TUCSON – In late June, a note that had been kept confidential for four months became public. It said Nancy Guthrie had died shortly after being kidnapped from her Catalina Foothills home, that she was “buried in nature,” and that no ransom demand remained. Savannah Guthrie, Nancy’s daughter and the co-anchor of NBC’s Today show, responded to the disclosure on air. “We cannot be at peace,” she said, without answers about her mother’s whereabouts. On July 1, the FBI told Reuters that the note claiming Nancy was dead was a fake. So were the other two.
All three ransom notes connected to the 150-day-old disappearance of the 84-year-old Arizona woman were determined by investigators to have been fabricated by people with no actual connection to the crime. The finding does not mean Nancy Guthrie is alive. It means that three separate individuals or groups – none of them apparently responsible for her abduction – inserted themselves into a missing-persons case involving one of the country’s most recognized morning news anchors, for reasons that have not been publicly explained.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen the night of January 31, 2026, when a family member dropped her off at her home in Catalina Foothills, a suburb north of Tucson. She failed to appear at a friend’s house the following morning and was reported missing around noon. Evidence found at her residence led investigators to treat the home as a crime scene. Homicide detectives became involved. In February, the FBI released doorbell camera footage of a masked, armed individual at the property in the hours before she was reported missing.
The first ransom note arrived in early February, demanding $6 million in cryptocurrency with a payment deadline of February 9. When that deadline passed without contact from law enforcement or the family, a second note surfaced – from the same sender as the first, according to investigators – claiming Nancy had died. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and federal agents kept the second note confidential for months before its existence became public on June 22. A third note arrived in late June, sent as nearly a dozen emails to TMZ, from someone claiming to know the kidnapper’s identity and demanding one bitcoin for the information. The FBI has now determined all three were sent by people unconnected to Nancy’s disappearance.
The FBI has not disclosed how it reached that conclusion. The specific forensic methods used to link the first two notes to a common sender, and to determine neither was connected to the actual abduction, have not been made public. The third note’s debunking was also not explained. What the bureau has said, through a source cited by Reuters, is that none of the three communications came from anyone actually involved in taking Nancy Guthrie.
No arrests have been made in connection with her disappearance. Pima County Sheriff Nanos has said publicly that his department anticipates making an arrest and remains committed to the investigation, which involves the FBI, US Customs and Border Protection, and search-and-rescue teams. Three social media streamers were arrested near Nancy’s home in June for trespassing and disrupting the neighborhood – a separate matter that illustrated the degree to which the case had attracted online attention – but no one has been charged with her kidnapping.
Savannah Guthrie, who has been a co-anchor of NBC’s Today since 2012, suspended broadcasting duties after her mother’s disappearance, including coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics. She returned to the show 64 days after Nancy vanished, telling viewers: “No matter how much I try to come out here every day and smile and find that joy, and I will, I promise I will, this is a moment to tell you that we need your help. We’re begging for your help.” NBC’s Today published her response to the fake-note determination on July 1.
In February, the family offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Nancy’s recovery. That offer remains outstanding. The note claiming she died – now confirmed as fake – had introduced the possibility, kept confidential by investigators for four months, that the case had moved from a kidnapping to something worse. The FBI’s determination removes that specific claim from the record. It does not answer the question the family and investigators have been asking since February 1: where Nancy Guthrie is, and who took her.
As of July 1, she has been missing for 150 days.
