Kash Patel told the country the FBI was locked out of Nancy Guthrie's crime scene for four days.
While the sheriff stonewalled federal investigators, three ransom notes arrived claiming to know exactly where Nancy was.
What the FBI found when it tested those notes just made finding Nancy Guthrie a lot harder.
Nancy Guthrie Ransom Notes Were Sent by Someone With No Connection to the Kidnapping
Nancy Guthrie – mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie – vanished from her Tucson, Arizona home in the early morning hours of February 1.
A man in a mask and black latex gloves appeared on her doorbell camera, then disabled it.
Less than an hour later, the app monitoring her pacemaker lost its connection to her phone.
Investigators found blood on her front porch and concluded she had been abducted.
Then the ransom notes started arriving.
The first demanded millions in cryptocurrency, with payment deadlines set for February 5 and February 9.
A second note claimed Nancy had already died.
A third – sent more recently to TMZ – claimed the sender had video of the kidnapper and footage of Nancy on the day she was killed.
To test the first note, the FBI deposited a small amount of cryptocurrency into the account the letter specified and watched to see if anyone claimed it.
Nobody did.
Investigators determined the first two notes came from the same sender.
"None of the ransom notes are believed to be genuine," an FBI official told Reuters.
Later on Wednesday, a second account emerged that some suspected was damage control.
Fox News reported that a separate FBI official – cited through TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin – called the notes "more legitimate than not," directly contradicting the Reuters reporting.
The FBI Phoenix office then issued a formal statement that satisfied neither account: some notes were extortion attempts with no connection to the case, it said, while others "may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such."
Kash Patel Had a Plane Ready to Fly Evidence to Quantico and Pima County Sheriff Nanos Said No
FBI Director Kash Patel went public in May, telling Sean Hannity that the bureau was locked out of the investigation for four critical days after Nancy disappeared.
"The first 48 hours of anyone's disappearance are the most critical," Patel said. "And for four days, we were kept out of the investigation."
When the FBI was finally allowed in, agents immediately pulled the doorbell camera footage showing the masked kidnapper.
"We could have gotten it days before," Patel said.
Pima County Democrat Sheriff Chris Nanos also rejected the FBI's offer to analyze DNA recovered from Nancy's home – including a hair that did not belong to Nancy or anyone in regular contact with her.
Patel had a fixed-wing aircraft on the ground ready to fly the evidence to Quantico overnight.
Nanos sent it to a private lab in Florida instead.
"Our lab's just better than any other private lab out there, and we didn't get the chance to do that," Patel said.
The United Cajun Navy – a nationally recognized search-and-rescue organization that deploys canine teams, drones, and trained volunteers – submitted a 41-page operational plan to Nanos outlining exactly how it could help.
The plan proposed the group operate entirely under the sheriff's command, touch no evidence, and report everything directly to the department.
Nanos said no.
"For some reason, they just decided they were not going to take the outside help," United Cajun Navy vice president Brian Trascher told NewsNation.
Trascher said the rejection came earliest when it would have mattered most – and that this late in the investigation, any search would likely be looking for remains rather than a living person.
Savannah Guthrie's Mother Has Been Missing Since February and No Suspect Has Been Named
The Pima County deputies' union voted no-confidence in Nanos in March – 241 of 306 officers called for his resignation – and the Board of Supervisors opened removal proceedings.
None of that has produced answers for the Guthrie family.
Her family is offering a $1 million reward for information on Nancy's whereabouts, with the FBI adding $100,000 of its own.
Nancy Guthrie is 84 years old, needs daily heart medication, has difficulty walking, and has been gone since February 1.
The FBI arrived with aircraft, the best forensics lab in the world, and 150 agents and analysts working the case – and Nanos told them to wait.
The ransom notes the family spent months praying were real are now in dispute, with federal officials contradicting each other about whether any of them came from the actual kidnapper.
And when a Fox News reporter caught Nanos outside his department and asked if they were close to solving the case, he said "We are" – and got in his car.
Sources:
- Reuters Staff, "FBI says Nancy Guthrie ransom notes are fake," Reuters, July 1, 2026.
- Fox News Staff, "FBI official pushes back on claims Nancy Guthrie ransom demands are fake," Fox News, July 1, 2026.
- Fox 10 Staff, "FBI says ransom notes in Nancy Guthrie case may not be genuine," Fox 10 Phoenix, July 1, 2026.
- Brian Trascher interview, "United Cajun Navy says sheriff rejected help," NewsNation, June 30, 2026.
- "Patel: FBI 'kept out' of early days of Nancy Guthrie investigation," The Hill, May 6, 2026.
- "Sheriff on Nancy Guthrie Case Responds to FBI Director Kash Patel's Criticism," Today.com, May 6, 2026.