Regional Industry & News

The Pima County Sheriff's Department released redacted versions of two ransom notes connected to Nancy Guthrie's disappearance on Thursday, six months after the 84-year-old mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie was taken from her Tucson-area home, as authorities appealed to the public for help identifying who wrote them.

Guthrie remains missing. The first note, sent to local Tucson media outlets and TMZ in the days after her Feb. 1 disappearance, demanded an initial $4 million in bitcoin within a set deadline, with an additional $2 million added if that deadline passed, according to details previously reported by CBS News. The note included specific details investigators say were not publicly known at the time, including the placement of an Apple Watch with a white wristband on the floor next to Guthrie's bed and a damaged floodlight in the home's backyard. It stated that Guthrie "will be killed" if payment was not received. A second note, sent Feb. 6 through the same tip lines, indicated that Guthrie had died shortly after her abduction; sources who reviewed the note told CBS News it suggested her death was not intended by whoever sent it. Investigators have said they believe both notes were likely sent by the same person or people from the same computer IP address, and that the sender or senders were likely connected to Guthrie's abduction.

The release comes after conflicting public statements about the notes' legitimacy. A Reuters report in late June, citing an unnamed FBI official, said federal investigators had determined all three kidnapping-related messages tied to the case were fake. The FBI's Phoenix office pushed back the following day, saying in a statement that "some" of the notes had been "deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy," while others remained under active investigation — leaving open the possibility that at least one note is considered credible. The sheriff's department said Thursday it was releasing the redacted notes specifically in hopes that members of the public might recognize handwriting patterns, phrasing or other stylistic details that could help investigators identify the author. Officials have said the notes may also offer insight into the writer's mindset, motives and how their tone shifted between the first and second communications. A representative for the Guthrie family had not responded to a request for comment on the release as of Thursday.

Throughout the six-month search, Guthrie's children have repeatedly posted emotional video messages on social media directly appealing to those responsible for her disappearance, asking them to bring their mother home. Savannah Guthrie has periodically shared updates and requests for prayer as the search has continued without a confirmed resolution.

That authorities chose to publicly release the notes now, rather than continuing to hold them as closely guarded investigative material, suggests six months of pursuing other leads has not produced the identification investigators need, prompting a shift toward crowdsourcing pattern-recognition from the public. The gap between the FBI's Phoenix office statement, which described only "some" notes as confirmed extortion attempts, and the earlier Reuters report characterizing all three messages as fake indicates real ambiguity remains within the investigation itself about which communications, if any, came from Guthrie's actual abductor. That the second note's apparent claim of an unintended death has neither been confirmed nor ruled out by officials, even as the case continues to be treated as an active missing-persons investigation six months later, reflects how much about Guthrie's fate remains genuinely unknown rather than simply unannounced.

Whether the public release of the notes generates a viable tip identifying their author will be the central question in the coming days and weeks. Continued attention to any further statements from the FBI or Pima County Sheriff's Department regarding the notes' authenticity, along with any response from the Guthrie family, is expected as the search for Nancy Guthrie continues.