Harvey Levin, the founder of TMZ, made an appearance on “Hannity” Thursday evening, revealing startling details about a supposed ransom note linked to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.
Guthrie, aged 84 and the mother of Savannah Guthrie from NBC’s “Today,” has been missing since early Sunday. Authorities are urgently piecing together clues to locate her, with the investigation entering its sixth day on Friday.
Levin noted that while a first deadline tied to the ransom note was missed on Thursday, a subsequent deadline set for Monday holds greater significance.
“The note begins by assuring that she is safe but frightened, and it suggests she is fully aware of the demands,” Levin explained. “Through us, they’re communicating with the family, and the sheriff’s department has shared our copy of the letter with them, clarifying exactly what’s being demanded, with Nancy supposedly in the know.”
Savannah Guthrie, alongside her siblings Annie and Camron, issued a heartfelt appeal on Instagram on February 4, 2025, urging anyone with information on their mother Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance to step forward.
Levin also mentioned that the letter’s contents suggest the author was nearby, likely in the Tucson vicinity. The note contained specific details about the arrangement of items in Guthrie’s home, such as the location of an Apple Watch—information that had not been made public.
“There is a phrase in this email that absolutely makes me believe this person who wrote this, and if they’re telling the truth, that Nancy is within a radius of the Tucson area — not in Tucson right now, but in a radius. It could be New Mexico. I don’t know how far, but I think at least what the authorities have is they’ve got a radius, and that’s something.”
Levin said he does not believe law enforcement will be able to trace where the email originated, noting that the FBI is working with TMZ’s IT team. He confirmed the note demanded payment in cryptocurrency sent to a specific Bitcoin address.
Savannah Guthrie and her mother Nancy Guthrie are pictured Thursday, June 15, 2023. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
“I know the Bitcoin address is real,” he said. “What I will say is this, this is not a letter that was thrown together in a couple of minutes. It is a very specific, well organized, layered letter that really lays things out. This is not AI.”
In conjunction with the FBI, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos held a press conference on Thursday afternoon saying there were no official suspects in the case, and providing a clearer but chilling timeline of events before and after Nancy’s disappearance.
She traveled to her daughter Annie Guthrie and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni’s home at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday evening for dinner. She was dropped off at home hours later, at 9:48 p.m., the last time she was seen.
An undated photo of Nancy Guthrie and Savannah Guthrie provided by NBC in repsonse to the disappearance of the 84 year-old mother of the Today Show host. (Courtesy of NBC)
At 1:47 a.m. on Sunday morning, her doorbell camera disconnected, authorities said. At 2:12 a.m. a security camera detected motion on camera at Nancy’s home, but the video is unavailable because a subscription service wasn’t active. At 2:28 a.m., Nancy’s pacemaker disconnected from an application on her phone.
Nancy’s family checked on her just minutes before noon on Sunday, after they were alerted that she did not attend church, and called 911 at 12:03 p.m.
A law enforcement source told Fox News Digital that there were “blood drops” leading from the entryway outside down the house’s pathway towards the driveway.
Nanos told reporters that everyone who has recently been in contact with Nancy is a suspect.
“We’re actively looking at everybody we come across in this case, everybody. We would be irresponsible if we didn’t talk to everybody — the Uber driver, the gardener, the pool person, whoever. Everybody — it’s so cliché — but everybody’s still a suspect in our eyes. That’s just how we look at things and think as cops,” said Nanos.
“And the family’s been very cooperative. They’ve done everything we’ve asked of them. And we want that relationship to continue.”
