{"id":185930,"date":"2026-02-09T16:52:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/artificial-intelligence-experts-trying-to-find-clues-in-nancy-guthrie-ransom-note\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T18:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:45:12","slug":"artificial-intelligence-experts-trying-to-find-clues-in-nancy-guthrie-ransom-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/artificial-intelligence-experts-trying-to-find-clues-in-nancy-guthrie-ransom-note\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence experts trying to find clues in Nancy Guthrie ransom note"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artificial intelligence experts trying to find clues in Nancy Guthrie ransom note<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/world-nation\/story\/2026-02-09\/nancy-guthrie-ransom-note-monday-deadline<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-02-09 16:52:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.latimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. Investigators in the Nancy Guthrie abduction are consulting with artificial intelligence experts to examine ransom notes to determine the validity and possible origins of the messages, sources told The Times on Monday.As a second deadline given for the Guthries to pay $6 million in bitcoin at 5 p.m. Monday rapidly approaches, the family is racing against the clock, sources say. The 84-year-old grandmother has been gone for nine days with no evidence she\u2019s receiving medication she needs or proof she\u2019s still alive from kidnappers.The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.Guthrie\u2019s disappearance, which police initially said was a missing person case, was odd from the beginning and the mystery has only deepened with time. In this case, 21st century technology has added a new dimension. For decades, FBI profiles and veteran detectives parsed the grammar and syntax of ransom notes looking for clues that could reveal someone\u2019s education level or socioeconomic background, among other details. \u201cWith traditionally handwritten notes, typed notes, you know it is going to be unique to the person who wrote it,\u201d said University of Hawaii Police Chief Andrew Black, who was previously a FBI special agent in charge of the Tucson office. \u201cThere will be some indicators, whether it is writing style or grammar or spelling errors, that can help you identify who created it.\u201dNow, such messages can be written by AI, eliminating a writer\u2019s signature voice. This, Black said, adds \u201canother layer of complexity\u201d to the investigation.Adding to the issues in the case, the kidnappers are asking for money using cryptocurrency, which is much harder to track than the money drops of years past. The way kidnappers have been communicating is also out of the ordinary, Black said.\u201cThe methodology of these individuals doesn\u2019t match what typical kidnappers do who are holding someone for ransom,\u201d Black said. \u201cThey usually establish a direct line of communication … with the victim\u2019s family and law enforcement and they exclude the public and the media because they don\u2019t want additional attention.\u201d In this case, the ransom demands have gone directly to the media.One message, sent directly to the family, was traced to a Southern California man who was determined not to be involved in Guthrie\u2019s disappearance. The other two messages \u2014 one on Feb. 2 and another on Friday \u2014 were sent to news outlets. In the meantime, the family has reached a point of desperation, pleading with the public via social media for help finding their mother. \u201cWe believe our mom is still out there. We need your help,\u201d \u201cToday\u201d show anchor Savannah Guthrie, Nancy\u2019s daughter, said in a video on Instagram on Monday. \u201cSo I\u2019m coming on just to ask you, not just for your prayers but no matter where you are \u2014 even if you\u2019re far from Tucson \u2014 if you see anything, if you hear anything, if there\u2019s anything at all that seems strange to you, that you report to law enforcement. We are in an hour of desperation.\u201dOn Saturday, Savannah Guthrie spoke directly to the kidnappers in a cryptic video saying that her family will pay for their mother\u2019s return. \u201cWe received your message, and we understand,\u201d Guthrie said in the video, sitting beside her brother and sister. \u201cWe beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.\u201dSources told The Times the ransom note received on Feb. 2 felt credible because it included details about a specific damaged piece of property and the placement of an accessory in the home that had not been made public. The letter contained a first deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday and a second demand with a Monday deadline, said Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI\u2019s Phoenix division. Harvey Levin, founder of celebrity news website TMZ, has reviewed one of the three identical letters that were sent to media outlets and told CNN on Thursday that \u201cthe Monday deadline is far more consequential.\u201d Levin said Thursday night that TMZ had confirmed the bitcoin address was real.\u201cThey went to great lengths in sending this email to us in making sure that it stays anonymous,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a carefully crafted letter, and this is not something that somebody threw together in five minutes.\u201dConcerns about the validity of the ransom note are not unfounded. Last week, after the family posted a tearful video pleading for their mother\u2019s safe return, authorities said Derrick Callella of Hawthorne sent an \u201cimposter\u201d ransom message demanding bitcoin to two members of the family. Investigators linked his phone number to an email address and later, his home, according to court records. As the investigation drags into a second week, authorities have not publicly identified anyone as a person of interest or suspect. Investigators have returned to the home several times to process evidence, at one point appearing to search inside a septic tank near the property. Hours before she vanished, Guthrie had spent the evening with family gathering for dinner and a game night at her eldest daughter\u2019s home. Her son-in-law dropped her back home just after 9:45 p.m. Saturday, which officials said matched with when her garage door opened and closed that night.About four hours later, at 1:47 a.m., officials said her doorbell camera disconnected. Then at 2:12 a.m., the security camera software at Guthrie\u2019s home detected a person \u2014 or an animal \u2014 on one of the home\u2019s cameras, but Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said they have not been able to recover that footage and don\u2019t know which camera recorded the movement.About 15 minutes later, at 2:28 a.m., Guthrie\u2019s pacemaker app shows a disconnect from the phone, Nanos said. That appears to be exactly when she left her home, as her phone was left behind.When Guthrie didn\u2019t show up for church on Sunday her family went to check on her at home, discovered her missing and called police, Nanos said.Authorities said her doorbell camera had been removed and there were blood splatters near the front door. Although Guthrie is of sound mind, family members have said she has physical ailments that prevent her from walking long distances and she uses a pacemaker. There has been no \u201cproof of life\u201d offered by the abductors, officials said last week.Black said Guthrie\u2019s health problems make the investigation all the more urgent. He believes the FBI will be able to solve the case given the massive resources it has thrown at the investigation. \u201cI think they are going to get to the bottom of this,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is just a question of can they do it in a timely manner that we get a positive result and we have this woman returned safely?\u201d
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Artificial intelligence experts trying to find clues in Nancy Guthrie ransom note https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/world-nation\/story\/2026-02-09\/nancy-guthrie-ransom-note-monday-deadline Publish Date:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":185931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/cda0d3b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3500x1838+0+220\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb5%2F5b%2Fcb81d17740a59750096ea556eed6%2Fap26040605644765.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-185930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185932,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185930\/revisions\/185932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}