Police believe that a note informing Nancy Guthrie's family that she had died following a kidnapping is real.
CBS News reported that police believe that two notes that were sent to the family in the days following the Feb. 1 kidnapping were from the kidnapper or kidnappers. The first one was received on Feb. 2, one day after Guthrie was taken from her Tuscon, Arizona home. That note made ransom demands and described Guthrie's residence. The note also asked that the ransom be paid in Bitcoin.
The second note, sent on Feb. 6, told the family that Guthrie had died and conveyed regret over her death, NBC News reported.
Guthrie is the mother of "TODAY" show host Savannah Guthrie. Police have said that she was last seen around 9:45 p.m. on January 31. Doorbell camera footage later recovered by police showed an armed, masked man apparently breaking into her home.
The FBI had noted at the time of the kidnapping that Guthrie had difficulty walking, had a pacemaker, and needed daily medication to treat a heart condition.
"We received your message and we understand," Savannah Guthrie said in an Instagram post following the second note.
"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," Guthrie said while sitting with her siblings Camron and Annie. In that Instagram post Guthrie did not discuss the details of what the second note said.
On the TODAY show, Guthrie renewed pleas for someone to come forward with information. She said that her and her family live in "agony" every day. She said the family "cannot be at peace."
"We need your help," she said. "We are begging for your help."
The FBI described the person seen in the doorbell camera footage as a man of average build, 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall, wearing a black Ozark Trail Hiker Pack 25-liter backpack. Anyone with information regarding the case should contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or by submitting a tip online at tips.fbi.
