Nancy Guthrie Ransom Emails Demanded 25 Bitcoin but Retired FBI Agent Believed They Were Scams

Retired FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer received four emails in April demanding bitcoin for the return of Nancy Guthrie, according to messages reviewed by Newsweek. Two demanded 25 bitcoin, while the final message reduced the amount to 2 bitcoin.

Coffindaffer said she did not respond and took the messages to the FBI. In an interview published on 6 October, she said she believed they were scams rather than communications from whoever took Guthrie, and that an FBI agent shared her assessment.

Four Emails Arrived Over Two Days

Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC's 'Today' co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was last seen at her home in Catalina Foothills near Tucson, Arizona, on 31 January 2026. She was reported missing the following day, and authorities believe she was taken against her will.

The first email reached Coffindaffer at 12.30pm on 10 April and contained an image that appeared to be AI-generated. Seven minutes later, another message from the same address demanded 25 bitcoin, cited the Bible and claimed Guthrie was alive and would be returned within 12 hours of payment.

A third email, received at 3.52pm, repeated the 25-bitcoin demand. At 11.26am on 11 April, the sender reduced the demand to 2 bitcoin and included a QR code for a cryptocurrency wallet.

The messages' claims about Guthrie's condition and whereabouts were not independently verified.

Coffindaffer said some emails used a middle name she does not use publicly and reached a personal email address she had shared with few people.

'I never responded to any of them. I went straight to the FBI with them,' she said.

Her account of an agent agreeing with her assessment is not a separately published FBI determination about the April emails.

Possible Link to Later Message Remains Unverified

Coffindaffer believes the April emails may be connected to a September message described by Lauren Serpa, a Tucson woman who has said she knew Guthrie.

She pointed to similarities involving bitcoin demands, a wallet QR code and material she believed was AI-generated. Coffindaffer also said the cryptocurrency wallet addresses matched, but the publication reported that it had not verified that comparison.

Investigators have not publicly established that the April emails and September message came from the same sender.

Serpa said the later message demanded 6 bitcoin, claimed Guthrie was alive in Mexico and included a video presented as proof of life. Coffindaffer believed the video was AI-generated; it did not independently establish Guthrie's location or condition.

Separately, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said on 29 September that investigators had reviewed a possible ransom message and determined that it was 'not credible'.

The department warned that scammers could exploit the case and urged people not to send money or personal information in response to unsolicited communications.

Earlier Demands and a Separate Hoax Case

The April emails were separate from notes sent to Tucson television station KOLD in the first week after Guthrie disappeared.

One message sent on 2 February demanded $4 million (£3.04 million) in bitcoin. Another, sent on 6 February, claimed Guthrie had died. That assertion was not independently established and should not be treated as evidence of her fate.

Authorities have distinguished suspected fraudulent demands from communications they continued to examine as part of the investigation.

In a separate case, Derrick Callella, of Hawthorne, California, pleaded guilty in July to two federal telecommunications-harassment counts after sending fraudulent ransom demands to Guthrie's relatives.

He was sentenced in August to two five-year probation terms, to run concurrently, meaning an effective probation period of five years. No verified evidence links him to the April emails or September message discussed by Coffindaffer.

Guthrie Investigation Remains Active

The Pima County Sheriff's Department is investigating Guthrie's disappearance with an FBI task force. Authorities have said they believe she was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will.

Investigators previously released surveillance footage showing a masked, armed person on her porch. That person has not been publicly identified.

The newly disclosed emails add to the record of communications exploiting or claiming knowledge of the case, but do not establish what happened to Guthrie. Authorities have urged anyone receiving a message about her disappearance to report it rather than reply or send money.