Two more purported ransom notes landed at TMZ on Monday, each claiming knowledge of where Nancy Guthrie's body is and who kidnapped the missing Arizona woman, demands that arrived the same day her daughter, "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie, returned to the anchor desk for the first time since her mother vanished.
The notes came from the same anonymous sender who contacted the gossip outlet nearly two months ago seeking one bitcoin in exchange for information about Nancy Guthrie's February 1 disappearance, the New York Post reported. This time the price dropped to half a bitcoin up front, with the other half due upon a public arrest.
No suspects have been identified. No arrest is imminent. And the Pima County Sheriff's Department, which is leading the investigation alongside the FBI, has offered no indication that any of the notes have been authenticated. What the public has instead is a drip-feed of unverified claims, a family in anguish, and an investigation that, more than two months in, has produced no named suspect.
TMZ founder Harvey Levin described the latest correspondence on "TMZ Live," calling the sender "persistent." He said the outlet immediately alerted the FBI.
Levin laid out the core claim plainly:
"We got another letter today from this person, an email saying, 'I know where her body is, and who the kidnapper is, give me half a bitcoin and I'll tell you.'"
One of the notes reportedly stated: "I saw her alive with them in the state of Sonora Mexico." Another included the sender's claim to have been outside the United States for more than five years and to have been willing to share information "since the 11th of february for a bitcoin."
The sender's stated motive, as quoted in the notes, was blunt: "I just want whats fair and to live peacefully with enough to start my life again quietly with out having to join a witness protection program."
Whether any of this is credible remains an open question. The notes follow a series of messages sent to media outlets in early February, most of which Savannah Guthrie herself has described as fakes. In a "Today" interview late last month, she drew a distinction between the flood of fraudulent notes and a smaller set she found more believable.
"I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real."
It is not clear whether the notes sent to TMZ on Monday are among those Savannah Guthrie considers genuine. She made no mention of her mother's disappearance during her return broadcast.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen alive on the evening of January 31, when her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, dropped her off at home. Cioni is married to Annie, another of Nancy Guthrie's daughters. By the next day, Nancy Guthrie was gone.
Savannah Guthrie has previously described disturbing details from her mother's home, including propped-open doors and blood found on the doorstep, details that pointed early on to foul play rather than a voluntary departure.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department, led by Sheriff Chris Nanos, has coordinated with the FBI throughout the investigation. A spokesperson offered a measured statement in response to the latest notes.
"All tips and leads are being taken seriously and are forwarded directly to our detectives, who are coordinating with the FBI."
That language, careful, procedural, noncommittal, is standard for an active investigation. But it also underscores how little the public knows after more than nine weeks. The FBI has been questioning restaurant staff and pursuing leads, yet no breakthrough has materialized.
Investigators have also been examining a damaged utility box near Nancy Guthrie's home, one of several physical evidence threads that have yet to yield public results.
Monday's broadcast marked Savannah Guthrie's first appearance on the "Today" show since her mother's disappearance. She kept her opening light.
"Good morning and welcome to 'Today' on this Monday morning. We are so glad you started your week with us and it is good to be home."
She did not address the case on air. The decision to return while the investigation remains unresolved, and while new ransom demands were arriving at a celebrity news outlet, speaks to the impossible position the Guthrie family occupies. Life does not stop. Neither does grief.
Earlier, Savannah Guthrie had traveled back to her mother's Tucson home as the investigation entered its second month with no suspect in custody.
The bitcoin-for-information scheme is not new in this case. Early in February, alleged kidnappers reportedly demanded $6 million in bitcoin for Nancy Guthrie's return. That demand, and the cascade of notes that followed, created a fog of competing claims that has complicated public understanding of the case ever since.
What makes the latest notes noteworthy is not their content, which may well be fraudulent. It is the pattern they reveal. Someone, or multiple someones, sees a high-profile missing-persons case tied to a famous family and views it as a payday. Bitcoin demands. Anonymous emails. Claims of insider knowledge. The sender's own words suggest a person angling for money, not a witness driven by conscience.
That distinction matters. Genuine tips in kidnapping cases rarely arrive with a price tag attached. They go to law enforcement, not to TMZ. The fact that these notes keep landing at media outlets rather than at the FBI's door is itself a red flag, one that investigators presumably recognize.
The case against any individual suspect remains nonexistent in public view. No charges have been filed. No formal investigative actions tied to the notes have been disclosed. Law enforcement has not said whether any of the ransom notes, early or recent, have been verified as connected to whoever took Nancy Guthrie.
The claim that Nancy Guthrie was seen alive in Sonora, Mexico, is unverified. The sender's assertion of having been outside the United States for five years is unverified. The entire exchange rests on the word of an anonymous person demanding cryptocurrency from a celebrity gossip site.
High-profile kidnapping cases attract this kind of noise. The kidnapping and murder of Tennessee teacher Eliza Fletcher in Memphis drew enormous public attention before police confirmed the grim outcome and charged suspect Cleotha Abston. In that case, law enforcement moved from disappearance to arrest to murder charges in a matter of days. The Nancy Guthrie investigation, by contrast, has stretched past two months with no comparable progress.
That comparison is not meant to indict the investigators. Every case is different. But the timeline gap is real, and the longer it grows, the more opportunists will fill the silence with ransom demands and dubious claims.
Families of missing persons deserve better than a public record dominated by anonymous bitcoin hustlers. The Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI owe the Guthrie family, and the public, something more than boilerplate assurances that "all tips and leads are being taken seriously."
Serious investigations produce results or, at minimum, visible progress. Nine weeks in, the Nancy Guthrie case has produced neither. What it has produced is a steady stream of unverified ransom notes, a grieving daughter forced to smile through a morning broadcast, and an anonymous sender who keeps raising the price.
If law enforcement has leads it cannot share, the public can accept that. But silence without progress eventually becomes its own indictment. Nancy Guthrie's family deserves answers. So does everyone watching and wondering whether the people in charge of finding her are up to the task.