A seasoned criminal profiler has expressed skepticism regarding the authenticity of ransom notes linked to Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance. He described them to News Media as seemingly authored by two distinct personalities—a detached “psychopath” and someone contrastingly “emotional.”
In an interview, criminal profiler John Kelly shared his doubts, stating, “To sum it up, I don’t think these notes are genuine. The first note focuses solely on money… However, the second note portrays a completely different personality.”
Kelly highlighted the lack of compassion evident in the abduction, noting the involvement of a masked assailant armed with a gun who stormed into Guthrie’s home. Her sudden removal from her bed in the early hours left a trail of blood at her doorstep.
“In most cases, such individuals are quite ruthless. They wouldn’t hesitate to pull an elderly woman out of bed with force, leaving her bleeding. Their priority is to escape the scene rapidly,” Kelly observed. “Condolences wouldn’t be their concern.”
On the morning of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance in Tucson, Arizona, on February 1, 2026, a person with a weapon was seen tampering with her doorbell camera. Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie, is shown in an undated photograph. (Photo provided by FBI; Courtesy of NBC)
Excerpts from the first note include a demand for millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin, gave a deadline for payment and were said to include crime scene details that were not widely known at the time it was sent to local media. It did not include proof of life.
Details about the second note — or at least versions of it sent to different media outlets — have been made public this week.
It included claims that Guthrie had died inadvertently after her abduction, a federal law enforcement source close to the case told Fox News on Monday. And it said she was “buried with nature.”
Aerial drone shots show the home of Nancy Guthrie in Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 3, 2026. Nancy Guthrie, mother of ‘Today’ show host Savannah Guthrie, is suspected of being abducted from her home. (Fox Flight Team/Fox News)
“She’s not with us anymore, was not ‘intentional,'” Kelly said. “Now I see an emotional word: ‘intentional.'”
And that doesn’t fit the profile that Kelly sees, he said.
“This is a person to me that wouldn’t know a feeling if they tripped over one,” he told News Media.
A split image showing a masked intruder at Nancy Guthrie’s home and the blood found at her doorstep the morning after she is believed to have been abducted from her home in the Catalina Foothills of Tucson, Arizona. (FBI, Derek Shook for News Media)
In taking Guthrie, the abductor or abductors “objectified her,” Kelly said.
“That’s very different than what I’m seeing in the few words that I was able to see…in the ransom note saying that it wasn’t intentional and she’s buried with nature now,” Kelly explained. “Like that should give us some comfort after that whole horrific trial of removing Nancy and freaking torturing her emotionally right out of that house.“
Savannah Guthrie sat down with fellow “Today” show host Hoda Kotb to discuss her mother’s disappearance. (NBC/Today)
Authorities haven’t publicly confirmed or ruled out the authenticity of the demands.
Early on, they appear to have taken them seriously, with Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix field office, sitting down with Guthrie’s adult children to record a video response to the first note.
Pima County deputies examine a flyer taped to the mailbox outside Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 23, 2026. Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, is believed to have been abducted from her home in the early hours of Feb. 1. (Michael Ruiz/News Media)
The 84-year-old Guthrie’s daughter, “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, has also said publicly that she believes at least two of the notes were real.
“There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came, and I think most of them — it’s my understanding — are not real, and I didn’t see them,” she told colleague Hoda Kotb in a March interview. “…But I believe the two notes that we received, that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real.”
FBI agents and law enforcement officers conduct a door-to-door search in Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood in Tucson, Ariz., on March 5, 2026. Guthrie has been missing since early February 2026. (Matthew Symons for News Media)
Kelly, a veteran profiler and psychoanalyst who has interviewed a number of serial killers, said he believes the kidnapper is a “very cruel person” without remorse or guilt and likely a “psychopath.”
“I was watching his eyes on the video that we could get to see, I mean, I wasn’t seeing normal blinking taking place. I wasn’t seeing anxiety,” Kelly said. “Psychopaths are like that — they can be as cool as cucumbers. They don’t feel a whole lot of fear…They just go about their business.“
Anyone with information on Guthrie’s case is asked to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI. There is a combined reward of more than $1.2 million for information that cracks the case.
Tips can be provided anonymously to Tucson’s Crime Stoppers affiliate, 88-Crime, at 1-520-882-7463.