Nancy Guthrie ransom notes contain repeated writing quirks that could help identify suspect, expert says

A pair of messages that may have been sent by someone with knowledge of Nancy Guthrie’s suspected kidnapping from her Arizona home contain a series of clues about their author, according to retired Colorado investigator Lisa Miller, who said grammatical habits and sentence patterns suggest both notes were likely written by the same person — and could ultimately trigger the tip detectives have been waiting for.

Guthrie is the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie. Authorities have said she was taken from her home in northern Tucson in the early hours of Feb. 1, after a masked intruder appeared on her front steps in recovered doorbell camera video.

Making them public last month could do more than jog someone’s memory, Miller said. It could also put pressure on whoever wrote the notes, potentially prompting a misstep that exposes the author to someone in their own circle.

“The bad guys can’t help but look over their shoulder and wonder, are they onto me? Are they coming? And that pressure creates behavioral leakage that we’re looking for and people around them might see.”

Another possibility, she said, is that offenders typically try to minimize their wrongdoing.

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“They blame others,” Miller said. “They blame, you know, the victim themselves. They distance themselves from that bad thing that they did.”

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Miller also flagged the sender’s use of both a dollar sign and “USD” to specify the ransom amount, along with the way dates and times were written, as other notable quirks.

“I would bring people from the public that are looking at these notes to look at that also, cause that’s a distinction,” she said.

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Authorities have not yet confirmed that the notes are authentic, but Guthrie’s daughter, “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, has said she believes they may be — and investigators haven’t ruled them out either.

The sum of all rewards in the case is over $1.2 million.

Anyone with information is asked to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI or, to remain anonymous, call 520-88-CRIME.