Nancy Guthrie demand letter’s authenticity questioned by sheriff

Key Points

• Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is dubious of a new demand letter in the Nancy Guthrie case received by TMZ on Friday.

• The mother of Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie was last seen on Jan. 31.

• The letter’s sender claimed they hid a phone in a secure location that contains evidence of Nancy on the last day she was seen alive.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is weighing in on a recent demand letter related to the Nancy Guthrie investigation.

The new demand letter, received by TMZ and published on Friday, claimed to have evidence connecting two people with the missing person case. The sender claimed to have hidden a phone in a “secure location” that allegedly contains a video of the mother of Today anchor Savannah Guthrie on the last day she was seen alive.

Nanos, however, seemed skeptical of the letter’s legitimacy. “I think the FBI has done a number of arrests for false or fake ransom notes,” Nanos said in an interview on the Buckmaster Show, which aired on Arizona radio station KVOI AM 1030. “It’s a shame that that happens, but I think we’re looking at another one of those today.”

Nanos noted that while the public’s interest in the case and desire to help find Nancy are “good” in assisting the investigation, that interest “really gets abused” by some. “People who call in fake ransom notes, people who claim for the sake of media and the family, they get out and disturb, in this case, an entire neighborhood.”

Nanos added that the investigation into Nancy remains “active and ongoing.”

The demand letter reportedly referred to two people involved in Nancy’s kidnapping, and had been forwarded by TMZ to the FBI. “I have a phone stashed in a secure location guaranteeing both the information it stores and the safety of the phone,” the sender wrote.

“What it contains is my definition of delivering them on a silver platter, a short video of the main guy with nancy the day that was probably her last, pictures of both involved, names and addresses and age.”

The sender claimed the phone was placed somewhere “easy to access if you know where it is” and that they would exchange the phone’s location for money placed in a Bitcoin account.

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Nancy was last seen on Jan. 31 after she was dropped off at her Tucson home that evening. She was reported missing the following day when she failed to show up to a friend’s home for a remote church service. Her home was declared a crime scene in early February.

“We believe now, after we process that crime scene, that we do in fact have a crime scene. And we’re asking for the community’s help,” Nanos told reporters at the time. “She did not leave on her own, we know that,” he added in part.

Since Nancy went missing, Savannah has been pleading with the public for any information they have.

“We are in agony, and we can not be at peace. No matter how much I try to come out here every day and smile and find that joy, and I will — I promise I will — this is a moment to tell you that we need your help. We’re begging for help, and I’m not going to miss that opportunity,” she said on the June 23 episode of Today.

The FBI have offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to Nancy’s recovery. The Guthrie family, meanwhile, have offered their own reward of $1 million.

Anyone with information about Nancy’s disappearance is asked to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly