The FBI acknowledged Wednesday that while most ransom demands tied to Nancy Guthrie's disappearance have been dismissed as fake, investigators are still treating some extortion communications as potentially legitimate.
The statement came one day after Reuters reported that three messages received by media outlets early in the case were determined to be fraudulent. Those initial notes included two ransom demands and a third message from someone claiming knowledge of the perpetrators' identities.
"The FBI and its task force partners have received several ransom notes over the course of this investigation," the agency said in a social media post. "Some have been deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy. Other ransom demands may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such."
The 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Arizona home in early February. Police discovered blood near her front door and have treated the case as an abduction. An FBI-released surveillance video showed a masked figure on her porch the night she disappeared, prompting an intensive search of the surrounding desert.
The first hoax note demanded millions in cryptocurrency, prompting the FBI to deposit a small test amount into an associated account to verify authenticity and potentially trace the sender. The money remained unclaimed, ultimately confirming investigators' suspicion that the messages originated from someone or multiple people unconnected to the actual disappearance.
Savannah Guthrie, who co-hosts NBC's Today show, has remained visible in her mother's case, repeatedly calling for the public's help. "We love our mom," she said last week. "And we will never stop looking for her."
The agency's latest update signals that despite the wave of false leads, legitimate extortion attempts remain under active investigation. The distinction is crucial for law enforcement as they work to separate genuine communication from perpetrators or those with actual knowledge of Nancy Guthrie's whereabouts from opportunistic fraud.
Author James Rodriguez: "Three fake ransom notes should have been swept aside immediately, but the FBI's measured response shows investigators are taking every lead seriously, no matter how much noise gets in the way."
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