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Six months after Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Arizona home, her family is again pleading for answers while investigators point to newly released ransom notes they hope will help identify whoever is responsible.
In an emotional Instagram post early Saturday, Savannah Guthrie described her mother as “our beautiful Mom” and said the family has lived “every moment, every breath, and every heartbeat in agony and despair” since Nancy Guthrie vanished.
“Every day, we wake up and try to be strong and go on — because that’s what our joyful and resilient Mom taught us to do,” she wrote. “But make no mistake — our hearts are in ruins.”
The post came one day after Straight Arrow reported that the Pima County Sheriff’s Office had released two ransom notes sent to television stations in Tucson in February. Authorities said the notes may reveal “distinctive linguistic characteristics” that could be recognizable to someone who knows or has interacted with the writer.
The first note was sent Feb. 2 and demanded $4 million in bitcoin, warning that Nancy Guthrie would be held for up to seven days.
“She will be held for ransom and once payment is received, she will be released unharmed,” the note said. If the ransom was not paid, the note threatened that “she will be killed.”
The second note, sent four days later and addressed to the Guthrie family, said the 84-year-old had “perished” shortly after being kidnapped.
“We did not fully grasp the seriousness of her physical condition,” the alleged kidnappers wrote.
“We believe it was heart-related,” the note added. “She is buried in nature now. Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome.”
For the family, the release of the notes has sharpened the search for anyone who may recognize the language, handwriting or circumstances surrounding the messages.
Savannah Guthrie wrote that “someone knows something” and urged people to come forward, even if they are afraid or conflicted. “There is a way out — to tell what you know,” she wrote. “You can do so anonymously. The reward is available.”
The investigation has produced several leads but no publicly identified suspect. Investigators were unable to identify a suspect through DNA analysis of hair found at Guthrie’s home, though Sheriff Chris Nanos said the sample is being preserved.
“We won’t know that till we have the suspect’s hair,” Nanos told Fox News Digital. “You don’t just destroy it.”
Authorities are also working to separate a mixed DNA sample found at the home, with Nanos saying that “at least five, maybe six, labs across the country” are involved.
“We have some of the brightest minds in the nation, if not the world, working on this,” he said.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen returning home on the night of Jan. 31. Her family reported her missing the next morning when she did not go to a friend’s house to watch a church service online. Authorities later said she had been taken from her home against her will, and the FBI released images of an armed, masked individual captured on her doorbell camera.
Now, as the case reaches the six-month mark, Savannah Guthrie’s message is both a plea and a warning against treating the family’s pain as spectacle.
“We are real people, facing real grief,” she wrote. “If you are following this story for entertainment or for profit, you are not on her side — you are part of the harm perpetrated against her.”
The family’s appeal ended with a simple request: “Please. Bring her home.”