Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / New Ransom Note Emerges in Ongoing Disappearance of Nancy Guthrie | Crime Alert 09.30.26

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New Ransom Note Emerges in Ongoing Disappearance of Nancy Guthrie | Crime Alert 09.30.26 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: Crime Alert, hourly update, breaking.
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  Speaker 2: Crime news now.
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  Speaker 3: I'm Sydney Silvani. A major development in a high-profile missing
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  Speaker 3: persons investigation as authorities reveal a new potential clue in
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  Speaker 3: the disappearance of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie's mother, Nancy Guthrie.
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  Speaker 3: The Pima County Sheriff's Department announced on Monday that investigators
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  Speaker 3: were recently made aware of a new possible ransom note
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  Speaker 3: connected to the ongoing case. Investigators are also aware of
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  Speaker 3: social media comments regarding the note and are looking further
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  Speaker 3: into the information to determine its credibility. This is not
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  Speaker 3: the first time alleged ransom notes have surfaced during the investigation.
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  Speaker 3: Back on July 31st, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos released
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  Speaker 3: two previous notes, hoping the writer's distinct wording or style
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  Speaker 3: might jar someone's memory and prompt community action to help
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  Speaker 3: break the case. It's out there.
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  Speaker 2: People have been.
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  Speaker 2: Media has covered some of this. And we just saw
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  Speaker 2: what was being said and felt like we need to
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  Speaker 2: put something out that's really accurate. And this was the
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  Speaker 2: time we felt like investigators felt like there's a number
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  Speaker 2: of pieces of information in these notes that someone might
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  Speaker 2: just might jar someone to say, you know, I've heard
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  Speaker 2: that or the wording, the style of the writing is
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  Speaker 2: might jog somebody to kind of think about who would
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  Speaker 2: have written this? How was this done?
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  Speaker 3: The Sheriff's Department has been actively investigating Nancy's disappearance since
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  Speaker 3: February 1st. The 84-year-old was last seen near her home
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  Speaker 3: on January 31st after family members dropped her off. Her
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  Speaker 3: family reported her missing the next day when she failed
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  Speaker 3: to show up for a virtual church service. Sheriff Nanos
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  Speaker 3: emphasized that sharing information directly with the public remains essential.
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  Speaker 2: I think anybody who reads them, my investigators, we look
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  Speaker 2: at it, and clearly there's things in there that are
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  Speaker 2: very concerning to our investigative team. So we hope that
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  Speaker 2: by releasing the actual note, we'll get some response from
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  Speaker 2: the community.
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  Speaker 3: Savannah Guthrie has made multiple public pleas online and on
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  Speaker 3: air asking for answers. During a September 15th broadcast of Today,
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  Speaker 3: the 54-year-old anchor said she wants to give her mother
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  Speaker 3: a proper goodbye. Before that, in an August 1st Instagram post,
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  Speaker 3: Savannah described her family's devastation, writing that while they try
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  Speaker 3: to be strong every day, their hearts are in ruins.
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  Speaker 3: She begged anyone with information to step forward anonymously, noting
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  Speaker 3: that a substantial reward is available to bring this painful
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  Speaker 3: situation to an end. More crime and justice news after this.
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  Speaker 3: A New York Times executive is dead and his elderly
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  Speaker 3: in-laws are facing murder charges. 40-year-old Jonathan McKenzie, head of
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  Speaker 3: engineering for New York Times Games, was fatally shot in
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  Speaker 3: broad daylight on Saturday, September 26th in a parking lot
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  Speaker 3: in Dublin, California. Shortly after the shooting, Dublin police arrested
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  Speaker 3: McKenzie's in-laws, 77-year-old Shuyang Zhang and 77-year-old Sheely Chen, charging
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  Speaker 3: both with murder. Court records reveal McKenzie was embroiled in
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  Speaker 3: legal disputes with his wife, Candace Jang, filing for divorce
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  Speaker 3: in December after mutual protective order requests. Online records show
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  Speaker 3: McKenzie had been charged with child cruelty, pleading not guilty
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  Speaker 3: last October. A New York Times spokesperson confirmed his role
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  Speaker 3: but denied to comment on the charges. On LinkedIn, McKenzie
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  Speaker 3: had written about leadership and fatherhood, sharing a post about
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  Speaker 3: his newborn daughter following the 2021 Atlanta spa attacks and
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  Speaker 3: calling on Americans to unite. Both in-laws remain held on
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  Speaker 3: murder charges. In Mississippi, safety leaders and lawmakers are calling
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  Speaker 3: for a crackdown on kratom after two University of Mississippi
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  Speaker 3: students died last week, both found with a suspected synthetic
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  Speaker 3: form of the drug. 18-year-old Aiden Hamilton and 20-year-old Robert
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  Speaker 3: Strang died in separate incidents. Investigators found store-bought Kratom products
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  Speaker 3: in both students' rooms, focusing on S-Max pseudo-DHM pills. Hamilton
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  Speaker 3: died in his Stewart Hall dorm room on campus. His
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  Speaker 3: roommate noted heavy marijuana use, but agents focused on S-Max
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  Speaker 3: pills found on his dresser. Mississippi Department of Public Safety
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  Speaker 3: Commissioner Sean Tindall commented on the investigation.
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  Speaker 1: We're wanting to test those and make sure that anything
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  Speaker 1: that's in there, it's not being laced with any other
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  Speaker 1: chemicals or there's no other harmful chemicals in that product.
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  Speaker 3: Robert String was found dead inside his off-campus home on
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  Speaker 3: Van Buren Avenue. Investigators found 20 to 30 nitrous oxide
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  Speaker 3: cans along with a packet of S-Max on his nightstand.
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  Speaker 3: Roommates reported String took a Xanax bar Sunday afternoon before
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  Speaker 3: being found unresponsive the next day. Investigators traced the Kratom
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  Speaker 3: to Express Mart No. 7 in Yalabusha County and Puff's Vape,
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  Speaker 3: Tobacco & Beer in Oxford, where undercover agents arrested two
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  Speaker 3: employees and seized 500 units of Kratom. Notably, an employee
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  Speaker 3: had warned an undercover informant to be careful taking the
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  Speaker 3: pills because people are dying from them. With toxicology reports
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  Speaker 3: being fast-tracked by a Florida lab, Commissioner Tyndell noted the
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  Speaker 3: deaths could spur statewide legislative action.
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  Speaker 1: And so I think one of the things the legislature
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  Speaker 1: is going to look at and consider next year is
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  Speaker 1: are we at a point where we need a statewide
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  Speaker 1: ban on kratom?
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  Speaker 3: Although kratom is currently banned locally in Oxford and Lafayette County,
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  Speaker 3: state officials are weighing whether broader legislation is necessary. For
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  Speaker 3: more crime and justice news, be sure to join us
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  Speaker 3: for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Fox One, YouTube,
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  Speaker 3: Sirius XM, and now streaming on Tubi. With this crime alert,
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  Speaker 3: I'm Sydney Silvani.