Nancy Guthrie Update: Former FBI Agent Says ‘Bad Faith' Negotiations Started on Day 1
New insight into the Nancy Guthrie case is raising fresh questions about how the situation may have unfolded from the very beginning. During an interview with NewsNation's Brian Entin, former FBI agent Steve Moore weighed in on the case, pointing to early communications that he believes set the stage from the very beginning.
"The problem I have here is the kidnappers-or the people demanding the ransom-were negotiating in bad faith from day one," Moore told Entin on the April 20 episode of Brian Entin Investigates. They would provide no proof of life. They didn't take Nancy's safety into consideration, according to physical evidence at the scene. Everything they did was in bad faith. And so it's like negotiating with Iran. They can say that they're going to do something, but we sure don't trust them to do anything because they've never demonstrated any bit of integrity or good faith in the investigation."
"One of the main issues that makes them seem like non-serious is that they wanted the negotiations basically public. They wanted to go through TMZ. They wanted to go through TV networks," Moore continued, adding, that whomever is behind the ransom notes "wanted this public."
A number of different notes were sent to news outlets following Guthrie's disappearance back on Feb. 1. There were apparent ransom notes sent to TMZ and other media outlets fairly early on in the case that demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin. There were additional notes sent to the outlet from someone claiming to know who was behind Guthrie's disappearance.
Savannah Guthrie, Nancy's youngest daughter, said that she and her family believe that two of those notes were legitimate.
As for why the ransoms weren't paid from the beginning, Moore says that the FBI likely looked at the notes as a negotiation and they weren't going to "play the game" where someone dictated the terms.
Moore also added that he wasn't surprised that the ransom wasn't paid in full.
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This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 9:46 AM.