The two letters purported to be connected to Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abduction leave investigators with questions about their authenticity, but forensic psychologist Dr. Kris Mohandie says investigators made the right call by releasing them because doing so could renew public interest and generate new leads.
“I don’t think the ransom note is legit, and I don’t think that that letter days later is legitimate â but I think it’s appropriate for law enforcement to investigate it just in case it might be,” he told Fox News Digital.
“A good investigation keeps an open mind,” he said. “It really does.”
Some investigators said they were confident that the ransom demands are all bogus, while others are cautious about reaching that conclusion while Guthrie’s whereabouts remain unknown, federal law enforcement sources told Fox News and Fox News Digital last month.
Early in the case, they appeared to have taken them seriously, with Heith Janke, then the special agent in charge of the FBIs Phoenix field office, sitting down with Guthries adult children, including “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, to record a video response to the first note.
Mohandie also cautioned against treating crime scene details in the first letter as proof its author was involved. Those include references to Guthrie’s Apple Watch and a broken floodlight.
“I don’t make much out of those two details,” he said. “They seem to be details that inadvertently could have gotten to somebody, and so that’s not enough for me to say, this is something only the killer would know.”
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Mohandie said the letters also point to an author who appears comfortable with technology, citing references to Bitcoin, email communication and the unusual demand for “$4 million USD” â details he said could help identify whoever wrote the letters, whether they prove to be genuine or a hoax.
“I certainly question the legitimacy of the so-called ransom note in which the individual is sending it to a news outlet, saying this will be a ransom, so on and so forth, talks about we and then breaks into I in terms of pronouns,” Mohandie told Fox News Digital. “There are a lot of things wrong with that ransom note, and it raised a lot of questions for me of veracity.”
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Mohandie said he also has doubts about the second letter, which claimed Guthrie had “perished” days after the alleged kidnapping. While he said investigators are right to pursue every credible lead, he questioned whether a kidnapper would risk exposing themselves again with an apology or use the word “perished” in place of more common terms.
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“I understand why
