More than five months after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie was taken from her Tucson home, the ransom notes that once dominated early coverage of the case are facing fresh scrutiny. A veteran criminal profiler who has studied the messages says they simply do not match the person who forced his way into her house that night.

John Kelly, a longtime profiler and president of STALK Inc., has reviewed the available details of the two primary notes linked to the investigation. His conclusion is blunt: he does not believe they are genuine.

The first note was cold and transactional. It demanded millions of dollars in cryptocurrency, set firm deadlines, and reportedly included information about the crime scene that had not been publicly released at the time. There was no proof of life and no attempt to humanize the victim. The second note, which surfaced later, struck a markedly different tone. It claimed Nancy had died unintentionally after the abduction and that she had been “buried with nature.” The language carried a sense of regret that Kelly finds incompatible with the violence of the crime itself.

Kelly points to the nature of the abduction. In the early hours of February 1, a masked man armed with a gun entered Nancy Guthrie’s home in the Catalina Foothills. He disabled her doorbell camera, pulled her from her bed, and left blood on the front porch. Her pacemaker monitoring system disconnected shortly afterward. In Kelly’s experience, someone capable of that level of calculated force is unlikely to later craft a message expressing emotional concern or offering soft language about an “unintentional” death.

“Most of these guys are psycho,” Kelly said. “They’re going to do that, rouse an older woman out of her bed and haul her away like that bleeding all over the place… they’re going to just want to get away from the problem as quick as possible. They’re not going to be worried about leaving condolences.”

He describes the abductor as someone who objectified Nancy, treating her as a problem to be removed rather than a person. The limited video recovered from her Nest camera shows a man of average height and build, wearing a ski mask, long sleeves, and black gloves, carrying a black backpack. Kelly notes the absence of normal anxiety markers in the footage — steady movements, little visible fear — traits he associates with a psychopathic personality.

The contrast between that profile and the shifting tone of the notes is what troubles him most. The first message is pure demand. The second introduces emotion and an almost apologetic framing. To Kelly, it reads as if two different people wrote them — or as if the notes were never written by the actual abductor at all.

Authorities have neither confirmed nor dismissed the notes’ authenticity in public statements. Early in the investigation, the FBI treated at least one of them seriously enough to help the family record a video response. Savannah Guthrie has said she believes the two notes her family received and responded to were real, while acknowledging that many others circulating at the time were not.

Nancy Guthrie has not been found. The investigation remains active, with a combined reward exceeding $1.2 million still on offer. Tips can be submitted to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or anonymously through Tucson Crime Stoppers.

Whether the notes ultimately prove genuine or fabricated, the gap between the cold efficiency of the abduction and the shifting language of the demands continues to raise questions about what really happened in the hours after Nancy Guthrie was taken from her home.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/nancy-guthrie-ransom-notes-dont-match-suspects-behavior-profiler-says-dont-believe-theyre-real