A former FBI agent suggested that Nancy Guthrie's family should pay the half bitcoin demand made in alleged ransom notes to finally determine her whereabouts after she was initially reported missing on February 1.

“Tickling the wire in this case would be putting half a bitcoin and seeing what happens to it,” former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer told Newsweek.

Two new ransom notes were sent to TMZ earlier this week demanding one bitcoin, which is currently valued at $72,000, in exchange for details about the 84-year-old's whereabouts, which included the promise of delivering the kidnappers on a "silver platter."

“Do they take it? Do they convert it to pesos? It’s internationally tracked. How does it come out into currency? Do they just leave it there?” Coffindaffer told Newsweek. “Once it’s gone, it’s going to be gone. But I would want that last bread crumb. I think it would be worth it to me.”

Guthrie, the mother of TODAY Show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was abducted from her Tucson, Arizona, home on February 1 and investigators have never named any suspect nor had fresh leads in connection with her case. Multiple purported ranom notes were sent since her disappearance.

Savannah Guthrie made her return to the TODAY Show's anchor desk hours before the new ransom notes were sent to TMZ on Monday (April 6). The FBI had released doorbell camera footage of an armed and masked man outside her home on the morning she was reported missing.

The bureau described the man in the footage as being 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches with an average build.

Papa Keith