FBI ARRESTS Man Who Sent FAKE Ransom Demands to the Guthrie Family

[Conservative Angle]

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The FBI has arrested a man who sent fake ransom demands to the family of Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother, Nancy.

Derrick Callella of California allegedly sent text messages to the family asking about Bitcoin for Nancy’s return.

However, law enforcement says he is not connected to the suspected kidnapping in any way.

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin shared the full DOJ complaint:

BREAKING: A Los Angeles man named Derrick Callella has been arrested by the FBI for allegedly sending texts to the Guthrie family to ask for bitcoin and see if they would respond. His text messages are not believed to be connected to the ransom demand.

How they caught him &… pic.twitter.com/BrPjcgYHxt

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 5, 2026

BREAKING: A Los Angeles man named Derrick Callella has been arrested by the FBI for allegedly sending texts to the Guthrie family to ask for bitcoin and see if they would respond. His text messages are not believed to be connected to the ransom demand.

How they caught him & DOJ criminal complaint below

(Feds say he tried to use a VOIP app which they were able to quickly get around via an emergency disclosure request to their mobile carrier, then they found his IP address and linked it to his California address).

Callella is now facing two counts of transmitting communication containing a demand or request for ransom.

The New York Post has more details:

Derrick Callella, who is in his mid-forties, messaged Guthrie’s daughter, Annie, and son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni about the ailing 84-year-old on Wednesday, according to the complaint filed in Arizona federal court.

“Did you get the bitcoin were [sic] waiting on our end for the transaction,” his message, sent to both Annie and Cioni, allegedly read.

Approximately three minutes after sending the texts, data obtained by authorities showed Callella also made a nine-second-long call to an unidentified family member of Nancy Guthrie, according to the court docs, which didn’t name the relative he allegedly called…

The relatives reported the chilling messages to police, who tracked the number to Callella’s residence in California, the court docs state.

There, Callella confessed to officers that he had been following along with the case on TV and he sent the two text messages after pulling the Guthries’ contact information from a website.

“He said … he was trying to see if the family would respond,” the complaint said.

Callella has been in trouble with the law before.

It appears like he was previously charged with stealing unemployment benefits.

Per Newsweek:

Newsweek analysis of public records and reports linked Callella, 42, of Torrance, California, to a recent case in Los Angeles County involving 13 county employees, who were accused of stealing over $430,000 in unemployment benefits.

Callella allegedly stole $9,984 in unemployment benefits between May 6, 2020, and January 20, 2022, the Los Angeles County District Attorney said in a press release on October 15, 2025.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the only ransom demand that the Guthrie family has received.

They’ve been flooded with ransom letters and messages — some of them real, and some fake.

The FBI is warning sickos who think it’s a good idea to try to profit from this tragedy against it.

Watch this:

BREAKING: The FBI has ARRESTED an individual who sent a FAKE ransom demand to the Guthrie family regarding their mother Nancy

What a sick SOB.

There are other ransom demands as well, so it’s unclear which one was fake. FBI says they WILL make other arrests of people taking… pic.twitter.com/21fq7gGT6d

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 5, 2026

BREAKING: The FBI has ARRESTED an individual who sent a FAKE ransom demand to the Guthrie family regarding their mother Nancy

What a sick SOB.

There are other ransom demands as well, so it’s unclear which one was fake. FBI says they WILL make other arrests of people taking advantage of the Guthries.

h/t @RapidReport2025

The deadline from the Nancy Guthrie ransom note that is believed to be legit has already passed.

Authorities have also discovered a third ransom note.

Jesse Waters provided the latest update on the ongoing investigation:

BREAKING: The First Nancy Guthrie RANSOM note deadline just EXPIRED… as the family just released a SECOND VIDEO

There is now a THIRD RANSOM NOTE— investigators say the letter included NO PROOF OF LIFE

The FBI is deploying TASK FORCE SPECIALISTS and have just set a $50K… pic.twitter.com/2j6QhkIbbE

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) February 6, 2026

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