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Two weeks into the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping some on Facebook were posting, “Okay, this Grandma story is getting old.” Retaliation came in the form of lectures: “How dare you! Do you think you’d feel this way if this happened to your mother! Have some compassion and empathy. This post is disgusting!”
Two weeks into the kidnapping is about when most people were feeling the story was becoming suspect. The bottom fell out when TMZ, the television entertainment group, began getting notes and emails from the alleged kidnapper demanding ransom money. Why TMZ and not, for instance, The View? What has TMZ got to do with the fact that Nancy Guthrie, the 84- year-old mother of ‘Today’ show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was abducted in her sleep in her home on Sunday, February 1, except to illustrate that the kidnapper has horrendously bad taste in television shows?
A total of 12 ransom notes and emails – that’s likely to change in the next 15 minutes – were delivered demanding different sums of money sometimes in bitcoin in exchange for the return of Nancy Guthrie. A photo of the alleged kidnapper in a tight white rubber suit – looking like a man dressed as a condom on Halloween – was broadcast internationally.
Two weeks into the saga, how likely was it that Nancy Guthrie, a woman dependent on prescription medications, was even alive? Kidnappers aren’t likely to drive their victim to CVS to refill her meds, although the FBI did check local pharmacies in case something like this occurred.
It soon became apparent that what the world was witnessing was serious journalism morphing into a Babylon Bee feature story. This is what you often get when law enforcement and the FBI hides facts about the case from the public. Half truths give birth to out-of-control rumors; this became evident when I spotted one social media video claiming that Nancy Guthrie was found floating in a local Arizona pond. Film clips of divers lifting a corpse in a body bag near a river bank claimed that the mystery had been solved.
The story was fast becoming a kidnapping reality show, with nightly updates and minor leads in the case falsely advertised as “breaking news.” This is enough to get even the most empathic person who would never want to see any grandmother hurt to say, “I’ve had enough!”
The drama was exacerbated with Democrat Sheriff Chris Nanos leading the investigation. Nanos assumed office in January 2021; his term ends in January 2029. He came into this case with a reputation for creating a hostile work environment. Some who know him claim he has a natural gift for retaliation.
With his waves of white hair, Nanos looks like someone who had spent his adult youth in Hollywood as a movie extra but left after his last role as a sheriff in an old western went bust. That career failure caused him to somehow become a real sheriff in Pima County, Arizona – a nothing town with none of the glamour of Tucson or Prescott – but a place with enough desert to con Hollywood into filming a real reality show there that included his police department.
Here’s where most of the aggravation and bad vibes around this case spring from: show biz. I mean, what kind of sheriff signs up his entire police department for a reality show called Desert Law (Nanos does not appear in the show), which apparently has dangerously low ratings although that’s likely to change because of the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping?
Parade magazine summed up Nanos’s behavior this way:
“…Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is pushing back on claims that his handling of the high-profile case has been driven by ego rather than urgency.
In a statement to Parade addressing recent criticism, Nanos said, ‘Right now, our focus is on this investigation and serving the victims and this community. Internal or political commentary distracts from this active investigation, and it is very unfortunate. My focus remains on justice and transparency.’
“The comments come after multiple law enforcement sources and critics publicly questioned his leadership. Sgt. Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, previously told The New York Post on Thursday, February 19, ‘It is a common belief in this agency that this case has become an ego case for Sheriff Nanos.’”
Does Nanos’s ego have anything to do with the fact that one month after the crime there are still more questions than answers? Was the kidnapping the result of a burglary gone wrong? Was it a planned kidnapping? Was violence or ransom money the motive for the crime? When investigators announced they had the suspect’s gun, holster, and backpack, Nanos said authorities were close to identifying other articles of clothing seen on the Guthrie doorbell camera video.
One gets the feeling of soap opera installments to keep viewers keyed in. Many people I know who have been following this case felt something akin to aggravation – “There’s something wrong with this story!” – but they were afraid to say this publicly for fear of being seen as being insensitive to an elderly lady’s plight.
In the beginning of February, Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings made a heartbreaking public plea in an effort to negotiate directly with their mother’s captor. They offered a sum of money for her return although that sum would be increased to one million dollars 40 days after the kidnapping. Many have asked why one million wasn’t offered initially. “What took you so long?” they posited. It’s easy to be critical in situations like this, especially when the kidnapper(s) seemed to be playing a game. Different ransom notes asking for different sums of money as deadlines came and went and new ones were instituted.
In late February it was announced that the search was now extending into Mexico. Then on February 10, the FBI stated they are not aware of “any continued communication between the Guthrie family and suspected kidnappers.” On the 24th a social media Facebook/X post announced: “Authorities in Arizona have revealed that Savannah Guthrie’s mother is alive and well.” A day later Nanos’s department stated that it would limit updates on the case, while the New York Post announced a “flurry of official activity at Nancy Guthrie’s home on Wednesday.”
A flurry of activity; a man in a white condom suit; TMZ and Harvey Levin; bitcoin demands. Can’t we all just get ourselves kidnapped to get away from this mess?
The merry-go-round accelerated when Levin discussed the fourth email the outlet received, this one offering to exchange cryptocurrency for information the sender claimed to have on the kidnapper.
“I have something to say to you, and I have already talked to the FBI about this, that if you are not real, you’re committing a crime and you should know that. And this is a serious federal crime,” he said.
You are naughty, this is a federal crime and you should know better!
My thoughts drift to the infamous Charles Augustus Lindberg, Jr. kidnapping in 1932 when the 20-month old son of aviator Charles Lindberg was kidnapped from the Lindberg estate in Hopewell, New Jersey. A ransom note was found in the nursery demanding $50,000; multiple ransom notes followed listing higher and higher sums of money. In May 1932, the body of baby Lindberg was found 4 ½ miles from the Hopewell estate. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German immigrant carpenter, was charged with the murder and was electrocuted in April 1936.
Similarities between the Lindberg case and the Nancy Guthrie case abound.
On the FBI History website, we read:
“One of the many by-products of the case was a mass of misinformation received from well-meaning but uninformed, highly imaginative individuals, and a deluge of letters written by demented persons, publicity seekers, and frauds….”
