Arizona authorities ruled a new possible ransom note in the Nancy Guthrie disappearance not credible, another false lead as the case nears eight months.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday that a text message billed as a possible ransom note in the Nancy Guthrie probe is not credible after further review, shutting down the latest lead in a case that has already produced fakes, red herrings, and no public breakthrough.
Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, vanished in February from her secluded desert home in the Tucson suburbs. The department posted that the investigation remains active and ongoing, and it warned the public that scammers still try to exploit the family’s ordeal.
The ruling came one day after the department said it had received a “new, possible ransom note.” Officials did not say when the message arrived, who it targeted, or what it demanded.
The Post reported the department’s plain conclusion on X: “After further review, investigators determined the text message is not credible.” The same update stressed that the Nancy Guthrie investigation “remains active and ongoing” and flagged scammers seeking to “take advantage of the situation.”
That sequence matches earlier signals from the joint effort. Fox News reported that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and FBI Guthrie Task Force had been made aware of a possible new ransom note, while a law enforcement source said no new notes were being treated as credible. Investigators also said they were reviewing related social media comments for any real trail.
Nearly eight months without a recovery leaves little room for wishful thinking. Every message still has to be checked. Most of them still collapse under scrutiny.
The first note arrived Feb. 2. It claimed Guthrie would be “released unharmed” if $4 million in Bitcoin was paid before 5 p.m. on Feb. 5. It also cited a broken flood light on her house and a white Apple Watch near her bed, details not previously released.
A few days later, a second note suggested a darker end. Authorities have not confirmed it came from the same sender. The text said: “We did not fully grasp the seriousness of her physical condition.... She is buried in nature now,” and closed with, “We are truly sorry.”
Breitbart noted the newest message as the third letter tied to the case to surface publicly, with police and the FBI reviewing it and expressing skepticism while withholding its contents. If genuine, such a note could have implied she was still alive. The department’s Tuesday ruling closed that door for this text.
Doorbell camera footage from around the time she disappeared showed a masked man with a gun at her doorstep. Early detentions and interrogations produced no charged suspects. Apparent DNA evidence at the scene has not publicly cracked the case.
Scam traffic is not theoretical. In July, a California man pleaded guilty to harassment for one fake note tied to the case. Months after Guthrie vanished, several red herrings reached law enforcement and newsrooms, including earlier demands for millions in cryptocurrency.
That pattern is why families and agencies keep offering cash for real information. The Guthrie family is still putting up a $1 million reward for tips that lead to her recovery. The FBI is still offering $100,000. Both remain active.
Prior coverage of the California man’s probation case underscored how quickly opportunists insert themselves into a high-profile vanishing. The department’s fresh warning about scammers shows the problem has not faded.
Readers following the note trail have already seen how ransom messages raised more questions than answers well before this latest text arrived. Dead ends still cost time.
Jason Pack, a former FBI abduction expert who specialized in crisis negotiation, told The Post on Tuesday that investigators have no luxury of ignoring traffic just because earlier notes went nowhere.
"You have to take every communication like this seriously until you have a good reason not to."
Pack added that earlier fakes do not give anyone a free pass to dismiss the next one out of hand.
"Investigators can’t afford to brush something aside just because an earlier note may have turned out to be bogus."
His method starts with basics: “The first question is simple: Who sent it? Then you start pulling the string.” Electronic messages and any crypto demand leave trails on accounts, devices, and transfers, if the sender is real enough to chase.
Debate over federal handling has followed the case for months, including reports on whether the FBI hedged on which notes mattered as the clock kept running. Local deputies still own the day-to-day work in Pima County.
Sheriff Chris Nanos has faced hard criticism and an attempted ouster during his tenure. The department’s public posture on Guthrie has stayed consistent on one point: the file is not closed. Tuesday’s update repeated that line even as it buried the newest text as not credible.
Separate reporting has tracked how the FBI pushed back on claims that every note was junk, while still conceding many tips led nowhere. The gap between “possible” and “proven” remains the entire problem.
What the public still does not have is simple. Officials have not released the newest text’s wording, its timing, or its addressee. They have not said whether DNA, the armed figure on the doorbell camera, or any prior detention now points to a living suspect. The February vanishing date is locked; the calendar since then is mostly silence and false alarms.
Coverage of how the bureau conceded many notes were dead ends fits the same pattern the sheriff’s office just reinforced: check the message, dump it if it fails, keep the case open.
An 84-year-old woman left a desert home outside Tucson and has not come back. Her daughter’s network fame brought national attention, two standing rewards, and a stack of messages that keep failing basic credibility tests. Law enforcement’s job is to chase the real lead and starve the fakes. Taxpayers and the family get neither justice nor closure from another hoax that burns a news cycle and leaves the file exactly where it was.
