Nancy Guthrie ransom note details revealed by podcaster

The details of the ransom note were revealed by former KTVK-TV reporter Brianna Whitney on an episode of the “Crime Junkies” podcast on July 22, in which she said the note also contained two details only the abductor would know. Whitney left the Phoenix television station to work for the podcast in May.

Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her Tucson home on Feb. 1. Authorities determined she had been abducted.

Three media outlets received a ransom note in the days after she was taken. The note demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin for her return. Investigators said there were details in the note that led them to take it seriously.

Whitney, on the podcast, said she had known of the contents of the ransom note because it was sent to KOLD-TV in Tucson, which is owned by the same company as KTVK-TV in Phoenix.

The ransom note was received by the Tucson stations KOLD and KGUN and the national tabloid outlet TMZ. The outlets reported the existence of the note but didn’t disclose its exact contents. Each outlet said it had shared the note with investigators.

Whitney said the details revealed in the note helped frame her reporting, although she also didn’t detail its contents.

Whitney, during a phone interview with the Arizona Republic, said it was difficult to know what information was in the ransom note and not share it with viewers.

“It was a double-edged sword,” she said. But, she said, she didn’t want to compromise the investigation. “It’s a really hard place to be in,” Whitney said.

Whitney declined to discuss internal discussions inside the newsroom of KTVK-TV and KPHO-TV, stations that share the moniker of Arizona’s Family.

In her new role at the “Crime Junkies” podcast, she had the knowledge of what was in the note and her bosses gave her license to report it, she said.

“I thought it was beneficial for the public to know what was said,” she said.

Whitney said she had hoped the information in the ransom note would have been released to the public by the FBI or the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, which hasn’t held a news conference since the early days of the disappearance in February.

“All official and credible information should be coming from them,” she said.

Smartwatch and floodlight details 

On the podcast, Whitney read aloud what she said was the content of the first ransom note sent to the media outlets on Feb. 3, the third day after the 84-year-old was reported missing.

“Hello Savannah. We have your mother, Nancy,” the note said, according to Whitney. “She is safe, but scared.

“She will be held for ransom and once payment is received will be released unharmed. We will be holding her for a maximum of seven days.”

The note gave two deadlines, details reported by the FBI in a joint news conference on Feb. 5 with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

Whitney, on her podcast, gave an exact dollar figure. The first deadline was Feb. 5 with a demand of $4 million in bitcoin, she said. The second deadline was Feb. 9, she said, with a ransom demand of $6 million.

KGUN had previously posted the $6 million detail on its social media feed but deleted it.

Whitney said the ransom note specified the amounts were in “USD,” an abbreviation for U.S. dollars. That detail, she said, struck her as unusual.

“Typically, if this is coming from somebody (in the United States), you don’t say that,” she said.

The note said that once payment was received, Nancy Guthrie would be released within 12 hours “at a safe drop-off location back in Tucson.”

If the second deadline passed, the note said, she would be killed, Whitney said.

“Your mother is aware of this,” the note said, according to Whitney. “And her life is in your hands.

“It is in the best interest of everyone to have this completed as soon as possible. You will not be able to contact me from here on out. There will be no negotiation. Do not play games. Law enforcement will not be able to help you.”

The note ended, Whitney said, with two details that only the kidnapper would have known.

One was that Nancy Guthrie’s smartwatch was on the floor near her bed. The other was that a floodlight in her backyard had been destroyed, Whitney said.

At the Feb. 5 news conference, an FBI agent said that a smartwatch and a floodlight were mentioned in the note, but he did not give more detail.

But it was those details that led the agency to take the note seriously.

On Feb. 4, the day after the note was received, a Republic reporter saw two FBI agents enter the Tucson-area home of Savannah Guthrie’s sister, Anne, carrying a briefcase and a tripod.

Later that day, Savannah Guthrie, flanked by her two siblings, addressed the reported ransom note and said the family was “ready to talk.” She said the family needed to have proof of life. “We need to know without a doubt that she is alive and that you have her,” Savannah Guthrie said.

Second note: 'We never intended to hurt her'

On Feb. 6, a second ransom note was sent to media outlets, including KOLD-TV. That note said that Nancy Guthrie had died.

Whitney, on the podcast, read the contents of that note as well, although sources had leaked to outlets in June the detail about Nancy Guthrie’s purported death.

According to Whitney, the second note said: “We did not fully grasp the seriousness of her physical conditions. We never intended to hurt her. That was not our intention.

“She perished shortly after she was taken. We believe it was heart-related. She is buried in nature now.”

The note, according to Whitney, ended with an apology.

“Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome,” the note said, according to Whitney. “We are truly sorry.”

The next day, on Feb. 7, the Guthrie family released a short video that said the family had received “your message and we understand."

“We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay,” Savannah Guthrie said.

The public did not know at the time that the family had received word from the kidnappers, in a note authorities were taking seriously, that their mother had died.

Once that detail was revealed in June, Savannah Guthrie spoke about it on the “Today” show. She had resumed her daily hosting role in April.

Savannah Guthrie did not specifically address the note that her mother was dead, but pleaded with the public for information.

"Somebody knows something," she said. "We are in agony."

Before returning to her role on "Today," Savannah Guthrie was asked by Hoda Kotb in an interview on the NBC show if she thought there was validity to the various ransom demands that were sent to media outlets and her family.

“There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came,” Savannah Guthrie said then. “And I think most of them, it’s my understanding, are not real. ... But I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real.”

Why details about the ransom note are coming out now

On June 22, a KOLD anchor, Mary Coleman, posted on her X account that the station had initially agreed to hold off reporting on the contents of the ransom note it received at the request of law enforcement.

“We initially held off on sharing the full contents of the notes because we wanted no part in compromising the investigation and out of respect for the family,” she said, “and that has not changed.”

Coleman said the FBI told the station it was taking the two notes seriously, “including the one that claimed Nancy Guthrie died.”

KOLD-TV did not return a request for comment.

Whitney also did not return a request for comment.

Apart from the ransom notes, Whitney revealed a detail about reporting on the case for KTVK-TV.

She said she was checking a detail about where blood evidence was being tested and sent Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos a text message.

He responded, according to Whitney: “Did you happen to notice the time? Give it a rest.”

Whitney said she was taken aback by the response from a sheriff leading such a key investigation.

Whitney said on the podcast that she was returning to Arizona to do more reporting on the case.