Investigators swarm Nancy Guthrie’s home after new letter is distributed to TV station hours after first ransom deadline handed

Authorities have descended on Nancy Guthrie’s home hours after a ‘new message’ was sent to a local news station amid the ongoing search for the 84-year-old. 

The Pima County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to X that the FBI was investigating the new message ‘regarding Nancy Guthrie’, but offered no details over the contents of the message. 

Soon after the message was acknowledged, News Nation journalist Brian Entin shared footage to X showing investigators had returned to Nancy’s home, saying cops closed down the road and removed media ‘for investigative purposes.’ 

Police had previously returned to Nancy’s home in Tucson, Arizona on Wednesday to seize evidence, after an initial search on Sunday found evidence of ‘forced entry’, police said.  

The new message on Friday was reportedly sent to local Tucson-area news outlet KOLD. The outlet previously reported that it was sent a ‘ransom letter’ on Tuesday, as was TMZ. Authorities have not verified the legitimacy of the letters. 

The message was sent to the station via email at 11:45am local time, and used a different IP address to the previous ‘ransom’ message, but appeared to use the ‘same type of secure server to hide their real IP address’, reports AZFamily. 

Authorities urged the public to continue calling in information. A $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the 84-year-old’s return or to the arrest of anyone involved in her disappearance. 

Nancy was reported missing Sunday morning, and investigators said evidence from her home indicated she had been abducted in the night. 

The reporter stressed that KOLD and authorities have not yet verified the legitimacy of the note, which claims to have been sent by those who abducted Nancy. 

It follows the arrest of California resident Derrick Callella on Thursday, after he was allegedly found to have texted Nancy’s daughter Annie and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni in a hoax ransom plot. 

Callella allegedly admitted to sending the messages to capitalize on confusion surrounding Nancy’s abduction and potential ransom demands, and told investigators he was ‘just trying to see if the family would respond.’ 

The messages Callella sent to the Guthrie family are believed to be separate to those sent to TMZ and KOLD this week – one of which reportedly set a 5pm deadline on Thursday for millions in Bitcoin to be paid ‘or else.’ 

TMZ reported that a secondary, ‘more serious’ deadline was also set for Monday.  

With the search for Nancy now stretching past five days, investigators admitted at a Thursday press conference that they had no suspects or persons of interest in the case. 

Evidence from Nancy’s home included the apparent removal of her doorbell camera and blood spatters from her door to her driveway – which officials revealed at the press conference were confirmed to be Nancy’s blood. 

With an absence of forensic evidence pointing to a suspect, on Friday retired FBI investigator James Gagliano said the ransom notes may be a break in the case. 

The former FBI agent said ransom demands of Bitcoin funds is the ‘most compelling piece of evidence thus far.’ 

‘Kidnappings happen for one of two reasons: it’s either for profit or it’s for revenge,’ Gagliano, a crisis negotiation expert, told Fox & Friends Friday morning.

He highlighted how for decades high-profile individuals have been the targets of kidnappings, including Frank Sinatra Jr and newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.

Guthrie’s abduction, however, is ‘baffling and beguiling’ because it ‘does not meet muster with any of the traditional type of kidnappings’, Gagliano explained.

‘We still don’t know if this was a targeted attack, if this was a targeted abduction,’ he continued, before addressing ‘very strange’ way the alleged captors contacted the Guthrie family.

Gagliano added that it is unusual for an abductor to provide a ransom note to the media instead of delivering it directly to the victim’s family.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said Friday that investigators were frustrated as they discovered they were not able to obtain any images from Nancy’s doorbell camera before it was removed. 

Investigators have found that the home’s doorbell camera was disconnected early Sunday and that software data recorded movement at the home minutes later. But Nancy Guthrie did not have an active subscription, so none of the footage was able to be recovered. 

‘It is concerning, it’s actually almost disappointing because you’ve got your hopes up,’ Sheriff Nanos told The Associated Press. 

‘OK, they got an image. ‘Well, we do, but we don’t.” 

Nanos said although the lapse was frustrating, investigators have not given up on trying to retrieve footage from the home.

‘I wish technology was as easy as we believe it is, that here’s a picture, here’s your bad guy. But it’s not,’ Nanos continued. 

‘There are pieces of information that come to us from these tech groups that say ‘this is what we have and we can’t get anymore.” 

Concern about Nancy Guthrie’s condition is growing because authorities say she needs daily medicine that’s vital to her health. She was said to have a pacemaker and dealt with high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff’s dispatcher audio on broadcastify.com.

‘Her conditions, I would imagine, are worsening day by day’ Nanos said. ‘She requires medication. And I have no way of knowing whether they’re getting that medication to her.’