Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the Today Show’s Savannah Guthrie, has been missing for nearly five months.
Now, more information is being revealed about a mistake that investigators may have made that may have allowed her kidnappers to avoid capture all along.
Nancy, who is 84 years old, went missing on the night of January 31, 2026. It is believed she was forcibly taken from her home near Tucson, Arizona.
Since that time, there have been multiple ransom notes sent in regarding her disappearance. Crypto experts are now weighing in on a Bitcoin wallet that was submitted in one particular ransom note. They claim that both the note and the Bitcoin wallet may suggest her captors were amateurs.
A ransom email was sent demanding $4 million in cryptocurrency for Nancy’s return. A later email, reportedly sent from the same IP address, claimed that Nancy had died.
Investigators did not pay the full $4 million amount, but instead submitted just $152 into the wallet. They hoped that the captors would transfer the money out, allowing the FBI to then track them. However, the money has never been moved.
Ari Redbord is the global head of policy at TRM Labs. This company helps law enforcement solve crimes related to cryptocurrency.
Redbord claims that the FBI sending just $152 instead of the full amount may be where the FBI went terribly wrong.
“[The suspects] would want to get those $4 million off chain as fast as they can. They are typically using mainstream exchanges like Coinbase or Kraken that have that user information. … Law enforcement can then subpoena them for that information,” he told the New York Post.
Attorney Todd Spodek, who specializes in cybercrime, also believes that Nancy’s captors are not experienced with this type of crime.
“An actual, sophisticated operation wouldn’t have gotten involved in a kidnapping conspiracy-turned-homicide. That alone says it’s rookie s–t,” he said.
