FBI didn’t – A former FBI supervisory special agent says the Bureau never paying a Nancy Guthrie ransom demand wasn’t surprising—because doing so would have violated protocol without proof of life.
A ransom demand tied to Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance landed in public view, and the debate followed fast: why didn’t the FBI simply pay?
James Hamilton—described as a personal security expert and former FBI supervisory special agent—said it wasn’t surprising the Bureau never followed through. His reasoning. laid out on Megyn Kelly’s Tuesday episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show. ” was blunt: paying out would have violated protocol. especially because authorities didn’t have proof of life.
Hamilton pointed to what he called the Bureau’s lack of confirmation. “I mean. we got to remember that the reality is we still never had a proof of life ever. ” he said on the show. He also argued that the contents of the first note didn’t give negotiators enough to justify launching a major payment. adding that the initial message didn’t include a picture or other proof that would have met the threshold needed to act.
Kelly’s discussion arrived a day after TMZ’s Harvey Levin said the FBI allegedly ghosted him after he offered to pay a tipster who claimed to know about Savannah Guthrie’s mother’s whereabouts. In that tense back-and-forth atmosphere, Kelly wondered whether authorities were regretting their choice.
Hamilton didn’t frame it as regret. He said protocol exists for a reason. even if it can sound “callous.” “They shouldn’t have paid the $4 million without an actual proof of life of Miss Guthrie. ” he said. describing the danger of paying in a situation where the money might not bring the victim back.
His warning was practical: if negotiators pay without verification, he said, kidnappers learn they can keep sending demands. “Because if you do. and you know. you don’t get her back because it’s a scammer. then there’s going to be more $4 million requests and you’re going to keep playing that game until you run out of money.”.
New details about the ransom notes had also surfaced by Monday. Per the reports discussed in the episode. the ransom notes sent to media were believed by both the Guthrie family and authorities to be legitimate. The first note allegedly demanded millions in bitcoin and included highly specific details about Guthrie’s Tucson, Ariz. home. A second note followed days later, and it allegedly indicated that the Guthrie matriarch had died.
Hamilton said negotiators are trained to build communication and rapport with the person responsible. aiming to pull information that couldn’t be scavenged from public sources like the news or social media. “It can’t be that. you know. there’s a flood light out that you could have got from a Google Earth overview or some previous story. ” he said.
He argued that the kind of detail included in ransom messaging matters because it can reveal whether the sender actually has access to the victim. In his example. he said Kelly’s coverage—via past interviews Savannah Guthrie had done with her mother—could have allowed someone to infer intimate. visual details. “Megyn. you did a great job playing all the previous stories of interviews that Savannah had done with her mom. where I could have seen that Apple Watch. ” Hamilton said. “I could have told you the night gown she likes to wear. I could have told you the color of her pillows.”.
Hamilton then tied that point to a wider pattern: “According to Hamilton, this is why depictions of kidnappings often have the victim holding a newspaper in the ransom message.”
When it came to the alleged follow-up note after Nancy Guthrie’s death. Hamilton speculated it could have been aimed at keeping the money flowing—especially if the sender couldn’t provide proof of life anymore. He pointed to timing and public response. saying. “Notice it worked. because she went on Instagram the next day on the 7th saying. ‘Hey. we hear you and we’ll pay. ’” he said.
Hamilton pressed on why contact would then stop. “So what happened? … Why was there no more contact, right? What what happened then? Because there’s no one reporting on any of that.”
Watch Hamilton’s full conversation with Kelly above.
Nancy Guthrie FBI ransom demand Megyn Kelly The Megyn Kelly Show James Hamilton Savannah Guthrie bitcoin Tucson Arizona TMZ Harvey Levin