual deadlines and shifting dollar amounts as the work of someone who watched too many crime documentaries and not enough actual ransom negotiations.
Professional kidnappers don't negotiate in circles. That's a con man's playbook, not a professional abduction.
Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping Update: Fraud Arrest Made, Real Suspect Still Free
The FBI's confirmation that the notes were fraudulent didn't solve the case. It made it harder.
Every hour investigators spent chasing fake ransom leads was an hour not spent building an actual suspect profile. The real abductor – described by Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos as someone who may strike again – is still unidentified.
McCollum said on air the notes do serve one purpose – flushing out whoever wrote them.
"I truly believe they're trying to draw this person out," she said, "because he's been quiet for two months."
That strategy produced a guilty plea from a California fraud artist. It has not produced the man caught on doorbell camera footage approaching Nancy Guthrie's front door armed and masked before she disappeared.
The case is now a homicide investigation. More than $1 million in reward money sits unclaimed, and DNA recovered from the home has yet to identify anyone.
The con artists got caught. The person responsible for the blood on that front porch has not.
Sources:
- Staff, "Nancy Guthrie: Arizona sheriff issues new warning in case," Fox 10 Phoenix, July 14, 2026.
- Staff, "Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping Update: Authorities State No Proof of Life After Ransom Note Declared Fake," Fox News, February 2026.
- Michael Ruiz, "Nancy Guthrie update: Search enters seventh week with no arrests," Fox News, March 2026.
- Staff, "Man pleads guilty to harassment in unsolved Nancy Guthrie case," Fox 10 Phoenix, July 2, 2026.