A former FBI agent said she got a ransom note related to Nancy Guthrie's kidnapping, amid reports of the 84-year-old's friend, Lauren Serpa, getting one too. 

Published on: Oct 1, 2026, 11:07:48 IST

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The Nancy Guthrie case took a new turn when another ransom note popped up. This time, Lauren Serpa, Nancy's friend who maintains the memorial in front of the kidnapped woman's house, said she got a note. The Pima County Sheriff's Department later updated that the ransom note was fake. Now, former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer has also posted her experience about getting a similar ransom note related to Nancy Guthrie.

Coffindaffer, who has shared her expert insights into the Nancy Guthrie case, noted that the ransom demand was not from the abductors, but it did not make the demand any less real. On X, she noted “No, the ransom demand was not from the abductors, but real nevertheless less.”

The former FBI agent then shared her experience with the ransom note, flagging two disturbing details.

Nancy Guthrie ransom note: Ex-FBI flags 2 disturbing details

The former FBI agent shared a screenshot of the ransom note she received and flagged two details that were disturbing to the law enforcement expert.

Coffindaffer noted that the ransom note senders used her middle name, which she does not use herself, and they managed to contact her on a ‘private personnel address’. The access to information the ex-FBI agent had not put out was a red flag to her and she reported the emails to the her former employers.

“Of course, I reported the emails to the FBI in April,” she noted, establishing that her ransom notes had come some time back.

Coffindaffer explained that she'd remained mum on getting the ransom note, until now, because the photo sent to her was the same that Serpa received. “These fraudsters should be identified. I realize they are overseas, but they need shut down because this isn't their only scam. Just because we didn't bite doesn't mean that some other unsuspecting kind hearted person won't,” the former FBI agent added.

Lauren Serpa's ransom note and Nancy Guthrie case

Serpa's ransom note demanded bitcoin and claimed Nancy was in Mexico, being held by a mafia boss. The sender allegedly tried to point the finger at Annie Guthrie and Tommaso Cioni as well. Serpa continued to express skepticism about the ransom note being real, because the person she spoke to only gave her publicly available details on the case.

Now, the note Serpa got has been determined to be fake. The FBI also determined that the previous ransom notes in Nancy's case were not real, Reuters had reported.

The 84-year-old mother of TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie had been reported missing on February 1. Authorities believe she was taken from her Catalina Foothills home near Tucson, Arizona, the night before. It has been over seven months and no suspects have been publicly named in the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping. The closest the public knows of a suspect is the masked man caught on camera, who the internet has dubbed ‘Porch Guy’.

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