Nancy Guthrie Update: Mystery TMZ Emailer Demanding Bitcoin Refuses to Share Video Over Metadata Fears
An anonymous source claims to have video evidence of Nancy Guthrie's alleged kidnapper, demanding Bitcoin for access. TMZ forwards the correspondence to the FBI as the investigation continues.
Nancy Guthrie
The anonymous individual who has been communicating with TMZ for months about the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie has refused to turn over an alleged video of one of her purported kidnappers, citing fears that sharing the file could expose his identity through embedded metadata, according to a new report.
TMZ said Friday it received a new letter from someone previously in contact with the outlet, who claimed to have video of one of the alleged suspects and Guthrie on a phone stored in a "secure location." The development marks the latest twist in an extortion-style correspondence that has unfolded sporadically since shortly after the 84-year-old's disappearance from her Tucson-area home on February 1.
A claim of new video evidence
According to TMZ, the person who sent the latest letter has the same email address and Bitcoin address as the individual who first contacted the outlet weeks into Guthrie's disappearance. The sender also claimed that two people were responsible for Guthrie's kidnapping, and that the alleged video shows the "main guy" among them.
The letter described the contents of the hidden phone in specific detail. "I have a phone stashed in a secure location guaranteeing both the information it stores and the safety of the phone," the sender wrote, according to TMZ. "What it contains is my definition of delivering them on a silver platter, a short video of the main guy with nancy the day that was probably her last, pictures of both involved, names and addresses and age."
TMZ reported that it authenticated the new email as coming from the same source behind earlier correspondence, citing a matching Bitcoin address and an alias used in prior messages. The outlet said the phone was described as being in a location that would be "easy to access if you know where it is."
A demand for payment, and a refusal in return
The sender indicated he would provide the password needed to access the phone's contents in exchange for payment of one Bitcoin, sent to a newly provided address. TMZ said it declined that demand and instead asked the sender to provide a single screengrab of Nancy Guthrie to authenticate his claim before any further engagement.
TMZ also reported sending the new correspondence directly to the FBI, continuing a pattern the outlet has followed throughout its dealings with the anonymous sender since Guthrie's disappearance.
A scoff at an unrelated tip
The letter also addressed an unrelated development in the case, with the sender distancing himself from a separate report involving a search near the U.S.-Mexico border. According to TMZ, the sender wrote, "I am not the idiot who recently called in a tip about her burial site in Mexico," appearing to reference an anonymous call received earlier this month by a Mexican missing-persons organization that prompted a search near Nogales, Sonora — a search that ultimately turned up no trace of Guthrie despite uncovering more than 20 unmarked graves in the area.
The sender also appeared to push back on previous reporting regarding his own identity. According to TMZ, he seemed to scoff at the outlet's earlier report that the FBI believes the person writing the emails might be a woman.
What the FBI is keeping under wraps
TMZ executive producer Charles Latibeaudiere addressed the broader pattern of communication during an appearance on NewsNation's "Elizabeth Vargas Reports," explaining that federal investigators have asked the outlet to withhold certain details from the public as the investigation continues. "There are certain things the FBI doesn't want them to share with the public at this point," Latibeaudiere said, according to NewsNation.
Latibeaudiere also described the unpredictable nature of the correspondence itself, noting that TMZ has no way to initiate contact with the sender. "There's never any email for us to contact him," Latibeaudiere told NewsNation. "So we're basically just waiting whenever he decides he wants to send these emails to us."
He went on to summarize the claims contained in the latest message. "But in it, he says he's got this video that shows Nancy on what he describes as her last day and she is with one of the kidnappers," Latibeaudiere added.
Latibeaudiere further detailed the sender's claims about who might know the location of Guthrie's remains. "He says there are two people who are directly connected to this and they're the only ones who would know besides him, I guess, where Nancy's body is at this point," Latibeaudiere said.
Part of a longer pattern of contact
Friday's letter is not an isolated incident but rather the latest in a string of communications TMZ says it has received since Guthrie's disappearance. The outlet has previously reported receiving ransom notes and several emails tied to the case, including what it described as one "highly sophisticated" demand involving cryptocurrency payment.
The new claims also follow closely on the heels of other significant developments in the investigation. Just days earlier, sources close to the case told NewsNation correspondent Brian Entin that a separate ransom note had indicated Guthrie was "buried in nature," adding to a small number of written communications investigators believe may have come from those responsible for her disappearance.
An unresolved case nearly five months later
Guthrie was reported missing from her Arizona home on February 1, and authorities believe she was taken against her will. Despite the FBI's continued investigation, the release of security footage showing a masked figure on her property, and now a string of anonymous communications claiming knowledge of her fate, no arrests have been announced in the case nearly five months later.
Federal authorities have not publicly confirmed the authenticity of the video, photographs or hidden phone described in Friday's letter, and the claims remain unverified. Investigators have likewise not indicated whether they believe the sender's account is credible or whether any evidence has been recovered to support the specific details described in the correspondence.
For now, the case remains open, with TMZ continuing to forward each new message to federal investigators as it arrives, and the broader public left, as Latibeaudiere described it, simply waiting for the next unsolicited email from a source whose claims have yet to be independently verified by law enforcement.
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