An anonymous person claiming direct knowledge of Nancy Guthrie's abduction has emailed TMZ founder Harvey Levin with new demands, and a claim that could either crack the case or waste more of the FBI's time. The sender says a hidden phone holds video of "the main guy" with the 84-year-old on what may have been her last day alive, along with photos, names, and addresses of two kidnappers.
The email, reported Friday by Fox News, is the latest in a string of messages the sender has directed at Levin since the early days of the case. Previous emails sought various sums of up to $100,000. Now the price has dropped to one Bitcoin, roughly $60,000 as of Friday afternoon.
That number should raise eyebrows. Savannah Guthrie, the "Today" co-host and Nancy's daughter, has publicly offered more than $1 million for her mother's safe return. Tucson's 88-Crime tip line is offering another $102,500 for information leading to an arrest. Combined, the rewards top $1.2 million, and anyone with genuine evidence could claim them without negotiating through a celebrity gossip outlet.
The sender's latest message was blunt in its claims:
"I have a phone stashed in a secure location guaranteeing both the information it stores and the safety of the phone. 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."
The sender also distanced himself, or herself, from a false tip about a burial site in Mexico that surfaced last week. "I am not the idiot who recently called in a tip about her burial site in Mexico," the email stated.
TMZ says it authenticated the email using a Bitcoin account number included in the message, one that had not been made public but matched earlier correspondence from the same sender. Levin forwarded the email to the FBI.
But retired FBI supervisory agent Jim Clemente offered a withering assessment of the sender's logic. He told Fox News the emails are either the work of a fraud or a fool:
"Either the author of those emails is a complete fool or it's completely fake. Why would you offer up exactly what the Guthrie family has been looking for and offered a $1 million reward for an exchange for one Bitcoin when if you actually give them the information that they need and that you say you have, you can get $1 million instead? In Bitcoin if you want it."
Clemente's point is hard to argue with. If the sender truly possesses what he claims, the rational play is to collect the family's seven-figure reward, not to haggle for a fraction of it through a TMZ intermediary.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her Catalina Foothills residence in Tucson on the evening of January 31, 2026. She was reported missing around noon the following day. She has a pacemaker and requires daily heart medication, facts that have added urgency to every week that passes without resolution.
The FBI has confirmed it has not identified any suspects or persons of interest in the disappearance. A 24-hour command post has been operating, and digital billboards have been deployed across multiple states seeking public help. FBI spokesperson Connor Hagan said, "Someone has that one piece of information that can help us bring Nancy home."
The investigation has been marked by a series of ransom notes sent to media outlets, not to the family or law enforcement directly. The Pima County Sheriff's Office confirmed its awareness of the notes and said it was coordinating with the FBI on all tips and leads. Sheriff Nanos said aspects of the scene at Nancy Guthrie's home caused "grave concern."
The ransom demands escalated quickly. Newsmax reported that early notes demanded several million dollars in Bitcoin with a Monday deadline and included a death threat. The first note demanded $4 million by February 5; a second pushed the figure to $6 million by February 9. Both deadlines passed without payment.
Earlier in the investigation, a small bitcoin deposit by the FBI into the ransom account may have inadvertently affected the suspects' behavior and complicated the case.
One of the most significant developments came when the FBI recovered doorbell camera footage from Nancy Guthrie's home. National Review reported that FBI Director Kash Patel released the footage, which showed a masked individual with a backpack and what appeared to be a holstered gun reaching toward a Google Nest camera at the front door at 1:47 a.m. on February 1. The FBI released photos from the footage on February 10.
Bloodstains confirmed to belong to Nancy Guthrie were found at the scene. Retired bloodstain pattern analysis expert Paulette Sutton described the evidence as a "drip trail," consistent with a bleeding individual, possibly from a bloody nose. That blood evidence at Nancy Guthrie's front door led at least one former FBI profiler to suggest a lone abductor.
If the anonymous emailer's claim of two kidnappers proves true, it would contradict that earlier analysis, and raise the question of why the second person does not appear on the doorbell footage.
The case took its darkest turn when a second ransom note told media outlets that Nancy Guthrie had died and been "buried in nature." That note, unlike the first, made no payment demands but offered to return her body. Investigators believe both notes are genuine and were sent from the same IP address, the New York Post reported, prompting a shift from a kidnapping investigation to a possible homicide case.
Nearly five months after her disappearance, Nancy Guthrie remains missing. No suspects have been publicly named. The FBI lab was still testing DNA evidence from the Tucson home at the 100-day mark of the case.
Savannah Guthrie returned to the "Today" show after a two-month absence. In a social media video earlier in the investigation, she addressed the kidnappers directly: "We received your message and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay."
She later told NBC News, "I believe the two notes that we received, that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real."
Authorities have not publicly confirmed the legitimacy of the first two ransom notes, the ones deemed "possibly authentic", or the TMZ emails. The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News's request for comment on the latest message. FBI Director Patel has previously acknowledged that the bureau was sidelined for four critical days early in the investigation, a delay that may have cost investigators their best window to act.
Harvey Levin, for his part, posted a video to X on Friday challenging the sender to put up or shut down the negotiation. "If you've got something, send it," Levin said.
The anonymous emailer's claims remain unverified. Reports have suggested the sender may be female; the sender has pushed back on that characterization. The identity, location, and credibility of the person behind the emails remain unknown.
What is known: an 84-year-old woman with a pacemaker and a daily medication regimen vanished from her home in the middle of the night. Blood was found at the scene. A masked figure was caught on camera. Ransom notes went to newsrooms, not to family. And now someone is trying to sell information about her fate for a fraction of the reward money already on the table.
If the emailer has what he claims, the path to more than $1 million is simple: hand it to the FBI. The fact that he won't tells you most of what you need to know.
