The FBI Just Tested Every Ransom Note in the Nancy Guthrie Case and the Results Gut the Family

Savannah Guthrie spent five months believing someone out there had her mother and wanted money.

The FBI just completed its analysis of every ransom note the family responded to.

Every single one came back with the same result.

FBI Declares All Three Notes Fabricated

An FBI official told Reuters that none of the kidnapping-related messages circulated in the Nancy Guthrie case are believed to be genuine.

That ruling covers the two notes that reached local Tucson media in early February, within days of Nancy's abduction, and a third note TMZ received recently from someone claiming to know who took her.

The first note demanded millions in cryptocurrency and set two deadlines for payment.

The second claimed Nancy had died and was "buried in nature."

The third, sent to TMZ last week, claimed the writer had video proof of the "main guy" involved and could hand over a phone with pictures, names, and addresses of the kidnappers – for one Bitcoin.

All three: fake.

Investigators determined the first two notes came from the same sender – but not from anyone connected to Nancy Guthrie's actual disappearance.

The Family Was Responding to Hoaxes

Savannah Guthrie sat with her brother Camron and sister Annie, held their hands, looked into a camera and said, "We received your message and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay."

As recently as last week, Guthrie was on the Today show acknowledging ransom note reports again and urging anyone with information to come forward.

"We are in agony and we cannot be at peace," she said. "We need your help."

She had told Hoda Kotb in March that she believed the first two notes were real – the ones her family had responded to.

The FBI just told her family they weren't.

What the Investigation Still Holds

Five months in, the investigation has real evidence – just no answers.

Nancy Guthrie's blood was confirmed at the scene.

A masked, armed man was caught on a doorbell camera outside her home – appearing not once but on two separate nights before her disappearance.

The FBI has DNA from the scene still under analysis.

FBI Director Kash Patel personally released the doorbell camera footage in February and drove federal resources into the case.

President Trump called Savannah Guthrie, offered federal assistance, and later threatened capital punishment for whoever took her mother.

But no suspect has been named, no arrest has been made, and every lead the ransom notes suggested just got crossed off the board.

The Hoax Pattern Is Older Than This Case

This is not the first time fake ransom notes hijacked a kidnapping investigation.

The 1932 Lindbergh case was flooded with fraudulent communications that consumed investigators for months after Charles Lindbergh Jr. was taken.

High-profile disappearances generate hoaxers the way storms generate lightning – predictably, repeatedly, and in ways that do genuine damage to real investigations.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos saw this coming before the FBI's ruling.

"People who call in fake ransom notes, people who claim for the sake of media and the family, they get out and disturb, in this case, an entire neighborhood," he said last week.

He warned then that fake ransom notes draw FBI arrests – not rewards.

What made the Guthrie hoaxes particularly vicious is that the second note claimed Nancy was dead.

Savannah Guthrie had to process the possibility that her 84-year-old mother, separated from her medication and her phone, had died in the hands of strangers – because someone decided a grieving family was their stage.

The Case Is Not Over

The FBI's ransom note ruling does not mean Nancy Guthrie was not kidnapped.

The masked figure on the doorbell camera is real.

The blood is real.

The DNA is real.

The investigative picture is actually simpler now – stripped of five months of fraudulent noise.

Sheriff's spokesperson Angelica Carrillo said the DNA and video evidence collected at the scene are still being analyzed.

Savannah Guthrie went back to the Today show weeks ago because her family needed income and life to continue.

But she goes home every night to a family that still has no idea where her mother is.

Somewhere in Tucson, a masked man with a backpack and a gun knows what happened on February 1.

The FBI is still looking.

Sources:

• Reuters, "FBI Believes All Three Ransom Notes in Nancy Guthrie Case Are Fake," Reuters, July 1, 2026.
• Alicia Sitz, "FBI Says All Three Nancy Guthrie Ransom Notes Are Fake," NewsNation, July 1, 2026.
• TMZ Staff, "FBI Determines Alleged Ransom Notes in Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping Are Fakes," TMZ, July 1, 2026.
• Staff, "FBI Declares All Three Nancy Guthrie Ransom Notes Fake," The Wrap, July 1, 2026.
• Staff, "Sheriff Chris Nanos Dismisses New Claim of Nancy Guthrie Video," Newsweek, June 27, 2026.