A retired FBI agent has warned of a 'horrible' development in the Nancy Guthrie case after the man accused of sending a fake ransom demand to the missing 84 year old's family was released on a $20,000 bond in Tucson in February 2026. Speaking on 26 April, former FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer said the decision to free alleged hoaxer Derrick Callella ahead of his federal trial could further complicate an already agonising case.
Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today host Savannah Guthrie, vanished from her home near Tucson, Arizona, at the start of February. As her family appealed for information and investigators searched the area, they were also hit with ransom texts that prosecutors say had nothing to do with her disappearance. Those messages, allegedly sent by Los Angeles man Callella, have since become the subject of a separate criminal case running alongside the still unresolved investigation into Nancy's disappearance.
