Nancy Guthrie's ransom note may have been less a demand than a decoy, with investigators now treating the messages as a possible script designed to mislead police rather than extract payment.
The newly disclosed details, reported in the US on 23 June, point to a case in Tucson, Arizona, where the 84-year-old mother of NBC Today host Savannah Guthrie vanished in early February after what authorities believe was an abduction.