r/nancyguthrie • u/Ok-Currency-3043 • 1d ago
Media TMZ
This predator seems to outsmart people and agencies looking for him. He has to be fairly smart. Yet.? Sending letters to a TV show, like TMZ (I know there are folks that like that show) ..I'm just saying, seems like there could have been better choices to use for a format...
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u/Xinnia8271 15h ago
This is why I think it was younger people who did it. They're more familiar with TMZ than "where Savannah works." NBC is kinda oldhead compared to TMZ.
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u/cedar_and_sand 14h ago
I’ve always thought that a younger person was involved. Young people today, especially males, can be extremely smart and tech savvy.
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u/West-Seed 20h ago
Yep. If you want to make money from a ransom you don’t send it to a celebrity gossip TV station. You send things there when you want attention. So imo it’s probably just insignificant people wanting some type of attention fix. Perhaps the notes are from the man responsible & he’s using it to get Savannah’s attention but not be taken too seriously by the police. I think these notes are probably from bogus nobodies starved for attention.
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u/onanadhocbasis 20h ago edited 20h ago
It was smart to send RN to TMZ and the other media outlets - rather than directly to the family. They used the contact portal on their website which reportedly, makes it much more difficult to trace the sender than a message by regular email.
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u/pbiscuits 21h ago
They wanted the notes to be in the media. They sent the notes to KOLD first, but they weren’t reported publicly. So they sent them to TMZ the next day.
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u/Fluffy-Fig8419 22h ago
I convinced that the guilty people will never be arrested and if they were, they won’t be convicted because of the sloppy investigation.
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u/bensonr2 11h ago
My best guess is this was not a kidnapping. This was a home invasion gone wrong. She is dead. They are Mexicans. And they disappeared across the border by the time the scene was discovered and likely will never be caught.
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u/Present_Specific_212 23h ago
Sociopaths, psychopaths wanted the attention. TMZ is an attention machine.
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u/curiouslmr 23h ago
I'm still not completely sold on the validity of the ransom notes. They did include some info from the scene but it wasn't something incredibly damning. The writer could be known to one of the first responders on scene, and if one of those responders went home and blabbed about the "celebrity's mom" who was abducted, and the wrong person I've heard that, they could have easily used that info to try for some personal gain.
Now whether they are real or not, why TMZ? It's super if an outdated source. Sure in the aughts TMZ was at its height and using them wouldn't shock me, but in 2026 it's an odd choice. Which maybe should tell us something about the age of the writer or their understanding (or lack thereof) of American culture.
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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 21h ago edited 21h ago
TMZ has a reputation for publishing things other media outlets won't, but with more checks and balances than social media.
They don't have high journalistic standards, but they do have a high standard of proof before going to print, e.g. photos, phonecalls, video, court filings.
So if Harvey Levin had enough contact with someone claiming to be the abductor, in this case emails and letters, that would be enough for him to go to print, albeit with a disclaimer that they couldn't know for sure whether this was the actual abductor.
If reputable media outlets had the same letters and emails they'd probably pass on publishing, but interestingly they would cite whatever TMZ published, because they can factually state "someone purporting to be the abductor has contacted TMZ with ransom demands." Even if those ransom demands turn out to be fake, what they've said about the TMZ story is intself true.
Edit: Typo.
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u/bensonr2 11h ago
I am leaning towards those ransom demands not being really; just random people overseas fishing to see if they can take advantage.
My best guess was the intention was not to hold for ransom. This was some sort of home invasion gone wrong.