🚨 HE THOUGHT BITCOIN MADE HIM INVISIBLE — BUT ONE LINE IN HIS RANSOM NOTE MAY HAVE JUST DOOMED HIM FOREVER. 😱💥
When the alleged kidnapper of Nancy Guthrie demanded millions in Bitcoin, it looked like a calculated move. No bank wires. No paper trail. Just cold, digital currency. But according to crypto forensics experts, that “brilliant” strategy may have been his biggest mistake. By including a real Bitcoin wallet address in the ransom note, he didn’t hide — he exposed himself to the one system that never forgets: the blockchain.
“He basically handed investigators his Achilles’ heel,” said Bezalel Eithan Raviv, CEO of Lionsgate Network, a firm specializing in crypto recovery. Every transaction tied to that address can be traced, analyzed, and mapped. Even if no payment was ever sent, the digital footprint is already there — permanent, public, and waiting to be followed.
Now the chilling question remains: did the kidnapper just outsmart himself… and set the trap that could lead authorities straight to his door?
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department, with assistance from the FBI, has detained an individual for questioning in connection with the abduction of “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
The individual was detained in a location south of Tucson, the source said, and law enforcement is now searching a location associated with the individual.
In a statement on social media, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said deputies “detained a subject during a traffic stop.”
A court-authorized search was being carried out by the sheriff’s department, with assistance of the FBI’s Evidence Response Team, at a location in Rio Rico, Arizona, about 60 miles south of Tucson, related to the investigation, the department said. The operation was expected to last several hours, according to the department.
TUCSON, ARIZONA – FEBRUARY 10: In an aerial view, law enforcement and news broadcasters are stationed outside of Nancy Guthrie’s residence on February 10, 2026 in Tucson, Arizona. Searches continues for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of U.S. journalist and television host Savannah Guthrie, after she went missing from her home on the morning of February 1st. Guthrie’s possible abductors had set a deadline of 5pm on February 9 for a $6 million payment.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The developments followed the first images released of a masked man approaching Nancy Guthrie’s front door and as investigators continued to search in her neighborhood.
However, there’s no indication that the person who was detained is the figure seen in the newly released video footage.
Earlier Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel released images and video of an “armed individual” in connection with the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie.
FBI Director Kash Patel released a surveillance photo, Feb. 10, 2026 showing a potential subject in investigation of the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie in Tucson, AZ.
@FBIDirectorKash/X
The images showed someone wearing a mask, gloves, a backpack and armed with a holstered handgun at the front door of Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson-area home around the time investigators suspect she was abducted on Feb. 1.
“[L]aw enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance,” Patel said in his post.
FBI Director Kash Patel released a surveillance photo, Feb. 10, 2026 showing a potential subject in investigation of the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie in Tucson, Az.
@FBIDirectorKash/X
The Guthrie family was shown the images before their public release, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Savannah Guthrie posted the images to her Instagram account, with the message, “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home.”
In a second Instagram post on Tuesday afternoon, Savannah Guthrie wrote, “Someone out there recognizes this person. We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”
Nancy Guthrie was taken from her home on Sunday, Feb. 1, according to authorities. A Monday ransom deadline by persons claiming to be Guthrie’s abductors passed as the search for her continues.
Patel said the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s office worked with “private sector partners” in recent days to recover the video footage, which Patel said had been “lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors, including the removal of recording devices.”
This image provided by the FBI Feb. 5, 2026, shows a missing person Nancy Guthrie.
FBI
“The video was recovered from residual data located in the backend systems,” Patel said. “Working with four partners — as of this morning, law enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump was briefed on the latest details in the case and was reviewing the video footage posted online by Patel.
“We’re just praying for the safety of Nancy Guthrie and that she will return home soon. And the president directed me to please encourage all Americans with any information to call the FBI, and we hope that this case will come to a positive resolution as soon as possible,” Leavitt said.
The latest development in the case came a day after Savannah Guthrie made an impassioned plea to the public to help solve her mother’s disappearance.
“We are at an hour of desperation, and we need your help,” Savannah Guthrie said in an Instagram video, speaking directly to the camera. It was the fourth video that Guthrie and her two siblings had released on social media since their mother vanished.
The exact time of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is unclear. Her doorbell camera disconnected at 1:47 a.m., on Feb. 1, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. At 2:12 a.m., the camera software detected a person, and at 2:28 a.m., Nancy Guthrie’s pacemaker app disconnected from her phone, which was left behind at her house, Nanos said.
Over the weekend, the Guthrie family received a demand for a bitcoin ransom by a Monday deadline by a party claiming to be Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapper. Savannah Guthrie and her siblings said they’d pay for their mother’s return.
“We received your message and we understand,” Savannah Guthrie said in an Instagram video over the weekend. “We beg you now to return our mother to us so we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
After the ransom deadline passed Monday evening, the FBI released a statement, saying its agents continued to work around the clock on the case and that more were being sent to Arizona to assist in the investigation.
“The FBI is not aware of any continued communication between the Guthrie family and suspected kidnappers, nor have we identified a suspect or person of interest in this case at this time,” the FBI said in its statement.
The bureau added that additional personnel from FBI field offices nationwide would continue to be deployed to the Tucson area to work on the case
“We are currently operating a 24-hour command post that includes crisis management experts, analytic support, and investigative teams. But we still need the public’s help,” the FBI’s statement said. “Someone has that one piece of information that can help us bring Nancy home.”
Anyone with information is urged to call 911, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
