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Nancy Guthrie: TMZ receives 'highly sophisticated' ransom demand

By
Updated  February 18, 2026 12:09pm MST
Nancy Guthrie
FOX 10 Phoenix
article

Nancy Guthrie (Pima County Sheriff's Department)

The Brief

    • TMZ has received another ransom note in connection with Nancy Guthrie's disappearance.
    • The media outlet described the note as having "a highly sophisticated demand."
    • Nancy Guthrie was reported missing on Feb. 1.

PHOENIX - Media outlet TMZ reports that they have received another ransom note in connection with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, and this time, there is something different with the note.

What we know:

According to their report, the ransom note they received is "a highly sophisticated demand" that involves a cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.

"The email demands a dollar amount similar to the $6 million ransom demand in the previous email we received, days after the kidnapping. This email graphically describes the consequences if the ransom isn't paid," read a portion of TMZ's report.

TMZ's report also states that the new ransom demand e-mail contains a crypto account number that is different from the original, and that the e-mail has been forwarded to the FBI.

The backstory:

84-year-old Nancy Guthrie is the mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie. Nancy was reported missing on Feb. 1, and investigators believe she was taken against her will.

On Feb. 17, an official with the Pima County Sheriff's Department released a statement with the latest updates. It reads, in part:

"The DNA that was submitted to CODIS was from the set of gloves found 2 miles away. It did not trigger a match in the national CODIS database and did not match DNA found at the property. The DNA found at the property is being analyzed and further testing needs to be done as part of the investigation."

Also on Feb, 17, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos cleared members of Nancy's family as suspects in her disappearance.

The Source: Information for this article was gathered from a report by TMZ, with supplemental information gathered from previous, relevant FOX 10 news reports.

Nancy GuthrieTucsonNews