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The newly released Nancy Guthrie ransom notes may have revealed more than investigators intended.
Yes, investigators.
Those who have closely watched this tragic case unfold spotted an apparent inconsistency.
Did authorities lie about this case?
‘I don’t have any note’
On Friday, July 31, investigators released two ransom notes, seeking clues in the writing style and diction employed by Nancy’s one-time captors.
The day after her disappearance, one note taunted: “Hello Savannah, we have your mother.”
That note demanded $4 million in a bitcoin ransom in exchange for Nancy’s safe return. The note also contained details about the interior of Nancy’s home.
“We never intended to hurt her, that was not our intention,” confessed another note, four days later.
The second note admitted: “She perished shortly after she was taken. We believe it was heart related. She is buried in nature now.”
“Hello Savannah, We have your mother Nancy.”
Two ransom notes that appear to have been sent by Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapper to a local news outlet shortly after her disappearance have been made public.
The Pima County Sheriff’s office said they revealed “distinctive patterns of… pic.twitter.com/ffUTLBK6Ec
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 31, 2026
Just one day earlier, however, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos had painted a very different picture.
Speaking to CBS News at the time, he counted himself among those who wouldn’t rule out that Nancy might be alive.
“I have nothing to indicate she’s dead,” Nanos said on Thursday, approximately six months after the first ransom note came in.
“I don’t have a body,” he said accurately. Nanos added: “I don’t have a burial site.”
The sheriff then claimed: “I don’t have any note.”
Did he lie?
It is entirely possible that Sheriff Nanos lied.
Sharing a piece of misinformation — a small piece as part of a larger statement — is a sound policy when following an investigation, even if it means misleading the public.
Many killers, kidnappers, terrorists, and more will monitor the news, either out of self-preservation or narcissism.
A simple misstatement can, in rare cases, taunt a particularly hotheaded criminal into making a mistake — such as writing in to journalists or investigators to correct them.
Remember how they caught the BTK killer. He was effectively taunted out of hiding, and then tricked into communicating. Statistically, most killers are not especially bright — especially not the ones who get caught.
Journalist Savannah Guthrie said that her family is in “agony” and pleaded for information that could help find her missing mother Nancy Guthrie.
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— Reuters (@reuters.com) July 27, 2026 at 9:39 PM
There is an alternative possibility: that Sheriff Nanos either did not consider the note genuine, or simply wasn’t sure if it’s legitimate and therefore wasn’t willing to stop looking for a missing person.
You do not, under any circumstances, “gotta hand it” to police, but that is a sound and safe approach to any missing person’s case. There were a lot of fake notes, and ending a search prematurely is a bad move.
When the Titan submersible went silent, it was almost certainly because every member of the expedition — one of whom may have been an innocent, pressured into going by a parent — died in a fraction of a second as the ocean’s depths crushed them. But the search continued, just in case.
Even without the note, it seems very likely that Nancy died shortly after her abduction.
Whoever took her (the emphatic use of “we” in the kidnapping note seems to suggest just one culprit) could not have planned that. But it is entirely their fault — which is likely why that individual will live in fear of being caught every day until they are.