Former FBI Agent Says She Received Four Guthrie Ransom Emails

Former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer said she received four emails demanding bitcoin for Nancy Guthrie’s return over April 10 and 11, reported them to the FBI and did not reply. The messages’ sender and any connection to Guthrie’s disappearance have not been established. Coffindaffer said the emails arrived at a personal address and included an image she believed was generated by artificial intelligence. According to her account, one message demanded 25 bitcoin and said Guthrie was alive and would be returned within 12 hours of payment. A later email repeated the 25-bitcoin demand; a fourth, received the next morning, reduced it to 2 bitcoin and included a QR code for a cryptocurrency wallet. Coffindaffer said she believed the messages were scams rather than communications from the people responsible for Guthrie’s disappearance. She said she took them to the FBI, and that an agent shared her assessment. That account does not amount to a publicly announced FBI finding about the April emails. Coffindaffer also said the wallet addresses in her messages matched those in a message reportedly received by Lauren Serpa, a neighbor of Guthrie.