A new ransom note has reportedly emerged weeks after the disappearance of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie. The latest communication, which TMZ reported receiving, includes a demand for millions of dollars in cryptocurrency and a graphic description of the consequences of not paying the ransom.
The ransom email demands payment in a cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin, TMZ reported on Wednesday. The latest email also asked for a sum of money similar to the $6 million ransom demand included in a previous email that the outlet said it received days after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
According to TMZ’s report, the new ransom-demand email used a different crypto account number than the one in the original message, and it forwarded the latest email to the FBI.
Authorities have been working to locate Nancy Guthrie ever since she was reported missing after not attending a virtual church service on the morning of Feb. 1.
Investigators believe that Guthrie disappeared from her Arizona home between 9:45 p.m. local time on Jan. 31 and the following morning. The mother was last seen having dinner with her other daughter, Annie, and her son-in-law.
Earlier this week, an official with the Pima County Sheriff's Department released a statement regarding the DNA results from a set of gloves found two miles from Guthrie's home.
“It did not trigger a match in the national CODIS database and did not match DNA found at the property,” the official’s statement reads. “The DNA found at the property is being analyzed, and further testing needs to be done as part of the investigation."
The Pima County Sheriff's Department also announced earlier this week that it had ruled out members of Nancy Guthrie’s family, including siblings and spouses, as suspects in her disappearance.
"To be clear … the Guthrie family — to include all siblings and spouses — has been cleared as possible suspects in this case. The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case,” Sheriff Chris Nanos said in the Feb. 16 announcement.
"To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel. The Guthrie family are victims plain and simple … please, I’m begging you the media to honor your profession and report with some sense of compassion and professionalism," the sheriff added.
In the weeks following the elderly woman’s disappearance, Savannah Guthrie has issued public pleas for her mother’s safe return.
The 54-year-old “Today” show co-host and American broadcast journalist shared a video on her Instagram page on Sunday, two weeks after her mother disappeared. Despite the length of time that Nancy Guthrie has been missing, she and her two siblings “still have hope.”
“We still believe,” she added.
As for whoever is responsible for her mother’s disappearance, Savannah Guthrie declared, “It’s never too late, and you’re not lost or alone, and it is never too late to do the right thing.”
“We are here,” she said. “We believe in the essential goodness of every human being, and it’s never too late.”
In another video message delivered alongside her siblings in the days following her mother’s disappearance, Savannah Guthrie praised the family’s missing matriarch as “God’s precious daughter” and a “fiercely loving woman of goodness and light.” She also expressed gratitude for the outpouring of prayers for her mother’s safe return.
“We feel them, and we continue to believe that she feels them too," she said.
“We believe and know that even in this valley, He is with you,” the American broadcast journalist continued. “We speak to you every moment, and we pray without ceasing, and we rejoice in advance for the day that we hold you in our arms again.”
In the Feb. 4 video message, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings vowed to pay ransom money to ensure their mother’s safe return, but only if they received proof that she is still alive.
