Retired FBI Agent Shares Foolproof Ways To Determine Whether Nancy Guthrie Voice Authentic

A retired FBI agent explained Thursday how investigators can determine whether an audio recording attributed to Nancy Guthrie is genuine.

As the search for Nancy Guthrie stretched into its fifth day, her daughter, Today show personality Savannah Guthrie, publicly demanded proof of life after investigators disclosed that a ransom letter set two deadlines but yielded no family contact or verification. During a discussion on “The Arena with Kasie Hunt,” retired FBI agent Steve Moore addressed concerns about how law enforcement evaluates voice evidence when the subject’s voice is widely available in the public domain.

“It’s not going to be the voice that convinces people, and we’re not back in the ’40s. We do have AI to contend with, but there are certain things that only Nancy would know and that the kidnappers would not,” Moore told Kasie Hunt.

Moore said investigators focus on contextual verification, information that only the real person would know and that impostors or criminals could not easily fake.

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“You could compile a list of questions for the kidnappers to answer. You wouldn’t even have to have her on the phone, necessarily, if they refused to do that,” Moore added. “But if you say, on such-and-such a birthday, we all went to a restaurant. Where was it? What did you have? Do you remember what birthday it was? Things like that will come back. Those are things the kidnappers could not possibly know.”

Police are searching for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie after she was reported missing from her Arizona home Sunday under mysterious circumstances. The Pima County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Department said she was last seen Saturday night near East Skyline Drive and North Campbell Avenue. Officers remain unsure what she was wearing when she disappeared.

Police said they believe Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her home overnight, with blood reportedly found inside the residence. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told TMZ that investigators think she was taken from her bed. Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times that blood was discovered amid signs of forced entry, though authorities have not confirmed whose blood it was. (RELATED: Savannah Guthrie Breaks Silence On Mother Nancy’s Disappearance)

TMZ reportedly received an alleged ransom note demanding millions in cryptocurrency for the release of Nancy Guthrie. During a livestream, Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere said the note set a deadline, carried an explicit threat, and directed payment to a verified Bitcoin address.

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