The FBI's Phoenix field office pushed back hard on a Reuters report that declared all ransom notes in the Nancy Guthrie disappearance to be fakes, confirming that while some communications were bogus extortion attempts, others "may potentially be legitimate" and remain under active investigation.
The distinction matters. Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC "Today" show anchor Savannah Guthrie, vanished from her Arizona home in the early morning hours of February 1 without her phone or essential medications. Five months later, the case remains officially classified as a kidnapping for ransom, and the FBI wants the public to know it has not ruled out that at least some of the ransom demands came from whoever took her.
That puts the bureau directly at odds with a Reuters report published the day before, which cited an unnamed FBI official claiming that federal investigators had determined "all three kidnapping-related messages" tied to the disappearance were fake. The FBI Phoenix office's response, posted on X on Wednesday, left no room for ambiguity.
In its post, the FBI Phoenix office stated plainly:
"Some (of the notes) have been deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy."
But the bureau did not stop there. It added that "other ransom demands may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such." And it underscored the seriousness of the case: "This case continues to be investigated as a kidnapping for ransom case."
The office also clarified the chain of command, noting that while it is assisting in the case, local authorities, specifically the Pima County Sheriff's Department, oversee the investigation. The Pima County Sheriff's Department issued its own statement, saying "every tip and lead is taken seriously" and sent to its detectives, "who continue to work in coordination with the FBI." The sheriff's office directed all further questions about the ransom notes to the FBI.
That's a notable posture. When two agencies coordinate a public rebuttal of a major wire service report within 24 hours, it signals that the premature disclosure did real damage, or at least risked it. The FBI's pushback suggests investigators were still working active leads tied to at least some of the communications and did not want the public, or the kidnappers, to believe the entire ransom thread had been written off.
The picture that has emerged over five months is one of an investigation complicated not just by the crime itself but by a wave of opportunistic extortion attempts layered on top of it.
Multiple media outlets received ransom notes or demands. AP News reported that Tucson TV station KOLD received two notes, one demanding millions in Bitcoin and another claiming Guthrie had died. TMZ also received communications. TMZ founder Harvey Levin posted a video on X addressing rumors surrounding the emails his outlet had received, saying TMZ got a note "early on" claiming Nancy Guthrie was "scared but OK." Levin also stated that claims he received a ransom note containing an apology to the Guthrie family for Nancy's kidnapping and death were false.
TMZ separately received several emails demanding $100,000 in exchange for information on Nancy Guthrie's whereabouts.
The initial ransom note demanded millions of dollars, law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told CNN. A second ransom note allegedly claimed Nancy Guthrie died shortly after she was kidnapped, a grim assertion that has not been officially confirmed or denied by authorities. That second note's contents have been a source of anguish for the Guthrie family and confusion for the public ever since they surfaced.
Newsmax reported that the FBI deposited a small amount of cryptocurrency as instructed in the first ransom note, but the money was never claimed, a fact that helped investigators conclude at least that particular note was not from actual abductors. The first two ransom notes were believed to have originated from the same sender, who is not connected to Guthrie's disappearance.
For the Guthrie family, the barrage of communications, some from apparent extortionists, others still under investigation, has compounded an already devastating situation. One of Savannah Guthrie's confidants told CNN that the family has been contending with apparent extortionists for several months, adding more complication and pain to an already fraught ordeal.
Savannah Guthrie responded to the second ransom note with a post on Instagram: "We received your message, and we understand."
After the contents of the second note were publicly reported, she made a direct appeal on the "Today" show:
"Please, if you're watching, no matter how small the reward is there, you can tell us. It can be anonymous. We love our mom and we'll never stop looking for her. Never."
CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller noted that the second note's content had been previously known to CNN and a local news station. Both outlets initially agreed to a request by law enforcement and the Guthrie family to hold off on reporting the contents so any future communications with kidnappers could be authenticated.
That agreement, a deliberate effort to preserve the integrity of a live investigation, was effectively undermined when the note contents became public. Questions about the notes' authenticity have swirled since, with criminal profilers and investigators offering competing assessments.
Beyond the ransom notes, the physical investigation has produced its own unsettling details. DNA from a glove found near Nancy Guthrie's home failed to match any profiles in a national database, Newsmax reported. Blood found on her front porch was confirmed to be hers.
Just The News reported that TMZ received a note demanding immediate Bitcoin payment, citing "time is of the essence," followed by a contradictory note the next day. The FBI confirmed at least one ransom note demanding millions of dollars was believed to be from the actual kidnapper, a finding that sits in direct tension with the Reuters report's blanket dismissal.
Nancy Guthrie went missing after failing to appear for virtual church services on February 1. She left without her phone or essential medications. No suspects or persons of interest have been publicly identified.
The search has extended well beyond Pima County. As the investigation nears the five-month mark, volunteers on both sides of the border have joined the effort, and the case has drawn sustained national attention, driven in part by Savannah Guthrie's public profile and in part by the sheer strangeness of the ransom-note saga.
The core tension here is straightforward. Reuters published a report, citing an unnamed FBI official, that declared all three kidnapping-related messages fake. Within a day, the FBI's own Phoenix field office contradicted that characterization on the record, on its official social media account, under its own name. The bureau said some notes were indeed illegitimate extortion attempts. But it also said other ransom demands may be legitimate and are still being investigated.
Those are not the same thing. Declaring every note a fake sends one message to the public, and to anyone who might have taken Nancy Guthrie. Saying the investigation remains active and some demands may be real sends a very different one.
Whether Reuters' unnamed FBI source was freelancing, misinformed, or deliberately trying to shape the public narrative is an open question. What is not open to question is that the FBI's official, on-the-record position does not match the story Reuters ran. The steady stream of anonymous demands, some clearly opportunistic, others harder to dismiss, has made this case a test of whether investigators can separate signal from noise in real time.
For the Guthrie family, the stakes are not abstract. An 84-year-old woman has been missing for five months. The people who should be helping find her cannot even agree, publicly, on whether anyone has heard from the people who took her.
When law enforcement agencies contradict each other in the press while a family waits for answers, the only people who benefit are the ones with something to hide.
