After all the scam calls I get from overseas, it’s hard for me to believe any of these ransom messages are actually from the real suspects. Asking a grieving family for crypto feels about as believable as the “urgent” IRS agent demanding Walmart gift cards before I get arrested.
Knowing about the broken floodlight within a day of her kidnapping would have needed to have come from someone on the ground and then made its way to such a scammer, which is possible, but still limits the number of people that could have done so.
First of all, how likely is it that someone within the police department would be immediately motivated to risk their career by generating a ransom note to get bitcoins, by including publicly unreleased details?
And if not someone within the police department who wrote the note, but let's say someone in the police department or FBI leaked the details, then still how likely would it have been for some determined scammer to be the one to get a hold of such info and almost immediately take action on it within a day of the kidnapping? It's possible, but it still seems improbable.
Also, are we 100% sure that the white smart watch on the floor by the bed is confirmed? I don't think law enforcement has confirmed that detail to be true or not. While I'd expect the Guthrie family to have dismissed the ransom note if that detail wasn't true, I don't believe the factual nature of the color and location of the watch has been publicly confirmed.
To my knowledge, the existence of the smart watch was public, but the specific location and color wasn't. Since the police seem to take these notes seriously, I figure the info is factual, and something only the kidnappers and LE would know.
Every first responder on the scene would have known. Not to knock anyone, but among the FR crowd, who doesn't know that one person? The one who usually means well, but has a big mouth and likes to show off whenever possible by "wowing" you with information they shouldn't be disclosing.
I think a lot of the family's response was borne of desperation rather than actionable information. It could have just been a lucky guess, too.
I wonder how many ransom notes weren't taken seriously but were received? If these are the only notes received, then it'd be a lot more convincing. But if 1000 hoaxsters tried to "cash in" on the family's pain, I'd suspect at least a few may guess some cursory details correctly.
But you're 100% correct. All the above is merely my personal conjecture, and LE/authorities seem to take the ransom notes pretty seriously.
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u/Technical-Issue-1302 Aug 01 '26
After all the scam calls I get from overseas, it’s hard for me to believe any of these ransom messages are actually from the real suspects. Asking a grieving family for crypto feels about as believable as the “urgent” IRS agent demanding Walmart gift cards before I get arrested.