The second ransom note sent to a Tucson television station shortly after the February abduction of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie claimed she had died shortly after being taken and was buried “in nature,” according to a new report.
The note, received around February 6, was a major shift from the earlier message from the same IP address that had demanded millions in bitcoin for her safe return.
The latter note adopted a “new, less confident tone” and included a “sputtering and labored” apology for her “inadvertent death,” sources told Air Mail in a detailed report on the investigation.
The person claiming to be the kidnapper reportedly floated returning her body in exchange for payment.
After the second note was received, Savannah Guthrie posted a video addressing the alleged kidnapper.
“We received your message and we understand,” Savannah Guthrie said. “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.”
Investigators with the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department were given the notes, which allegedly contained specific, non-public details about the crime scene, and flagged them as potentially credible and likely originating from the actual abductor or abductors.
These details included a broken floodlight behind Guthrie’s home and information about the Apple Watch she was wearing when she disappeared.