Fox News legal analyst Donna Rottuno shared her grim Nancy Guthrie prediction with The Big Weekend Show Saturday, after authorities released the harrowing ransom notes sent hours to days after the 84-year-old’s disappearance.
Nancy Guthrie — the mother of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie — was kidnapped from her Arizona home on Feb. 1.
The first note sent on Feb. 2, read:
If payment is not received, the ransom will be increased to 6 million USD by 5PM On Monday, the 9th. Once payment is received to the bitcoin address below, she will be released within 12 hours of deposit to a safe drop off location back in Tucson. If payment is not received by the last deadline on Monday the 9th at 5PM, she will be killed. Your mother is aware of this and her life is in your hands.
And the second:
We did not fully grasp the seriousness of her physical condition. We never intended to hurt her, that was not our intention. She perished shortly after she was taken. We believe it was heart related. She is buried in nature now. Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome. We want your family to know this and hope you can all find peace. We are truly Sorry.
“I think that she was dead in the very few hours — I’m not so sure she was alive when they sent that Feb. 2 letter, to be frank,” Rottuno said. “I mean the fact that they put out the letter on Feb. 2 then — if you even believe the letters are authentic, right? — but if you believe those clues, that if she was, if the first letter comes Feb. 2, and then they say, we’re gonna give you nine days or seven days or five days, or whatever it was, and then four days later they send a letter saying she has perished and we didn’t mean for it to happen. So, the odds are, the woman with her condition, at her age, being terrified, and the fear she must have felt being pulled out of her home.”
“And there was blood,” added host Joey Jones. “And so, the chances of her — even if it were accidental injured on the way out.”
“Right, exactly,” Rottuno agreed.
She continued:
So, I have felt from the very beginning of this that she was gone very early on. Whether or not these letters are legitimate no one really knows, and no one has said one way or the other. They have not said that they are not, but they have also not confirmed they have any real information showing that they are, other than the fact that the two letters we are talking about today and talking about yesterday, those two letters seem to be coming from the same at least IP address.
The Pima Co. Sheriff’s Office said they made the notes public with the hopes that someone watching would recognize a pattern of writing or speech that could lead to the perpetrator.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
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