New Nancy Guthrie Ransom Note Reportedly Included ‘Proof of Life’ After Trump Threatened Her Kidnappers With the Death Penalty if They Killed Her
One of the common threads in the investigation into the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy, has been the police’s inability to confirm whether Nancy Guthrie was still alive. Multiple ransom notes have reportedly been received, and the police have released information about the subject and spoken at length about the possibility of a DNA match to a glove they recovered. But confirmation about Guthrie’s status was missing.
Now, TMZ founder Harvey Levin is opening up about a new ransom note the outlet received on Wednesday, February 18, demanding millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. In this case, however, the sender demanded to be paid in a cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.
Related: Who are Savannah Guthrie’s siblings?
The FBI has yet to verify the authenticity of these ransom notes or any of the previous ones received by TMZ and two local Tucson outlets. But while talking to CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront, Levin described the note as “more graphic and chilling” than the first one TMZ received.
“It is a really sophisticated note. I had to get someone to help translate it for me. It involves a demand for crypto — not Bitcoin,” Levin said. “The money will automatically go into this account if certain things happen. It actually involves the media, too, in terms of what the media puts out,” he added. “But it’s a very sophisticated way of doing it where one thing triggers another, [which] triggers another. It’s beyond my level of knowledge.”
The amount remains mostly consistent, according to Levin. “The amount they’re asking for in this different type of currency is roughly the same as the amount in the first ransom note, the equivalent of $6 million,” he said. “They graphically describe the consequences if they’re not paid.”
But is there proof of life or “inside knowledge” of the abduction in the note? “By inference, they do. They don’t say it directly, but by inference, they do, in terms of consequences,” Levin said.
This all comes after President Trump threatened the kidnappers with the death penalty if something happens to Nancy Guthrie. In a phone interview with the New York Post on Monday, Feb. 16, Trump said the kidnappers could face “very, very severe — the most severe” consequences if Guthrie is found dead.
When asked to clarify if he meant the death penalty, Trump said, “The most, yeah — that’s true.”
The President also posted on Truth Social about the case as he was watching Fox News on Monday, February 16. “Nicole Parker, formerly of the FBI, is doing a great job of explaining, on Fox News, the Nancy Guthrie investigation,” he wrote. “Others also, working so hard, with such expertise and knowledge. Hopefully there will be a positive result!”
Arizona is one of the 27 U.S. states that still have the death penalty, but it is very early in the investigation yet. The police are still treating Nancy Guthrie’s case as a kidnapping. The state has only carried out two executions since 2022, when Democrat Katie Hobbs was elected governor.
In this term, Trump signed an executive order this term with the purpose of “restoring the death penalty and protecting public safety.”
