Ransom note for Guthrie has key details

A ransom note demanding money in exchange for the return of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother was “carefully crafted” and included details not previously released to the public, according to people who have read it.

- BY GRACE TOOHEY AND RICHARD WINTON

CAITLIN O'HARA Associated Press

A SIGN of solidarity from neighbors is on display at the home of Nancy Guthrie on Thursday in Tucson.

The note has taken center stage as authorities try to find Nancy Guthrie, 84, after her apparent abduction from her Tucson-area home. Her family has made two videos pleading with her suspected kidnappers to communicate with them.

Officials say they are taking the ransom note seriously and have not identified any suspects in the case. On Friday, the fifth day since Guthrie disappeared, Arizona news outlet KOLD reported it received a new note from the alleged abductor. The station did not report details from the new letter, but said “the new note contains information the senders seem to think will prove to investigators they're the same people who sent the first note.”

FBI and Pima County Sheriff's officials confirmed they were aware of the message, and said they are “actively inspecting the information provided in the message for its authenticity.” Members of a federal forensic task force were visible at the news station Friday afternoon.

It’s been years since such a high-profile abduction case, particularly one with alleged ransom demands, has captured the nation’s attention quite like this.

Experts who work on such cases say Guthrie's abduction appears to have been intricately planned, given the lack of DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene and how officials - even the nation's top internet-based exploitation investigators do not appear to have traced the ransom letter's origin.

"Whoever did this came very prepared," Tracy Schandler Walder, a former FBI agent who has been following the case, said on Instagram.