A California man faces criminal charges after federal investigators say he sent texts demanding bitcoin payment for the return of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, 84, who disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona, last Sunday.
Derrick Callella, 42, of Hawthorne, California, is charged with transmitting a ransom demand related to a kidnapped person and anonymous interstate communications intended to harass or threaten, according to the criminal complaint.
The texts were sent to Guthrie’s daughter and son-in-law on Feb. 4, after the family published an emotional video pleading for kidnappers to contact them about their mother in response to a ransom letter sent to a news station two days earlier, according to the FBI.
The FBI has not linked the texts to the Feb. 2 ransom demands.
Authorities are offering a $50,000 reward for information in the recovery of Nancy Guthrie or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance.
