A Hawthorne resident pleaded guilty Thursday to impersonating a kidnapper and sending bogus ransom demands to the family of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie. Derrick Callella, 42, faces up to two years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Nancy Guthrie vanished January 31 from her home near Tucson, Arizona. Police discovered her cellphone and medications still inside, along with blood droplets near the porch. On February 4, after the family released a video publicly appealing to her captors, Callella texted Annie Guthrie and her husband Tommaso Cioni with a message referencing bitcoin and claiming to hold Nancy. "Did you get the bitcoin were waiting on our end for the transaction," according to court documents.
Callella had learned details of the disappearance by watching television coverage and then tracked down their phone numbers on his own. Federal investigators traced the text messages back to an email account registered under his name. Law enforcement determined his messages were separate from an earlier ransom demand that local CBS affiliate KOLD had received, which may be connected to the actual crime.
Court filings indicate Callella was attempting to obtain information about the investigation rather than genuinely demanding money. The FBI continues to examine legitimate extortion notes related to Guthrie's case. Callella is scheduled for sentencing September 10.
Author James Rodriguez: "This is exactly the kind of parasitic behavior that muddies genuine missing persons cases and wastes critical law enforcement resources."
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