Nearly five months after Nancy Guthrie mysteriously vanished from her Arizona home, investigators are confronting what may be the darkest development yet.
According to multiple reports, one of the ransom notes sent after the disappearance of the 84-year-old mother of TODAY host Savannah Guthrie allegedly contained a shocking confession: the kidnappers claimed Nancy had died shortly after being abducted and had been “buried in nature.”
Authorities have not confirmed whether Nancy is dead. Her body has never been found.
But investigators now believe the ransom messages themselves may be authentic.
Sources close to the investigation told CBS News that the notes were sent from the same IP address and are believed to have originated from the same person or group, lending credibility to the horrifying claims inside them.
The first message arrived just days after Nancy disappeared from her Tucson-area home on Feb. 1.
The sender claimed she was “safe but scared” and demanded $4 million in Bitcoin in exchange for her release. The note included disturbing details only someone familiar with the scene would likely know, including information about a broken floodlight near the home and the Apple Watch Nancy was wearing that night. Those details convinced investigators they might be dealing with the real kidnappers rather than an internet hoax.
Then came a second message.
According to reports, the tone was drastically different.
Instead of demanding money, the sender allegedly apologized for Nancy’s death and claimed she had been buried outdoors. Some versions of the note reportedly suggested her body could still be returned to the family, although no payment amount was specified.
The message was so alarming that investigators reportedly shifted the case from a kidnapping investigation to a possible homicide inquiry.
Savannah Guthrie appeared to reference the message in an emotional social media video posted on Feb. 7.
“We received your message and we understand,” she said, speaking directly to whoever may have taken her mother.
“We beg you now to return our mother to us. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
The family’s response stunned viewers.
Until then, Savannah had publicly pleaded for Nancy’s safe return. But her tone in the video was noticeably different, fueling speculation that the family had been told something devastating behind the scenes.
Despite the grim developments, investigators have not officially confirmed Nancy’s fate.
The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department continue to investigate the case, which began after surveillance footage showed an armed, masked intruder entering Nancy’s home. Authorities believe she was taken against her will and have repeatedly described the disappearance as suspicious.
Investigators have also attempted to trace the cryptocurrency wallet included in the ransom demands, even depositing a small amount of money into it in hopes of identifying the sender. So far, the wallet has remained inactive.
Nearly five months later, there have been no arrests.
No suspects.
And no sign of Nancy Guthrie.
What remains are a series of chilling emails, a grieving family desperate for answers, and one terrifying possibility: that the ransom notes telling the world Nancy Guthrie is gone may have been telling the truth all along.
