Nancy Guthrie, the mother of NBC News host Savannah Guthrie, vanished from her Arizona home this past weekend, prompting two media outlets to receive what appears to be a “ransom note” concerning her disappearance.
The note was sent to KOLD, a CBS affiliate in Tucson, and the entertainment news site TMZ. TMZ took the additional step of publishing details about the note before alerting the Pima County Sheriff’s Office.
As reported by CBS News, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos stated that the note, which included specific information about Guthrie’s home and her clothing on the night she went missing, was under investigation. The note allegedly demanded a hefty ransom in Bitcoin for her safe return.
According to TMZ, the Bitcoin address mentioned in the note has been “confirmed” as valid. However, Pima County authorities have yet to verify the overall legitimacy of the note itself.
Sheriff Nanos emphasized to CBS News, “Every piece of evidence is critical. If you give us a lead, we’ll explore every angle of that lead.”
Guthrie was last observed in the Catalina Foothills area near Tucson just before 10 p.m. on Saturday. Her family reported her missing around noon the following day, as previously covered by CrimeOnline.
Nanos said late Sunday that investigators “saw some things at the home that were concerning to us,” but it was on Monday that he said investigators believe the 84-year-old was abducted.
CrimeOnline’s Nancy Grace said that blood was found on the scene and that she had seen the images.
“It’s from the door going out on the driveway,” she told Fox’s Sean Hannity. “It looks to be, to me, free falling low velocity … not from a weapon hitting her or a gunshot wound … droplets like from a bloody nose. I’m trying not to read anything worse into that than it already is.”
A source told CBS the blood was a small amount of dried blood next to an outside doormat.
Grace further said that investigators are looking a surveillance cameras inside the home — which were apparently set to record over every eight hours — to see if they can recover older video.
