A California man accused of sending phony ransom texts to Savannah Guthrie’s family about her missing mother has been arrested and charged, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday.
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Derrick Callella, who is in his mid-forties, messaged Guthrie’s daughter, Annie, and son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni about the ailing 84-year-old on Wednesday, according to the complaint filed in Arizona federal court.
“Did you get the bitcoin were [sic] waiting on our end for the transaction,” his message, sent to both Annie and Cioni, allegedly read.
Approximately three minutes after sending the texts, data obtained by authorities showed Callella also made a nine-second-long call to an unidentified family member of Nancy Guthrie, according to the court docs, which didn’t name the relative he allegedly called.
The sick outreach came soon after the “Today” co-host and her siblings released an emotional video pleading for their mother’s possible abductors to send a proof of life, the complaint said.
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The relatives reported the chilling messages to police, who tracked the number to Callella’s residence in California, the court docs state.
There, Callella confessed to officers that he had been following along with the case on TV.
His messages have not been connected to the alleged ransom note sent to an Arizona news outlet on Feb. 2, which listed millions of dollars in Bitcoin in exchange for Nancy’s safe return, according to the complaint.
