A new letter obtained by TMZ has added fresh detail to the months-long investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, even as the outlet continues pushing back on separate reports claiming a different communication confirmed the 84-year-old’s death.

The latest message comes from the same individual who has been periodically emailing TMZ since shortly after Guthrie went missing from her Tucson, Arizona, home on February 1. According to the outlet, the sender now claims to possess video evidence involving one of the alleged kidnappers and Guthrie herself, stored on a hidden phone he is offering to unlock in exchange for cryptocurrency.

What the newest letter claims

TMZ reported that the sender claims to have a video showing the “main guy” and Nancy Guthrie together on the night of her disappearance, while maintaining his earlier assertion that two people were involved in the kidnapping. According to the letter, he wrote: “I have a phone stashed in a secure location guaranteeing both the information it stores and the safety of the phone. What it contains is my definition of delivering them on a silver platter, a short video of the main guy with Nancy, the day that was probably her last, pictures of both involved, names, addresses, and age.”

In exchange for unlocking the device, the sender is asking for one Bitcoin, sent to a newly provided address. TMZ said it has requested a screenshot of the alleged footage to verify the claim’s authenticity before any further engagement, and that it has forwarded the new correspondence to the FBI.

The letter also addressed an unrelated lead in the case, with the sender distancing himself from a tip phoned in roughly three weeks ago suggesting Guthrie’s remains were buried across the border in Mexico. “I am not the idiot who recently called in a tip about her burial site in Mexico,” the sender wrote, according to TMZ.

A possible link to the doorbell footage

Investigators have separately recovered video from Guthrie’s home security camera showing a masked figure on her porch hours before she disappeared, a person who has come to be known in coverage of the case as “porch guy.” TMZ’s reporting noted that some following the case believe this individual may be the same person the anonymous emailer refers to as the “main guy” in his letters, though that connection has not been officially confirmed by investigators.

TMZ said it has authenticated the new letter as coming from the same source behind previous correspondence by comparing Bitcoin addresses used in each communication.

A separate, disputed claim about Guthrie’s death

The new letter arrives amid an unresolved disagreement between news outlets over the contents of a different, earlier communication in the case — one that has generated confusion about whether investigators or media organizations possess direct evidence that Guthrie has died.

That dispute traces back to a report from Air Mail, which cited sources close to the investigation describing a Feb. 6 email sent to TMZ as containing what was characterized as a “bizarre, rambling apology” for Guthrie’s accidental death, along with an offer to return her body in exchange for payment. TMZ has firmly disputed that characterization. The outlet stated that the ransom note it received “did not say that Guthrie was dead or contain an apology.”

TMZ has offered its own explanation for where the death-related reporting may have originated, pointing to a separate, ongoing email exchange distinct from the verified ransom notes. According to TMZ, that separate correspondence comes from someone who “claimed to know who kidnapped Nancy and where she was” but “denied being the abductor himself.” TMZ has said this individual indicated early on that “time is of the essence,” before later writing that “time is no longer of the essence” — a shift the outlet has interpreted as the sender suggesting Guthrie was no longer alive, without explicitly stating so or apologizing for it.

A separate report from NewsNation, citing sources close to the investigation, added another layer to the dispute, indicating that a ransom note in the case said Guthrie had died and was “buried with nature now,” with her death described as unintentional, though without a direct apology — a characterization that partially overlaps with, but does not fully match, either TMZ’s or Air Mail’s account.

TMZ says the FBI has gone quiet

TMZ has maintained that it alerted federal investigators early on about the emails it considered credible. The outlet said it told the FBI roughly a month ago that it believed the person requesting Bitcoin in exchange for information was likely genuine, reasoning that a scammer attempting to maintain leverage would be unlikely to undercut their own urgency by suggesting time had run out. TMZ has also said it offered to pay the requested Bitcoin itself in order to trace where the payment led, in coordination with the FBI, but said the bureau has not followed up despite repeated attempts to reach them.

Where the investigation stands

Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson home on February 1, and investigators believe she was taken against her will. Authorities recovered footage from her doorbell camera showing a masked individual near her property in the hours before she vanished, and forensic evidence collected from the scene reportedly showed signs of her blood, though no suspects have been publicly named in the case nearly five months later.

Guthrie’s daughter, “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, and her family continue to offer a $1 million reward for information leading to her mother’s safe return, with the FBI separately offering an additional reward in connection with the case. The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department have said the investigation remains active, even as the flow of unverified tips, conflicting media reports and anonymous correspondence continues to complicate public understanding of where the case truly stands.

Anyone with information related to Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-225-5324.

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Free sport sessions are set to be offered in Sheffield to “get families active” during the school summer holidays.

More than a dozen parks and green spaces in the city will host the two-hour sessions, including Firth Park, Greenhill Park and Gleadless Common.

The afternoon and evening slots will offer football, rounders and other multi-sport sessions, with family-friendly games for all ages and abilities also promised.

Everyone Active – which has a contract with Sheffield City Council to run leisure, health and wellbeing facilities – will lead the events, with free food and drink also on offer.

Lorenzo Clark, from Everyone Active, said: “The scheme provides activities for those who might not necessarily be able to go away on holiday because of affordability.

“We put expert coaches in place so people can try new things as well as activities they will have done before.”

Everyone Active is contracted to run facilities including the English Institute of Sport, Ponds Forge International Sports Centre and Ice Sheffield.

The summer activity sessions run from 20 July to 28 August, with booking in advance advised., external

Councillor Brian Holmshaw, chair of the communities, parks and leisure policy committee at the council, said: “The school summer holidays are always an exciting time for children right across Sheffield, but it can give parents a challenge of how to entertain their kids during the daytime.

“These activities are perfect for getting families out and about across the city, getting them active and having lots of fun, hopefully in the sun.”

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CARACAS — The death toll from a pair of powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela this week has climbed to at least 920, with more than 3,300 people injured and dozens still believed trapped beneath collapsed buildings, as international rescue teams worked through the weekend in what officials describe as a narrowing window to find survivors.

The disaster, among the deadliest in the country’s modern history, has overwhelmed a healthcare system already strained by years of economic crisis and left thousands of families searching for missing loved ones in a country with some of the most restricted media access in the world.

Twin quakes strike without warning

The earthquakes struck Wednesday evening, just 39 seconds apart. A magnitude 7.2 foreshock hit at 6:04 p.m. local time near San Felipe in Yaracuy state, followed almost immediately by a magnitude 7.5 mainshock centered near the town of Morón on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, roughly 100 miles west of Caracas. The U.S. Geological Survey identified the stronger quake as the most powerful to strike Venezuela since 1900, when a magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit the country.

USGS seismologist Paul Earle told NPR that earthquakes striking in such close succession is highly unusual. “This doesn’t happen very often,” Earle said. “When they’re right together, it’s hard to understand what would happen.” Earle added that USGS modeling estimated a 40% chance that a magnitude 6 or larger aftershock could strike the same region within a week, along with what he called an “almost certainty” of at least one quake measuring magnitude 5 or higher. At least 138 aftershocks have been recorded since the initial quakes, according to Venezuelan officials, complicating rescue efforts in already unstable structures.

A rising toll and a critical window closing

As of Saturday morning, Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, said the death toll stood at 920, with more than 3,300 injured and at least 172 people still believed trapped under rubble. The figure has climbed steadily since the quakes struck, rising from an initial count of 188 dead on Thursday to 589 by Friday morning and then surging past 900 by Saturday as search teams reached previously inaccessible areas.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has stressed the urgency of the search effort. “After an earthquake, the first 72 hours are critical to saving lives,” the agency said Friday, adding that in the search for survivors, “every second matters.” The U.N. agency said it had organized at least 17 international search teams, comprising more than 1,600 personnel and over 100 search dogs, working alongside Venezuelan responders.

La Guaira bears the brunt

The coastal state of La Guaira, just north of Caracas, has suffered the most severe damage of any region in the country. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez described the devastation in stark terms. “We can say that the state of La Guaira is experiencing a genuine tragedy and has become a disaster zone,” she said. A United Nations humanitarian agency reported that more than 100 buildings collapsed in La Guaira alone, with satellite imagery showing dozens of partially or fully flattened structures in the town of Caraballeda.

With nowhere else to go, many displaced residents have taken to sleeping outdoors. In the city of Catia La Mar, families have set up temporary shelters on a baseball field, while others have told reporters they are too afraid to return to damaged buildings that remain standing but structurally compromised.

Overwhelmed hospitals and a struggling response

Venezuela’s healthcare system, already weakened by years of underfunding, has buckled under the surge of injured patients. Rodríguez said 13 hospitals across the country sustained damage in the earthquakes, and at least two hospitals — one in Caracas and one in La Guaira — have collapsed entirely, according to Caracas pediatrician Dr. Huniades Urbina-Medina, who told CNN that surviving facilities are now facing shortages of basic supplies including water, antibiotics, IV solution and anesthetics.

Frustration has grown among residents over what some describe as a slow and under-resourced official response. In some coastal communities, residents have called for civilian volunteers to assist with debris removal using “pickaxes and shovels” rather than wait for heavy machinery that has yet to arrive in critical areas.

An international rescue effort takes shape

Foreign assistance has poured into Venezuela in the days since the quakes struck. Rescue convoys from Mexico, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic arrived by Friday, joining teams already on the ground, including elite search-and-rescue units from Fairfax County, Virginia, and Los Angeles County in the United States. A Miami-Dade Fire Rescue team of 80 personnel and six canine units also deployed to the region. Salvadoran rescuers were among those credited with locating a 15-year-old girl trapped on the ninth floor of a collapsed building in Catia La Mar.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media that Washington was “immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.” Acting President Rodríguez said she had received a call from President Donald Trump and Rubio, who she said “reaffirmed the United States Government’s support during this difficult time for Venezuela.”

A communications blackout complicates the crisis

The disaster has unfolded against the backdrop of Venezuela’s tightly controlled information environment. According to monitoring group VE sin Filtro, more than 200 websites in the country remain blocked, including news outlets, social media platforms and tools used to circumvent censorship. The United Nations’ Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela has urged authorities to “fully restore access to social networks and all media outlets,” warning that timely information will be “vital for the protection of the lives, safety, and well-being of the population.”

A crowdsourced website created to track missing persons, Desaparecidos Terremoto Venezuela, has logged more than 62,000 names since the earthquakes struck, with more than 52,000 of those individuals still listed as unaccounted for as of Friday. Those figures have not been independently confirmed by Venezuelan officials.

A nation already in crisis

The earthquakes struck a country already grappling with severe political and economic turmoil, compounding what was already one of the most difficult periods in Venezuela’s recent history. The timing of the disaster — coinciding with a national holiday when many residents were at home with their families rather than at work or school — may have limited casualties in commercial and institutional buildings, even as it left densely populated residential areas particularly vulnerable.

As search efforts continue into the weekend, officials have acknowledged that the death toll is likely to keep rising. With hundreds still missing and rescue teams racing against deteriorating conditions in the rubble, the full scale of the tragedy may not become clear for days or weeks to come.