Ransom demands and other messages sent after the still-unsolved disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie may yet prove to be genuine, according to a new report, despite recent assertions casting doubt on their authenticity.
As News Agency previously reported, people familiar with the investigation have appeared divided over whether the notes are credible or merely hoaxes.
TMZ, which received one of the alleged ransom demands, now reports that an unnamed official said some investigators consider the messages to be potentially “more legitimate than not.”
Savannah Guthrie returned to “Today” following a two-month absence after her mother, Nancy, disappeared on Feb. 1. (Getty Images/News Agency)
“It is more likely than not that the two ransom notes are real,” TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin said Wednesday, citing an unnamed FBI official familiar with the case. “Further in that conversation, this person said, ‘They are more legitimate than not.’ That’s a quote.”
Levin made the comments in a video responding to a separate report that claimed the FBI had concluded the ransom demands connected to the Guthrie case were not authentic.
Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News and News Agency last week that investigators are not in full agreement. Some reportedly believe the ransom demands are clearly fake, while others are reluctant to make that determination as long as Guthrie remains missing.
“They definitely have not determined it is, for sure, fake,” Levin said.
Law enforcement investigating Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance search the neighborhood near daughter Annie Guthrie’s house on Feb. 10, 2026. (Sarah Lapidus/The Republic/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Authorities have not publicly confirmed the legitimacy of the first two notes that have been deemed possibly authentic — or a series of separate emails believed to be unrelated claiming to have knowledge about what happened to Guthrie.
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“It is less likely that those letters are real, but they have not discounted that either,” Levin added.
Guthrie’s daughter, “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, has said she believes at least two of the notes could be real. She and her siblings responded to those on videos posted to her Instagram in February.
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings Annie, left, and Cameron made an emotional plea on Instagram asking anyone with information about their mother Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance to come forward on Feb. 4, 2026. (Credit: Instagram/@SavannahGuthrie/Today)
Meanwhile, state and local authorities have both declined to discuss the latest developments regarding the ransom demands publicly.
When asked about the new reporting at a news briefing Wednesday, FBI Director Kash Patel declined to comment.
“I’m not going to comment on that,” he told reporters during a Justice Department news briefing. “We are continuing to assist that investigation. We’ve always been in an assist role. It’s a state matter being led by the state authorities.”
Annie Guthrie, her husband Tommaso Cioni, and Savannah Guthrie at their missing mother Nancy Guthrie’s home on March 2, in Tucson, Arizona. (Fox News)
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, whose agency is leading the investigation into Guthrie’s suspected abduction, told News Agency last week that it was the FBI at the forefront of the probe into whoever sent the ransom demands.
“All ransom notes are being handled by the FBI,” he said. “We’ve been pretty consistent with that. So I would have to defer you to them.”
The family is asking anyone with information on Guthrie’s case to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI. Tips can be provided anonymously to Tucson’s Crime Stoppers affiliate, 88-Crime, at 1-520-882-7463.
