Two media outlets received a “ransom note” for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of NBC News host Savannah Guthrie who disappeared from her Arizona home over the weekend.
CBS affiliate KOLD in Tucson and tabloid entertainment outlet TMZ received the note, with TMZ reporting on it before contacting the Pima County Sheriff’s Office.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told CBS News that investigators were analyzing the note, which contained specific details about the home and what Guthrie was wearing the night she disappeared and reportedly demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin for her return.
TMZ reported that it had “confirmed” the Bitcoin address was authentic, but Pima County investigators have not confirmed the overall authenticity of the note.
“It’s like any piece of evidence,” Nanos told CBS News. “You give it to us, you give us a lead, we’re going to look at every aspect of that lead.”
Guthrie was last seen in the Catalina Foothills area outside Tucson shortly before 10 p.m. on Saturday, as CrimeOnline previously reported. She was reported missing by family around noon on Sunday.
Nanos said late Sunday that investigators “saw some things at the home that were concerning to us,” but it was on Monday that he said investigators believe the 84-year-old was abducted.
CrimeOnline’s Nancy Grace said that blood was found on the scene and that she had seen the images.
“It’s from the door going out on the driveway,” she told Fox’s Sean Hannity. “It looks to be, to me, free falling low velocity … not from a weapon hitting her or a gunshot wound … droplets like from a bloody nose. I’m trying not to read anything worse into that than it already is.”
A source told CBS the blood was a small amount of dried blood next to an outside doormat.
Grace further said that investigators are looking a surveillance cameras inside the home — which were apparently set to record over every eight hours — to see if they can recover older video.
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[Featured image: Nancy Guthrie/Pima County Sheriff’s Department]