Missing Nancy Guthrie Ransom Twist Targeting Family Members Slammed as 'Horrible' by Ex-FBI Agent
Nancy Guthrie has been missing since February 1.
April 28 2026, Published 4:03 p.m. ET
Nancy Guthrie's family's hopes were lifted and then were abruptly dashed when Derrick Callella was arrested for allegedly texting them a fake ransom note demanding an exorbitant amount of cryptocurrency for information about the ailing 84-year-old.
Callella, 42, has since been released on $20,000 bail – a decision former FBI investigator Jennifer Coffindaffer slammed as "horrible."
Nothing More Than an 'Opportunist'
The Guthrie family allegedly received a fake ransom note from Derrick Callella.
"I think these bonds seem to be set way higher, you know, a hundred thousand or more. I mean, what happens when they go to get him and he doesn’t show up?" she lamented on a recent installment of her true crime YouTube show. "Maybe he will show up because he thinks he won’t do much time, even though he really is looking at exposure of about 20 years.”
As for his motives for allegedly committing such a terrible crime during a high profile investigation, Coffindaffer suggested Callella was nothing more than an "opportunist" who liked the attention and didn't care if his actions deeply hurt the Guthrie family as they continued their desperate search for Nancy.
"He knew he probably wasn’t even going to get paid. But many of these people really enjoy the suffering of the family," she explained. "He likely enjoyed having social media and the mainstream media looking at him pull a few strings for a very short while."
Trial Date Set
Savannah Guthrie has released videos on social media begging for the kidnapper to make contact.
Callella was charged on February 5 with "transmitting a demand for ransom in interstate commerce, and without disclosing his identity, utilizing a telecommunications device with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass a person."
Like Coffindaffer said, he faces up to 20 years behind bars and significant fines if found guilty.
His trial date has been set for June 23 in Tucson, Arizona.
Other Ransom Notes
The Guthrie family has received several ransom notes since Nancy's disappearance.
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings, Annie and Camron, released several heartfelt videos begging for contact from the kidnapper over the last three months. While they have received a number of alleged ransom notes since Nancy's disappearance, unfortunately, it's unclear which ones, if any, have been legitimate.
Adding to the confusion, several media outlets have also reported that they received correspondences regarding Nancy's whereabouts in the weeks since her apparent abduction.
As Radar reported, TMZ's Harvey Levin said he recently received a message that claimed Nancy was "dead."
"We got another letter today from this person, an email saying, 'I know where her body is, and who the kidnapper is," Levin read on April 6. "Give me half a bitcoin and I'll tell you."
Copycat Letter Concerns
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It's unclear which ransom notes, if any, have actually been from the kidnapper.
While some of the alleged ransom letters have been released, not all of them have been made available to the public in full – something Lisa Ribacoff-Mooney, a private investigator who owns Interpoint Investigative Services, theorized could be to avoid "copycat" notes.
"By releasing the letters, it also allows copycat letters to be sent in where the public would learn language, tone, and even if it is a typed letter, matching the font of the letter," she exclusively told Radar earlier this year. "It would remove the authenticity of the actual letters."
