Experts say kidnappings for ransom are rare, although dramatic hostage crises are common on television. But the apparent kidnapping of the “Today” show host. Savannah Guthrie The mother raised questions about how law enforcement handles hostage negotiations in real life, and Risks of media attention For the victims.
In the days that followed Nancy Guthrie, 84from her home outside Tucson, Arizona, a local television station received two messages that appeared to be related to the case. One of them demanded money for Guthrie’s return and provided information about her Apple watch and floodlights on her property.
While law enforcement has not named a suspect — or even definitively confirmed that the ransom note is real — Guthrie’s children have released two videos pleading with her apparent kidnappers, pleading for proof that their mother is still alive.
Professional hostage negotiators from around the world say that kidnappings depicted on television — in which police scream through a megaphone at heavily armed hostage takers inside a bank — often distort the delicate touch required for real-world negotiations.
There are three types of hostage situations, according to Scott Thelema, a retired SWAT hostage negotiator in Illinois. Less common in the United States is the type that involves kidnapping for ransom, he said.
For this category, kidnapping is intentionally used as a means to achieve a result, such as financial compensation, propaganda or political changes, said Thelema, who declined to talk about Guthrie’s apparent kidnapping specifically.
Scott Walker, author of Order Out of Chaos: The Kidnapping Negotiator’s Guide to Influencing and Persuading, has handled hundreds of kidnapping cases over his decades-long career. Most involved international actors, but he said that regardless of location, most scenarios followed a similar sequence of events.
Kidnappers usually plan long in advance of the kidnapping, identifying a secret location to hold the hostage and appointing a specific person to communicate with authorities and the victim’s relatives.
Walker said the first step for law enforcement is to confirm proof of life. From there, the authorities and the victim’s family will try to build trust with the kidnappers to facilitate the exchange.
Walker did not speculate on Guthrie’s specific case. In general, he said, victims of kidnappings that come with demands are not chosen at random.
“It’s very rare for someone to be kidnapped because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Walker said.
One of the most Notable historical examples One that falls into this category is the 1963 kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr., in which the FBI helped Sinatra’s parents pay his kidnappers $240,000 in exchange for the 19-year-old’s freedom. The three kidnappers were eventually convicted.
Arizona law enforcement said it’s not clear if Guthrie was targeted, and if she was, investigators don’t know why.
Walker said movies depicting hostage crises often ignore the amount of time they take. Communication is often interrupted by long periods of silence.
“There’s a lot of waiting in real life: waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for the kidnappers to call,” Walker said.
Guthrie’s family appealed to would-be kidnappers in two videos after Tucson-based KOLD-TV said it received an email Monday night that appeared to be a ransom note. Investigators said the note included a request for money by 5 p.m. Thursday and a second deadline next Monday.
The station received a second email Friday afternoon, but said in an online statement: “We cannot share the contents of the new message now.”
Walker said silence is often a strategy to pressure the family. As a result, one of the most important assets for professional negotiators and family members alike is patience.
“We are more likely to make better decisions when we are in a more positive, balanced and organized frame of mind,” he said.
That’s easier said than done, according to Calvin Christie, a senior partner at private security firm Critical Risk Team, which primarily handles kidnapping and extortion in the United States.
“I think the public underestimates the enormous psychological stress that the family and the police are under in these specific situations,” Christie said. He added that the national media’s insatiable demand for more information throughout the investigation only gives the kidnappers more leverage and interference in law enforcement operations – further exposing the victim to danger.
Christie said in general he suspected the ransom letters sent to the press may have been an attempt to “increase the influence” of the kidnappers or “mislead” law enforcement.
There are two other types of hostage situations that are most common in the United States, according to Thelema.
The first is called “expressive hostage-taking” and describes the situation when an individual takes a hostage in a moment of intense, intense emotional distress, Thelema said. Typically, these crises occur at home between family members when a person experiencing a psychological crisis wants to force law enforcement to leave.
The vast majority of mediations he has brokered in his nearly two decades as a negotiator fall into this category, he said.
The second most common case is what is called “accidental hostage taking,” which is defined as a situation in which a hostage is taken during another crime, such as a bank robbery. In these cases, often dramatic in films like Spike Lee’s “Inside Man,” the person usually encounters law enforcement and then uses a hostage as a way to negotiate freedom. These situations are usually disorganized because the kidnapping was not premeditated, Thelema said.