Nancy Guthrie’s alleged kidnappers are demanding $6 million, authorities revealed over the weekend while searching a septic tank on her property — with a looming 5 p.m. Monday deadline to hand over the cash.
"Multiple ransom notes have been sent out to the media, including one that was sent to us," said reporter JJ McKinney of Arizona’s KGUN9, one of three outlets to receive the alleged note.
“In the letter, the potential kidnappers demanded that the Guthries pay them $6 million before this Monday,” McKinney said Sunday.
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have made it clear they are willing to pay the ransom to secure the safe return of their missing mother, Nancy. Savannah Guthrie/ Instagram
This is the first time the staggering ransom demanded for the 84-year-old’s return has been revealed, days after the note surfaced following her disappearance from her Tucson home on January 31.
The alleged kidnappers demanded payment in Bitcoin and laid out two strict deadlines in their note: $4 million by 5 p.m. local time last Thursday, and if that deadline was missed, $6 million by the same time on Monday — or face the consequences.
The note warned that the elderly grandmother’s life would be at risk if the money didn’t arrive by the Monday deadline, KGUN9 reported.
Authorities have yet to confirm whether the ransom note is genuine.
No proof has been offered that Nancy is alive—or that the note’s authors even have her—but it did include details from inside her own home.
Authorities say that with so few leads to go on, they’ve had no choice but to treat the note as if it were real.
That pressure led Nancy’s children—"Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie and her siblings Annie and Camron—to finally speak out, releasing a video Saturday saying they were prepared to pay the ransom.
“We received your message, and we understand,” a despondent Savannah said in the video. “We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her."
“This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay,” she said.
The ransom note demands that the Guthrie family pay $6 million in Bitcoin by 5 p.m. MT on Monday. savannahguthrie/Instagram
But some experts remain skeptical of the ransom note, which demanded payment in the equivalent of U.S. dollars—a detail suggesting the sender might be outside the country, or worse, someone attempting to scam the Guthries out of millions as they search for their mother.
“If you’re domestic, why would you ever put ‘USD?’ You put 6 million,” former FBI agent Michael Harrigan told FaqInsurances.
"Why would you use that if you’re a domestic person? That points to somebody who might be potentially outside the country," said Harrigan, who led the FBI National Academy during his long career.
That small detail “lends the potential for this being a scam,” he said.
The unfolding timeline of Savannah Guthrie’s mother’s disappearance:
No other communications from the alleged kidnappers have surfaced beyond the ransom notes, as investigators pressed into the eighth day of searching with the looming deadline fast approaching.
Police were seen at Nancy’s home Sunday afternoon, searching a septic tank behind the house.
Two officers combed the buried tank with a long pole, but ultimately emerged empty-handed.
Authorities have yet to reveal what they were looking for—or if the tank had already been searched.
The night before, police were spotted photographing the Tucson home of Nancy’s daughter and son-in-law, Annie and Tommaso Cioni.
Nancy was last seen alive by the pair, with Cioni dropping her off at her home around 9:45 p.m. on January 31, following an evening the three spent having dinner together.
Some unconfirmed reports last week suggested Cioni as a suspect, though those claims were later challenged by other sources.
When pressed about Cioni at last week’s press conference, police declined to rule him out, with Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos emphasizing that every person in Nancy’s orbit was being scrutinized.
“We’re actively looking at everybody we come across in this case, we would be irresponsible if we didn’t talk to everybody,” Nanos said.
“Everybody’s still a suspect in our eyes,” he added. “The family’s been very cooperative; they’ve done everything we’ve asked of them.”
