Nancy Guthrie Ransom Note Deadline & Timeline of Disappearance Revealed

On Thursday, another press conference was held regarding Savannah Guthrie’s missing mom Nancy Guthrie.

During the press conference, Sheriff Chris Nanos and FBI agent Heith Janke shared more information about the ransom notes that have been sent to various media outlets.

Janke confirmed that one of the notes has a deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday. If not met, a second deadline was set for Monday. 

FBI agent Heith Janke said, “In a normal kidnapping case, there would be contact by now, trying to discuss that. But those are the time frames we're looking at as we move forward."

The FBI is taking the ransom letters “seriously.” Janke emphasized, “We are in communication with the family. While we advise and recommend, from a law enforcement perspective, any action taken on any ransom is ultimately decided by the family.”

Last night, Savannah and her siblings released a video asking for proof of life from the abductor.

When asked if there was any proof of life, Nanos said, “Anything to deal with the ransom notes, that I would defer to the FBI, but no, to my knowledge, we're still looking for Nancy.”

According to Janke, one of the notes “had facts associated with a deadline with a monetary value they were asking for” and another “talked about an Apple watch, and one talked about a floodlight."

Earlier today, an Arizona news anchor reported on a ransom note that came via email. Anchor Mary Coleman shared, “A lot of it is information that only someone who was holding her for ransom would know… It also included a dollar amount, a deadline, and, again, other specifics that only Guthrie’s abductor might know, so that definitely raised some red flags.”

Janke opted not “to go into specifics,” saying, “It’s very important that we keep this investigation moving forward, and we don’t want to put more facts out there that others can use to try to profit from this."

Heath also shared that an imposter has been arrested after trying to profit from the disappearance.

He said, “We have made one arrest related to an imposter ransom demand, and a complaint will be presented to a magistrate judge later today. You will get more on that from the FBI and our U.S. Attorney’s office here in Arizona when it becomes available.”

There is no suspect identified yet, but investigators aren’t ruling anyone out. Nanos said, “We're actively looking at everybody we come across, in this case, everybody. We would be irresponsible if we didn't talk to everybody."

As for reports of forced entry in Nancy’s disappearance, Nanos commented, “We have been very consistent; we are not discussing that at all. Whether it's forced entry or not forced entry, that is something we're just not discussing."

Nanos also confirmed that the blood found on the porch of the home belonged to Nancy.

The Sheriff revealed a 45-minute window of time when Nancy was abducted from the home. The doorbell camera was disconnected at 1:47 a.m. Sunday, but there was movement detected around 2:12 a.m. Her pacemaker stopped syncing to her personal device around 2:28 a.m.

Unfortunately, authorities were unable to extract any video from the camera for that time frame.

A $50,000 reward has been offered for critical information about Nancy’s disappearance.

Janke said, “The FBI is now working this case jointly with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. We are going to start today with the announcement of a $50,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance.”

“The FBI has agents, analysts and professional staff and employees working day and night with our partners at the Sheriff’s department,” Janke added. 

Janke noted that the Virgina Critical Incident Response Group and “members from a cellular analysis survey team” are being used to “collect and process digital information.”