The ACTUAL Text of First "Ransom Note" From Nancy Guthrie Alleged Abductor is Released

[0:00] I got to hand it to this Brianna Whitney because she used to work for one of those two Tucson [0:05] news outlets that did get to see the ransom notes. [0:08] And while Sheriff Nanos won't release them still six months later, it's like, come on, [0:13] you know, like, what are you doing? [0:16] She now works for Crime Junkie, which is a podcast network full of great two true crime [0:20] shows, and she's given it up. [0:22] So God bless her because it's interesting and she's seen them. [0:26] She says she has seen them with her own two eyes, which is credible because she was the [0:30] reporter for one of those local news outlets that did receive both notes. [0:35] And here she is. [0:36] Earlier, we had played her describing the second note and we analyzed it. [0:41] And now she's released what was in the first one. [0:44] Here it is in SOT 22. [0:48] This is how it started. [0:50] Hello, Savannah. [0:51] We have your mother, Nancy. [0:52] She is safe but scared. [0:54] She will be held for ransom and once payment is received, she will be released unharmed. [0:59] We will be holding her for a maximum of seven days. [1:04] So they go on then to demand the millions of dollars and they give the two deadlines. [1:08] But what is key here, I think, is that the money was demanded in USD, so US dollar. [1:14] Typically, if this is coming from somebody here, you don't say that. [1:17] You don't say that. [1:18] This is what it went on to say. [1:19] Once payment is received to the Bitcoin address below, she will be released within 12 hours of [1:25] deposit to a safe drop-off location back in Tucson. [1:30] If the payment is not received by the last deadline on Monday the 9th at 5 p.m., she will be killed. [1:37] Your mother is aware of this and her life is in your hands. [1:40] It is in the best interest of everyone to have this completed as soon as possible. [1:47] You will not be able to contact me from here on out. [1:50] There will be no negotiation. [1:51] Do not play games. [1:53] Law enforcement will not be able to help you. [1:59] It's fascinating, right? [2:00] I mean, it's fascinating to actually hear it read. [2:03] And the fact that it starts with, hello, Savannah. [2:07] She's safe but scared. [2:08] Four million. [2:09] Bah, bah, bah. [2:10] Then we see the part that Harvey Levin had been referring to for a while about how he believes [2:15] that they have her within the Tucson area because he says she'll be released within 12 [2:21] hours of deposit to a safe drop-off location back in Tucson if we get the money, basically. [2:27] Her life is in your hands. [2:28] In the best interest of everyone to have this completed as soon as possible. [2:32] You will not be able to contact me. [2:33] Do not play games. [2:34] Law enforcement can't help you. [2:36] So your impression in response to all of that, I'll start with you on it, Chad. [2:42] I'm still not buying it. [2:43] Again, the USD, we talked about that early on. [2:46] I still personally believe this is some type of organized crime ring, a scam, trying to [2:53] solicit money to the family. [2:56] Again, some of these, your other guests have a lot more expertise on like these complex kidnapping [3:01] cases, but, you know, from an outsider with law enforcement background, I just, it seems [3:08] too much of like someone just trying to get money and take advantage of a family going [3:11] through the worst time of their life. [3:13] Think about this. [3:14] In 2006, $20,000 equaled roughly 33 ounces of gold at spot price. [3:20] At today's prices, those 33 ounces would be worth about $165,000. [3:24] That's why many smart Americans diversify a portion of their savings into precious metals. [3:30] And that's why you should consider buying gold from Birch Gold Group. [3:33] For thousands of years, gold has been a store of wealth. [3:37] And today it's a crucial part of any balance strategy. [3:40] Even better, Birch Gold can help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered [3:45] retirement account in gold. [3:47] Just text MK to the number 989898 to receive your free info kit on gold. [3:51] There's no obligation, just useful information. [3:55] With an A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau and tens of thousands of happy customers, [3:59] let Birch Gold help you diversify with gold. [4:02] Now that's peace of mind. [4:04] Again, text MK to 989898 today. [4:07] Well, you sound a little like James. [4:09] James has been our skeptic on the notes from the beginning. [4:12] But wait, before I get to James, Will, I want to talk to you because you actually are somebody [4:17] that we all need to call Will, God forbid, somebody gets kidnapped that we know. [4:21] Because Will's master of the dark arts who actually will just get your family member [4:24] home. [4:25] Don't ask questions for a small fee. [4:27] You'll be reunited with your loved one, ideally. [4:30] And he has to read notes like this and figure out whether he should credit them or not. [4:34] So now that you've heard, you know, directly from somebody who's seen it, what's in it, [4:39] what's your takeaway? [4:40] Okay, Megan, firstly, thank you for having me back on the show. [4:43] Secondly, the note itself seems reasonably well considered and well structured. [4:49] And certainly one of the biggest challenges on any kind of kidnapping for ransom and particularly [4:56] resolving any kind of ransom that's been demanded is firstly, how that ransom is delivered. [5:02] And secondly, is where the actual hostage is going to be released to. [5:05] Now, the two parts that are well considered, firstly, Bitcoin, and secondly, that she would [5:12] be delivered into the local area, which for myself, I see that as pretty convincing and [5:17] well considered. [5:19] The only element we're missing here, and I would love to sit down with that journalist [5:24] and find out whether she knows the answers to this, is how was that ransom demand delivered [5:30] in the first place? [5:31] Because that's going to tell me an awful lot about whether this is professional or whether [5:36] I would agree with Chad. [5:37] Well, we do know. [5:38] What do you mean? [5:39] We know it was uploaded to TMZ's tip line. [5:43] And then we know the, yeah, and also the two local stations have tip lines, you know, [5:48] like a news organization. [5:48] A lot of news organizations have these. [5:50] You can go online and you can upload your tip. [5:52] And we also now do, I actually didn't know this, but apparently you did have to submit an email [5:59] in order to use one or all of those tip lines. [6:04] And the person who did upload it did provide an email. [6:08] And now just in preparing for today, I learned that it is, this is from CBS reporting earlier [6:14] in July, that a Gmail address was entered as the contact email and addressed to Savannah [6:22] Guthrie. [6:23] The family worked with the FBI to craft a response, but there was no email back. [6:29] So clearly this is new. [6:31] They did try to email that email and didn't get a response. [6:34] So that's really interesting. [6:36] I thought this was, these were potentially ransom demands, which had been made through [6:40] various other conduits. [6:42] Certainly, you know, we discussed the TMZ ones before. [6:45] So there are two parts to this. [6:47] And I think James would be able to answer certainly the federal side in terms of the investigation [6:52] and the relationships with, say, Google to be able to interrogate the Gmail account. [6:57] But setting up a burner Gmail account, that to me sniffs of someone that's not so organized. [7:03] I don't, I don't want to give any viewers ideas of how to deliver a ransom demand by a more [7:10] secure, secure route. [7:11] But I certainly wouldn't be using Gmail because Gmail, even if you set up a burner account, [7:16] you use various VPNs. [7:18] They are reasonably traceable, even if it is just a singular account that they've set up [7:23] for the purposes of delivering this, this ransom demand. [7:27] All right, wait, there's more to the first note, as we all know, because the person convinced [7:32] the FBI that they had Nancy, apparently, by saying specific things about Nancy's home. [7:39] And Brianna Whitney gets into that, too. [7:42] And, you know, I mean, good honor, six months for the love of God. [7:46] Like, just tell us what was in the note. [7:47] And here she does. [7:48] Watch. [7:49] And then at the very end, they basically give what we learned in the press conference at [7:54] the time that there was something only the abductor would know, which was she had a white [8:00] smartwatch that was on the floor near her bed, like at the foot of her bed. [8:04] And then there was this floodlight that was destroyed in the backyard. [8:08] So those two clues are what gave the FBI kind of the wherewithal to say this is not a hoax. [8:13] At least they didn't think so. [8:14] Or they were investigating it as possibly legitimate. [8:17] They still are, by the way. [8:20] Now, that's I mean, that's a tough one, because broken floodlight on the outside of a house [8:27] is something anyone going by could see. [8:30] That's that is why would they choose that? [8:33] But look, you know, watch at the foot of the bed is good. [8:40] That's a good one. [8:41] Like, yeah, white Apple watch is not that great. [8:44] This is I have an Apple watch on now. [8:46] It's not that great because we have seen pictures of Nancy wearing the white Apple watch. [8:49] We we've documented that on this show prior to her abduction. [8:53] Here's one. [8:54] But there's multiple shots of her wearing the Apple watch with the white band. [8:57] So you could have gleaned that as somebody posing as the kidnapper, just trying to get [9:01] money from the family. [9:02] But if they said it was at the foot of the bed on the floor and it was even you, James, [9:10] you got that would that would get your attention. [9:13] Sure. [9:13] Hey, good to see you. [9:14] It would get my attention. [9:16] Good to see you, too. [9:16] Um, it again, you made the great point about the full light and anyone could have seen [9:21] that, um, again, if I am going to go through all this trouble to kidnap this lady and try [9:26] to get paid, I'm certainly not going to send a email to a local news outlet or TMZ in the [9:34] hope in big H that they're going to get it somehow to Savannah. [9:37] And Savannah is actually going to believe me, you know, with all the other fake, uh, ransom [9:42] emails that are coming in. [9:44] Um, I'm not going to do that. [9:45] I'm going to reach out to her directly and I'm going to tell her what I want and how to [9:48] get her mom back. [9:50] Um, I liked the note. [9:51] I thought it was pretty good. [9:52] It was pretty ruthless. [9:53] Um, gave no kind of, you know, way to go back and forth. [9:57] I thought that was pretty good. [9:58] But again, there are a lot of great writers out there. [10:00] Um, I don't know. [10:02] It's, it's interesting. [10:04] I don't know. [10:04] I mean, I, I think it's okay that the bureau, [10:06] thanks for watching this clip. [10:08] If you're new here, subscribe, we got a whole lot more goodness where that came from. [10:12] We'd love to hear your feedback. [10:15] You can email me to Megan, M E G Y N at Megan Kelly.com, or just leave a comment below, but [10:21] join the community by becoming a subscriber. [10:24] We really, really value your input and your support. [10:27] We may not always agree, but we are always going to talk about it and respect. [10:32] No BS, no agenda, no fear.