Nancy Guthrie Case Breakthrough: California man pleads guilty to ‘harassment’ for ‘fake’ ransom demand; here’s what we know

Nancy Guthrie Case Update: The Nancy Guthrie disappearance case has seen a major breakthrough five months into the investigation, with a California man pleading guilty to sending fake ransom notes tied to her alleged abduction. Derrick Callella, 42, of Hawthorne, California, pleaded guilty to two counts of Harassment Using a Telecommunication Device, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona announced on Thursday, July 2, 2026.

“In his plea, Callella admitted that he called and sent text messages to a missing person’s family on Feb. 4, 2026, which asked about a bitcoin transfer. Callella acknowledged that he knew an earlier ransom demand had been made,” the attorney's office said in a press release. “Callella also admitted that his actions were meant to harass the family by seeking information about the investigation into the missing person’s disappearance,” it further stated.

When will Callella be sentenced?

The release further stated that Callella’s conviction for Harassment Using a Telecommunication Device carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both, along with one year of supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for September 10, 2026.

Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC journalist and ‘TODAY’ show host Savannah Guthrie, was allegedly abducted from her home in Tucson, Arizona, in the early hours on February 1, 2026, and was reported missing by her family after she failed to attend church service.

Investigators, led by the Pima County Sheriff’s Office and later joined by the FBI, have been scrambling the growing web of leads in the case for months, but no suspect has been identified or arrested despite rewards offered.

FBI clears air on ransom notes

The latest development comes after the FBI on Wednesday (July 1, 2026) broke silence on “several ransom notes” that emerged during the investigation, some of which haven't yet been ruled out.

The Phoenix office of the FBI said that while some of the notes “have been deemed to be extortion attempts without legitimacy,” other ransom demands “may potentially be legitimate and are still being investigated as such.”

What we know about ransom notes

The statement was issued after a Reuters report, citing an FBI source familiar with the investigation, said the ransom notes were fake. The report referred to the two ransom notes received in February soon after Nancy’s disappearance, along with a more recent note claiming to know the identities of Nancy’s kidnappers.

According to the Reuters report, an FBI official said the first two ransom notes were traced to the same sender. The first note was sent to TMZ and demanded millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. The second note alleged that Nancy had died shortly after being abducted, as previously reported by NBC News.