Nancy Guthrie, Savannah Guthrie’s mother, has been missing since Saturday, January 31st. As the search for the 84-year-old continued, the family found two alleged ransom notes. They agreed to demand $6 million in bitcoin transfers.
Savannah Guthrie with her mother, Nancy Guthrie. (X/@JamesHartline)Notably, the deadline for the ransom note expires at 5 pm on Monday.While the family’s plea for payment is seen by many as an act of desperation, there is actually a well-thought-out strategy behind it, according to experts.
Recently, a criminal defense attorney wrote on Fox News that bitcoin transfers to accounts linked to ransom demands could provide investigators with an important lead to a suspect.
Nancy Guthrie Ransom: Former FBI agent provides cluesJosh Ritter, a criminal defense attorney at Fox & Friends, said the number linked to the bitcoin account for the ransom could lead investigators to the kidnappers. Ritter argued that Bitcoin is not as secure as people think, and account holders’ information can be easily tracked.
An interesting thing is that these wallets have a number, like an account number, and they can keep this information, if that account number has been used for any illegal activity in the past and they can monitor that account number, he said.
Also read: Nancy Guthrie case: Is son-in-law Tommaso Cioni prime suspect? what do we know
Ritter argued that if the transfer was made, at some point the people behind the account would convert it into real money to use it, and that moment could potentially lead the FBI to them.
Bitcoin account remains emptyTMZ reports that the Bitcoin account that was provided to pay the ransom in the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case remains funded, just hours before the 5 p.m. deadline.
According to the outlet, the account, which is publicly viewable, has a zero balance and shows no transaction history as of 2:40 pm ET.
