A former FBI agent believes Nancy Guthrie’s family should pay half the bitcoin being demanded in sick ransom notes to see if it finally leads to her whereabouts.
Two purported ransom notes were sent to TMZ earlier this week demanding one bitcoin– worth about $72,000 –in exchange for information related to the 84-year-old’s abduction from her Arizona home, including delivering the kidnappers on a “silver platter.”
“Tickling the wire in this case would be putting half a bitcoin and seeing what happens to it,” former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer told Newsweek.
“Do they take it? Do they convert it to pesos? It’s internationally tracked. How does it come out into currency? Do they just leave it there?” she said of the notes suggesting the 84-year-old mother of “today” show host Savannah Guthrie was taken across the border to Mexico.
“Once it’s gone, it’s going to be gone. But I would want that last bread crumb. I think it would be worth it to me.”
Since Guthrie was abducted from her Tucson, Arizona home on Feb. 1, investigators have yet to unveil any suspects or fresh leads in the case.
Multiple purported ransom notes were sent in the weeks following her disappearance — including several sent to TMZ.
The latest notes to the outlet were sent from the same anonymous person who demanded one bitcoin two months ago.
The sick sender noted in the first note that the grandmother was dead but the prior offer to “deliver [the kidnappers] on a silver platter” still stands.
In a second note, the sender claimed to have seen Guthrie alive with her captors in the Mexican state of Sonora.
The pair of notes were sent just as Guthrie’s daughter, Savannah Guthrie, made her emotional return to NBC’s “Today” show for the first time since her mom vanished.