Pima County Sheriff Releases Ransom Notes in Nancy Guthrie Case
One note called her 'safe but scared.' A second said she died shortly after being taken.
By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
Two emails, sent months apart, now sit at the center of the search for whoever took Nancy Guthrie.
The Pima County Sheriff's Office this week released the contents of what it believes are ransom notes tied to Guthrie's kidnapping earlier this year, according to reporting by NBC News and CBS News. The first note described her as "safe but scared." A later message told a different story: that she had "perished shortly after she was taken" and was "buried in nature," allegedly from a sudden medical condition.
CBS News reported the notes included specific details about Guthrie's white Apple Watch — the kind of identifying detail investigators sometimes use to test a communication's authenticity, though the sheriff's office has not said whether that detail has been independently verified as accurate.
Investigators released the notes publicly, they said, in hopes the wording or details might help identify the sender. NBC News correspondent Liz Kreutz reported on why authorities chose this moment, months after the abduction, to make the emails public; CBS News' Anna Schecter and Tom Hanson also covered the release.
No arrests have been announced. The sheriff's office has not confirmed the identity or authenticity of whoever sent the notes, and the claim that Guthrie died of a medical condition shortly after her abduction remains an unverified assertion made by the sender — not a finding by investigators. Readers should treat that detail as alleged, not established.
The case remains open. The American Times will update this report as the sheriff's office releases further information.
Read the footnotes. The story's always in the footnotes.
— Compiled from reporting by NBC News and CBS News.
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