Authorities release early ransom note in Nancy Guthrie case, hoping someone recognizes it
Daily Briefing - Nation
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PHOENIX -- Authorities released an early ransom note in the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie in hopes that someone will recognize the writing style. A second note, also released Friday, said Guthrie died shortly after she was kidnapped and "is buried in nature now."
Both notes initially were sent to a Tucson television station days after the 84-year-old mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie went missing from her home outside Tucson on Feb. 1. Authorities have not said whether Nancy Guthrie is still alive.
Saturday is the six-month mark since Guthrie went missing. No suspects have been arrested in her disappearance. The investigation is dogged by unanswered questions, such as how many people are believed to have taken part in her abduction and whether she was taken by someone who knew her.
In her latest video about her mother's disappearance, Savannah Guthrie said earlier this week that her family has been living an unending nightmare and pleaded with the kidnappers to "tell us where to look for her."
The FBI in Washington did not immediately respond to questions about the ransom notes, including whether both messages sent to the Tucson station have been deemed legitimate.
In releasing the notes, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said "we believe these distinctive linguistic characteristics may be recognizable to someone who knows or has interacted with the notes' writer."
The first note, sent Feb. 2, said Guthrie was safe but scared and would be released unharmed once her captors received $4 million in cryptocurrency, with the ransom amount increasing if the first demand was not met.
It said Guthrie would be released within 12 hours if the payment was received. It also included a threat to kill her if the ransom wasn't paid.
"Your mother is aware of this and her life is in your hands," the first note read. "It is in the best interest of everyone to have this completed as soon as possible."
The second note was sent Feb. 6 and said Guthrie died shortly after she was taken. "She is buried in nature now," it said. "Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome." The note ended with an apology: "We are truly sorry."
Investigators hope the writing itself will help identify its author
The sheriff's department said the notes reveal a distinctive pattern of word choices and provide insight into the writer's mindset. The agency said someone who knows the notes' writer may recognize the patterns.
Authorities similarly used a suspect's own writings as a tool to apprehend Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, branded the "Unabomber" by the FBI. Kaczynski, who killed three people and injured 23 others with mail bombs over a 17-year span, pressured The Washington Post, in conjunction with The New York Times, to publish his 35,000-word manifesto in 1995. Federal authorities encouraged its publication, leading Kaczynski's brother and sister-in-law to recognize the syntax and anti-technology themes and tip off the FBI, bringing to a close the agency's longest and costliest investigation at the time.
In a statement Friday, the sheriff's department also appealed to people who may know something about the case, saying it may be difficult to come forward due to a personal relationship with someone involved or just for their own safety.
"We recognize relationships and loyalties change over time as do people and their perspectives," the sheriff's department wrote. "It is not too late to come forward."
Authorities say new evidence suggests the kidnapping was planned
The sheriff's office also said Friday that two videos recovered from Guthrie's doorbell camera might be from two separate days and indicate an unidentified male prepared ahead of when Guthrie was taken. Authorities are seeking information on anyone who was behaving differently, changed their physical appearance, suddenly left the Tucson area, or had a noticeable or unexplained interest or disinterest in the case.
"Investigators continue to pursue every available technological and investigative lead," the sheriff's office said. "However, community members remain a vital resource as we seek to provide answers for Nancy's family."
The FBI had released surveillance videos of a masked person who authorities said appeared to tamper with a camera on Nancy Guthrie's front porch and block it with a plant. They described the person as a male about 5 feet, 9 inches (1.75 meters) tall.
On Feb. 4, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings first shared a video statement saying they were aware of media reports of a purported ransom letter and that they were ready to talk and listen, but they wanted proof that their mother was alive. Camron Guthrie, the brother of the "Today" co-anchor, said the following day that the family had not heard directly from whoever took their mother.
A day after the second note was sent, Savannah Guthrie said on Feb. 7 that the siblings received a message and "understand," without sharing details. She said they were begging for their mother to be returned to them. "We will pay," Guthrie said.
The family has continued to share their pleas for information in videos posted to social media.
Two men who were previously detained have filed a lawsuit
Also, two men detained and released early in the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance are seeking a combined $3 million against a southern Arizona sheriff's department. In a legal claim, they say they were wrongfully held by law enforcement.
The claim made Thursday against Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos' department centers on the separate detentions of Carlos Alfredo Palazuelos and Daniel Maddow on Feb. 10. It said they were released hours later but have suffered from having been mentioned in the investigation.
Nanos' office declined to comment on the notice of claim, a necessary precursor to filing a lawsuit against government entities.
Jurors in Lindsay Clancy's trial visit the home where she killed her children
DUXBURY, Mass. -- Jurors walked through the Massachusetts home where Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children, a rare visit Friday that let them see firsthand the place where an outwardly ordinary family life unraveled into tragedy.
After being driven past two businesses relevant to the narrative of the January 2023 killings, jurors were escorted in groups of six to view the inside of the house, including the basement where the children died. During the roughly 40-minute visit, the jury also saw the yard where Clancy was found after jumping from a second-story window.
Journalists were kept away by a police barricade, but court officers could be seen through the trees escorting jurors to and from the bus along the site of the Clancy family's former driveway. The home now has a new owner.
Clancy herself did not attend the visit to the home, which she hasn't seen since the day of the killings. Her lawyers argue she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.
Jurors in U.S. criminal cases often are expressly told not to visit the scene of the events in question. There are a number of rationales for not doing so -- among other things, the site may have changed in the interim between an alleged crime and a trial.
But courts sometimes allow juries to make a supervised excursion as a group, for reasons that can include assessing distances or features that aren't thought to come across fully in photos.
Such excursions have happened in a number of high-profile cases, including the 2023 murder trial of South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, the 2022 sentencing trial of Parkland, Florida, school shooter Nikolas Cruz, the 2015 Massachusetts murder trial of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez and the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson.
Jurors in Clancy's trial retraced the route her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, took when she asked him to pick up takeout food and medicine for daughter Cora on the night of the killings. He returned to find the children dead and his then-wife badly injured and bleeding in the yard.
The panel was driven past the restaurant -- about 5.5 miles (9 kilometers) from the family's former home in Duxbury, a town south of Boston -- and the pharmacy, about a mile (1.6 km) from the house.
Prosecutors say the errands were a ruse to get her husband out of the house. They say Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, acted intentionally and is criminally responsible for the deaths of children Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months.
Her lawyers don't dispute that she killed the children, but they say she had bipolar disorder and her condition worsened while she was on antidepressants prescribed after the birth of her third child. She believed a voice was telling her to "kill the children so you can kill yourself," according to her lawyers.
Lindsay Clancy remains paralyzed from the waist down after using multiple methods to try to end her life that night.
If convicted of murder, she faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.