The FBI has arrested a California man for allegedly sending a fake ransom demand amid the ongoing search for Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother, Nancy.
Derrick Callella, 42, was arrested in Hawthorne, Calif. on Thursday and charged with two federal crimes — one count of transmitting a demand for ransom related to a kidnapped person and one of making anonymous interstate communications intended to harass or threaten, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday.
The feds allege that Callella had been following the Guthrie case and acted an an “imposter” to profit from the situation, though he’s not believed to be connected to any of the ransom notes sent to media outlets demanding millions in cryptocurrency.
“We have found no evidence linking this to Nancy’s case,” said Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix division. “It was someone that was trying to profit from it. A total imposter.”
According to the complaint, Guthrie’s family received two text messages on Wednesday, shortly after Savannah and her siblings posted an emotional video online making a plea to their mother’s abductor.
“Did you get the bitcoin were [sic] waiting on our end for the transaction,” allegedly read the texts sent to both Guthrie’s daughter Annie and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni.
Authorities were able to determine that Callella used an internet application to send the alleged texts through a different phone number than the one assigned to his cellphone, the criminal complaint states. The phony number was accessed by an IP address which was later traced to Callella’s home in California.
Authorities apprehended Callella, at which point he admitted to sending the texts using the application, the feds said. He told them he “pulled family information from a cyber website” and sent the messages just to “see if the family would respond.”
“The Department of Justice will protect victims and families at all costs, and grief profiteers will be held accountable,” U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine said after Callella’s arrest.
Authorities are still actively investigating the ransom notes sent earlier this week. They have yet to publicly confirm their authenticity, but said they’re being taken very seriously.
“This was a note that came in that had facts associated with it,” Janke said on Thursday, alluding to information that only the presumed kidnapper might know.
Janke said a ransom note sent to at least one outlet demanded money with a deadline set for 5 p.m. on Thursday, which has since come and gone. There’s also said to have been mention of a second, more serious deadline for Monday if the first one isn’t met.
Guthrie’s potential captor has yet to make contact with the family, according to authorities.
