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A former NYPD inspector astonished Fox News hosts this weekend with a somber theory regarding the silence of Nancy Guthrieâs suspected kidnappers in ransom discussions: they are unable to provide proof of life.
âWell, youâre elusive on the communications because you know youâre going to be asked for proof of life that you canât provide,â retired NYPD Inspector Paul Mauro said on Fox Newsâs âThe Big Weekend Show.â
The comment hit co-hosts Joey Jones and Tomi Lahren hard.
âEmmmm,â Jones groaned off camera. Lahren audibly sighed after hearing the prediction.
âI feel like theyâve been playing games with the details in the house and all of that,â Mauro said. âThey probably planned for the idea that they could provide proof of life, and now they find themselves in a spot where, âWe canât. And so what do we do? Now we gotta bargain for something else. We gotta bargain to give back something else.ââ
âThatâs my read with the limited facts we have, hoping against hope Iâm wrong,â Mauro said, but he also warned that the entire situation could âall be a hoax.â
âWould you say⌠that they didnât mean to hurt her, but something might have gone wrong, and now theyâre still trying to get their payday out of this. Is that what I heard you kind of allude to?â Lahren asked.
Mauro said that one problem could be that Nancy Guthrie needs certain medications, and the kidnappers may not have been able to get them without drawing attention.
Federal agents searched a septic tank at Nancy Guthrieâs Tucson home on Sunday, just hours before a reported $6 million ransom deadline set for Monday night. People saw deputies using a long pole to poke around in the tank and shining flashlights inside.
The authors of the ransom note in the Nancy Guthrie case may have inadvertently revealed that they were operating outside the United States because of one small detail in their message: they specified that the multi-million-dollar demands be paid in US dollars, according to law enforcement experts.
âWhy would you use that if youâre a domestic person? That points to somebody who might be potentially outside the country, which also lends the potential for this being a scam,â former FBI agent Michael Harrigan told the New York Post.
âIf youâre domestic, why would you ever put âUSD?â You put six million,â he added.
Guthrieâs alleged kidnappers demanded a ransom to be paid in Bitcoin, but specified that the payment should be in USD. They set two deadlines: the first at 5 p.m. MT on Thursday, with the amount increasing if the payment was not made by this deadline and was instead submitted by a Monday deadline.
Since the note was first sent to news outlets last week, the sender has not contacted law enforcement or the Guthrie family. Investigators are still trying to determine whether the notes are genuine.
There are still no suspects or person of interest â and no suspect vehicles have been identified, The Post noted further.
âDetectives and agents continue to conduct follow-up at multiple locations. Details of that follow-up are not being released at this time,â the Pima County, Ariz., Sheriffâs Department noted on Sunday.
Itâs now been eight days since Nancy disappeared. A new payment deadline, per a ransom note, is approaching later on Monday.
On Saturday, âTodayâ anchor Savannah Guthrie, flanked by siblings Camron and Annie, released a video begging for their motherâs safe return and telling Nancyâs abductors, âWe beg you now to return our mother to us, so that we can celebrate with her.â Guthrie said the family was willing to pay for the octogenarianâs return.
âWe received your message and we understand,â the âTodayâ anchor said. âWe beg you now to return our mother to us, so that we can celebrate with her.
âThis is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay,â she added.
Billboards have been placed in high-traffic areas in states near Arizona to assist in the search for the grandmother who vanished on January 31.
Police were seen leaving Annie Guthrieâs home on Sunday, wearing gloves and carrying brown bags, as the search for her and Savannah Guthrieâs mother, Nancy, entered its seventh day.
