[0:00]It's Friday, February 6th, and the Guthrie family wants proof of life. We start here. [music] Amid fake ransom notes, one of them is
[0:11]being treated as real. >> They want any wouldbe kidnapper to know that they [music] are ready to talk and ready to listen. >> Inside, the public please on behalf of Nancy Guthrie. [music]
[0:22]The Epstein files have caused an embarrassment. But could they also bring down a government? He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein.
[0:33]>> Britain is being rocked from Buckingham Palace to Parliament and the opening ceremonies are about to get underway. >> There is so much Olympic energy in the air. >> Our team will fill you in on what to
[0:44]expect in Milan. From [music] ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Milky. Unfortunately, we've covered a lot of
[0:59]kidnappings over the years. Whether it's journalists in war zones or families here at home, an abduction always raises the question, what do the perpetrators want? Is it to inflict violence? Is it
[1:10]to make a political statement? Or could it be to collect a ransom? Well, in the case of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of NBC broadcaster Savannah Guthrie, when police said she had been taken from her
[1:21]house in the middle of the night, authorities appeared to have no leads on who did it, let alone why. >> We have nobody of interest or any suspects that you would consider a prime suspect.
[1:31]>> Hours went by, then days. Chatter started to emerge of ransom notes out there, but authorities couldn't confirm whether they were legitimate, which led to this extraordinary moment on Wednesday night when Savannah Guthrie,
[1:43]flanked by her brother and sister, put out a video on social media. >> We too have heard the reports about a ransom letter in the media.
[1:52]As a family, we are doing everything [snorts] that we can. We are ready to talk. This family is unique in many ways, but here they
[2:03]reacted as any loved ones would as they were forced tearfully, desperately to tell whoever is out there, "If you keep our mother safe, we are ready to discuss
[2:12]our options." That was Wednesday night. Yesterday, police on the local and federal level responded to the fallout. ABC's chief investigative correspondent Aaron Kurski has made his way to Arizona
[2:23]where this is all unfolding. Aaron, do investigators think this is a ransom situation or not? They're taking that possibility seriously. According to the FBI, Brad, the FBI says that a ransom
[2:34]note that was received by several local television stations, including the ABC affiliate here in Tucson, does have characteristics that lend credence to
[2:45]the idea that it could be legitimate. Now, they're still unverified, but this particular note described things like an Apple Watch that Nancy Guthrie may have
[2:56]been wearing and damage to her home in the form of a camera. And the authorities did say a doorbell camera was disconnected from its system. So,
[3:07]that lends some credence to the idea that Nancy Guthrie may have been abducted and is being held for ransom. No, there's so much unknowns here, but I do know there are professionals who
[3:18]advise families on videos just like these ones we're seeing from the family. In those cases, nothing is accidental, right? So, I what is important to take note of in these sorts of messages? I guess
[3:29]>> this was an anguished message from Savannah Guthrie and her siblings, but also an intentional one, Brad, where they tried to humanize their mom in the
[3:38]eyes of any captors. Our mom is a kind, faithful, loyal, fiercely loving woman
[3:48]of goodness and light. >> By calling her grandma, by calling her mommy, using her first name, >> she has grandchildren that adore her and
[3:59]crowd around her and cover her with kisses. >> How they love her and how there is a light missing from their lives. She
[4:08]holds fast to joy in all of life's circumstances. >> And you never know >> whose heartstring you might tug with a message like that. >> Mhm.
[4:20]>> And hope against hope that a kidnapper would do the right thing. And the authorities are saying that they're not telling the family what to do. They are
[4:30]offering advice, but any option is going to be up to the family. Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven't heard anything
[4:41]directly. We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward. And we heard from Savannah Guthri's brother Cameron in his own Instagram post saying, "We need to
[4:52]know how to get in touch because the family also did something else intentional, Brad. They wanted to be seen as as normal, as approachable even though Savannah Guthrie is on
[5:03]television. We are always going to be merely human, just normal human people who need our mom.
[5:12]>> They want any would be kidnapper to know that they are ready to talk and ready to listen. >> Can you share anything or are authorities sharing anything that is in the ransom note? And I guess what are
[5:24]they still looking to glean from whoever might have sent it? >> Well, the ransom note that the FBI mentioned included two different deadlines. had included a demand for
[5:33]Bitcoin. And so the authorities want to know if that ransom note is legitimate, if the captor who wrote it could provide
[5:45]proof of life. >> You still have the time to do the right thing before this becomes a worse much worse scenario for you. >> And that's more than anything what the Guthrie family wants. They want proof
[5:57]that their mother is alive and to know whether this ransom is real. >> We live in a world where voices and
[6:06][snorts] images are easily manipulated. We need to know without a doubt that she is alive and that you have her.
[6:18]>> And then they can make some decisions as a family. Otherwise, the longer it goes on, if they don't hear from any captors, that gives less and less credence to the
[6:28]idea that Nancy Guthrie was abducted for ransom and maybe this was something else. >> By the way, Erin, you've been saying like, if this is real, there are apparently multiple ransom notes that have been floating around. Does that
[6:38]mean there are people around sending fake ransom notes? Like, what are authorities saying about that? There's at least one, Brad. According to the FBI, an individual was arrested for
[6:49]perpetrating a cruel [snorts] hoax and trying to, in the words of the FBI, take advantage of the Guthri's anguish by demanding Bitcoin. >> We have made one arrest related to an
[7:00]impostor ransom demand and a complaint will be presented to a magistrate judge. >> That individual is now under arrest on two different federal charges. hard to
[7:10]imagine anything worse under these circumstances. So, the authorities say they are able to distinguish between
[7:18]what might be real and and not. >> We want to hear from you and we are ready to listen.
[7:28]Please reach out to us. In order to determine whether any ransom is real, the family says they need to get in touch and and show [music]
[7:38]some kind of proof that Nancy Guthrie is still alive. Right. Still looking for this dialogue here about this topic that clearly no one would want to have a dialogue [music] about in normal circumstances. Uh Aaron Kurski, thank
[7:50]you so much. >> Thank you, Brad. Next up on Start here, the Epstein files have imperiled an entire government and is not necessarily our government. We're
[8:02]back in a bit. The huge dump of files in the Jeffrey Epstein case have been shocking on a
[8:12]number of levels. You've got famous, wealthy, powerful people corresponding with someone who in many cases was a convicted sex offender at the time. In some of these emails, Epstein, who is
[8:22]known to have trafficked women and girls, invites friends to gettogethers with partygoers who he makes clear are many years their junior. And yet, while some of this has prompted embarrassment,
[8:33]distancing, and some cases resignations in the business world, there have not been a ton of clear-cut consequences for the Americans on the other end of these emails. In the UK, though, it is quickly
[8:44]becoming a different story. In fact, there is a non-zero chance this could threaten a royal family and a prime minister's political power. ABC's chief international correspondent, James Longman, joins us from London. James, we
[8:56]talked about sort of the US angle in a lot of these stories, but we're seeing huge impacts in the UK, right? Can you just walk me through it? >> Absolutely. Every part of the British establishment, you have the head of state, the king, and the head of
[9:07]government, the prime minister, both under pressure for different reasons. Let's start with Andrew, the prince formerly known as. We've now seen this new tranch of Epstein files released and
[9:18]it looks like that has sped up Andrew's banishment. He has been removed from Royal Lodge, this 30 room mansion. He lived on the Windsor estate. Uh we were
[9:28]told this would happen in early 2026, but it does feel to me at least that this has been moved forward because of this image which has circulated. It's been on every single newspaper here for
[9:39]days of Andrew leaning over a young woman who is lying on the floor. Her identity has been redacted, but it feeds into this idea that Andrew was a
[9:50]predator of some description, was working alongside Epstein. the dirt, the stench of scandal, he just cannot escape it. The royal family are hoping that he goes
[10:02]and lives out in the countryside away from the cameras. He's going to live on the king's private estate in Sandringham, which the palace is very keen to explain to us is he is paying
[10:11]for. This is not public money. But look, there's real pressure now on Andrew to testify. >> The UK prime minister calling for him to now testify before Congress. The big question now for Charles, and he was
[10:22]literally asked this question this week. He was heckled. >> Can Charles force Andrew to do that? >> This is the only way to make it clear to people that Andrew should not be let
[10:34]off. >> This is incredibly uncomfortable also for Sarah, the former Duchess of York, the ex-wife of Andrew, but they live
[10:43]together at Royal Lodge. She also uh has some uncomfortable reading in this latest tranch of emails. Specifically, it seems that she's kind of desperately
[10:52]asking Epstein for money. She suggests to him perhaps even that he could give her a job to organize his houses. Uh she calls him her pillar, uh that he's something of a brother to her. She she
[11:04]says that she's alone and traumatized. And so she too has now been ostracized. she has lost her own charity which has been rolled up as a result of these
[11:13]latest uh revelations. So this is really tricky for the royal family and Andrew might be tucked away in that farm in the countryside but there's every chance that he'll be forced to testify if not
[11:25]in person then via Zoom. >> Right. Although like you said that pressure would have to come from his family. It's not like a legal requirement but the people you're describing so far James these are people who have been corresponding with Epste
[11:36]on some level right that's confirmed. It's not a given that it's an admission of guilt. It's not necessarily verified, but it's it is confirmed that they were going back and forth with him. Well, you also have pressure with the prime
[11:47]minister of the UK who is not known to be corresponding with Epstein and yet he's still having to answer for his actions anyway. Why? >> Yeah. So, we should be clear. Karma is not alleged to have done any wrongdoing. He hasn't been in touch with Jeffrey
[11:58]Epstein, but he appointed someone called Peter Mandlesson to be the British ambassador to the United States. I mean, there is yet more we can do in reducing
[12:08]uh tariffs and trade barriers so as to open up uh our markets to each other, even more than we're agreeing to do today. This is someone who's been on the
[12:18]political scene for years. He's credited with building the new labor movement alongside Tony Blair. Uh and Kier Stmer made him British ambassador to the US in 2024, thinking that he was the kind of
[12:30]person who was going to be able to do a deal with Donald Trump. Britain very much needs a trade deal with the United States. This guy, this political actor, Peter Mandlesson, he was the guy to do it. Now, it's emerged in this latest
[12:42]tranch of files that Peter Mandlesson may have leaked sensitive market information to Jeffrey Epstein in 2009 when Mandlesson was business secretary
[12:53]in the UK. He was part of the Labor government back then, too. So, British police are now investigating that. The idea that you had someone at the top of British politics who was using his
[13:03]position to not only enrich himself but enrich a person who by that time had already been implicated for sex crimes with minors is political dynamite.
[13:14]>> Mandles betrayed our country, our parliament and my party. >> So K Starmmer is being asked to explain
[13:23]what he knew and when before appointing Peter Manderson. He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein before and
[13:34]during his tenure as ambassador. >> He's apologized to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein. Mandlesson has lost his title in the House of Lords. He's being forced to step back from that. And of course, he's facing these criminal
[13:45]charges. But it has left the prime minister exposed, fighting for his political life. There's not a suggestion he's going to quit today or tomorrow,
[13:56]but he was already very weak, Brad. >> Wow. But wait, just to be clear, we're talking about re like actual resignation concerns, not just like it could be weakened. >> Absolutely. >> Because his Labour party, whilst they
[14:08]won a huge majority at the election, [music] have basically been seen to be failing in government. He's gone from scandal to scandal, from U-turn to U-turn. There doesn't seem to be much
[14:19]vision, his critics would say. And it the issue that he has is not just that his political opponents believe him to be weak. The issue might be that members of his own party start to ask for him to
[14:31]resign and then he may not have any way back. It's just it feels to most people watching this that we could be in the death throws of Kama's political career
[14:41]and those inside the Labour Party may feel that this Epstein scandal has given them the ammunition they need to get rid of him. >> All right. Uh James Longman, thank you so much. >> Thanks a lot, Brad.
[14:53]>> The Super Bowl is this weekend, but tonight a two weekl long Super Bowl of winter sports is getting underway. The 25th Winter Olympic Games are happening in the northern Italian cities of Milan
[15:04]and Cortina. And guess what? ABC's foreign correspondent Maggie Roelly is there watching it all. She's practicing her Italian ahead of tonight's opening ceremonies. Maggie, ciao. What What's it like there so far?
[15:14]>> Ciao, Brad. How am I doing? I already had pizza twice. You know, I'm really embracing the local culture. I have to say, Brad, there is so much Olympic energy in the air and people, you know,
[15:25]I joke about the pizza, but it's one of the things that all the athletes cannot stop talking to us about. >> It's going to be great. Pizza, pasta, and half pipe. >> And I feel like that really sums up what
[15:35]these Olympics are all about. And the other major thing, Brad, that we have to be aware of this Olympics is that it's making history as the most spread out Olympics we have ever had.
[15:45]>> What do you like the cities of Milan and Cortina are far apart from each other. >> And it's not just Milan and Cortina. So Milan and Cortina are about I don't know five six hour drive apart, but there's also Boro where we'll be heading in a
[15:57]couple days. Uh that's where men's alpine skiing is taking place. That's also 6 hours from Cortina. Snowboarding's an hour away from that in Lvino. You have cross-country skiing two
[16:07]hours south of that. I mean these Olympics are uh a huge endeavor. they across two different locations in Italy. Uh we are talking multiple volunteers,
[16:18]multiple security zones, multiple athletes, multiple opening ceremonies. We've really seen nothing like this and it is a huge challenge to cover as a media organization and also for these
[16:28]athletes. You know, many aren't going to be able to go see other Olympians compete. Family and friends can only make it to one location. Uh, and so it's definitely a consideration with these Olympics and I'll be really curious to
[16:40]see how this affects future Olympics going forward. >> Well, let's talk about like some of the sports and athletes people should be paying attention to this weekend. Like, let's start with downhill skier Lindsay Vaughn. Like, she's 41 years old. She's
[16:51]been making this big comeback. Last week, she tears her ACL, which I assume means you're done in sports. Is she seriously talking about skiing without a working ACL? >> I think this is blowing everyone's mind.
[17:03]And if you didn't respect Lindsay Vaughn already, you're going to respect her now, right, Brad? I don't know about you, I'm approaching 40. Things are a struggle for me. I cannot imagine [laughter]
[17:13]trying to ski in the Olympics on a torn ACL over 40. I mean, she is truly incredible. And she's doing this just as such a powerhouse. Nothing is perfect in
[17:24]life. And um that's just where I seem to always be. But as many times as I crash, I've always gotten back up. As many times as I've failed, I've always won. She just
[17:36]posted this amazing Instagram to her socials of her squatting Brad with way more weight than I could ever squat on the torn ACL. >> But is that possible to do all this stuff when it's torn?
[17:47]>> Yes, this is a huge question. So, a lot of the other skiers have been asked this during their press conferences. >> I think it's entirely possible for her to perform, >> man. Well, it's the fairy tale ending
[17:57]that she's going to be the one to to come through this also cuz if there's anyone that can do it, it's her. >> It's going to be really crazy. She has some training runs coming up. Uh people are going to be looking at those very
[18:08]very closely to see how she reacts, how she can ski, and then of course her big race this Sunday. You know, as you mentioned, coming out of retirement, uh she has been on a 5-year hiatus. She's 41 years old. There was already so much
[18:19]pressure on her at these games. Now with a torn ACL, I mean, when I say I think every eye at the Olympic will be on her on Sunday, it's not an overstatement. Brad, >> wait. So, speaking of pressure, the one
[18:30]thing I did not have on my bingo card was male athletes injecting their equipment to gain an advantage. Like, I don't know how you're going to explain this, Maggie. I'm going to leave it up to you, but this has become a huge scandal, right? Like, how has this
[18:42]become a a bulging concern? >> All right, you already took a lot of my puns away from me, Brad. [laughter] There's a lot of delicate language you're gonna be using in this next
[18:52]segment. So, but this is actually a real issue, Brad. And there have been a lot of headlines about ski jumping and a certain area of the male anatomy, as you
[19:04]referenced, people refer to it as the bulge. So, this has been a controversy that has gone on in the ski jumping world for quite some time because the bodysuit in ski jumping is incredibly important. And so before the start of
[19:15]each season, ski jumpers are measured using 3D body scanners in which they can only wear elastic [music] body tight underwear. >> Then the suits are made and you ski
[19:27][music] jump. But when you ski jump, the amount of surface area of your body is very important and you actually want some more of it. >> Oh, you want to be like a flying squirrel have this extra fabric.
[19:38]>> Exactly. Exactly. The flying squirrel with a large area. Okay, >> so Brad, some ski jumpers are allegedly using a substance, most likely hydrolonic acid that [music]
[19:50]enlarges that part of their body by a few extra centimeters. And then when they make the suit and that part of their body is no longer as enlarged,
[20:01]there's extra suit. >> Oh. >> And it allows them to have a larger circumference to to fly as they ski jump. And so this is a legit issue. Now,
[20:11]what's really interesting, Brad, is that technically hydraulic acid is not an illegal substance, but there are investigations into if
[20:21]this is going to be considered foul play. You know, it's all fun and games when we talk about the bald Brad, but it's actually a very important Olympics issue. So, while it sounds I know, while
[20:33]it sounds silly, [music] every centimeter counts in ski jumping, Brad. >> All right. Uh Maggie Roelly. Wow, you never know what you're going to get at the Olympic Village. Uh, thank you so much, Maggie.
[20:44]>> Thank you, Brad. >> Okay, one more quick break. When we come back, it took 30 years, but those bottle caps are finally worth something. One last thing is next. And one last thing,
[21:00]the Super Bowl is on Sunday, and brands are already promoting their Super Bowl ads. But yesterday, there might have been a resolution in one of the most legally fraught Super Bowl ads of all time. Introducing
[21:12]the new Pepsi Stuff catalog. >> So, back in 1996, Pepsi had launched this promotion called Pepsi Stuff. Drink Pepsi, get stuff. So, similar to arcade
[21:23]tickets, you could collect your points from bottle caps and fountain cups and redeem them for prizes. This commercial shows that a Pepsi t-shirt is 90 points. A pair of cool sunglasses is 125 Pepsi
[21:35]points. Then at the end of the commercial, a kid arrives at school in a Harrier jet, the military aircraft that can take off and land vertically like a hovercraft. On the screen, it says,
[21:45]"Harrier jet, 7 million points. Sure beats the bus." Which of course was kind of silly. A single bottle of Pepsi was worth one point. So, who's going to
[21:55]drink 7 million? Funny joke, right? Well, one man named John Leonard had realized that like many points programs, what you lacked in points you could make up for in cash. And the Harrier Jet
[22:06]seemed drastically undervalued. He sent Pepsi a check for $700,000 along with his points and asked for his jet. Pepsi said, "Um, you're not
[22:16]serious, are you?" Leonard said he was completely serious. [music] There's a whole Netflix documentary about this. >> No fine print came up. I don't care what anybody else says. That is a legit offer. Courts ended up siding with Pepsi
[22:28]on this. Leonard's check was never cashed. But yesterday, Frontier Airlines announced a new promotion in an ad of its own ahead of the Super Bowl. >> 6,999,999. 7 million.
[22:42]>> It's a deal. >> They're going to convert [music] his 7 million Pepsi points into 7 million Frontier miles. That's enough, they say, to fly for free on Frontier for the rest
[22:52]of his life. They also say they're not stopping with Leonard's outdated Pepsi points. In fact, they're not stopping with Pepsi at all if you have got loyalty points with
[23:02]another company. They say Frontier will convert them all into miles. Now, is this a way for Frontier to get new customers? Yes. Does it entice
[23:12]people to pay extra cash for flights when they're low on miles, just like all their predecessors? Absolutely. But it also kind of reminds me of debt consolidation companies buying up debt from people they don't think are 100%
[23:24]likely to pay up. In this case, the debtors are companies with outdated loyalty programs. You and I are the lenders intent on cashing in even if we don't get what we originally signed up
[23:35]for. Frontier though learn from others mistakes. With the exception of John Leonard, they say this program will have a hard cap of 5,000 m. They don't want
[23:45]any surprises. Of [music] course, you better like Frontier if you're going to fly on it for the rest of your life. I'd be saying, "You guys better stay in business because I've been burned before." Start Here is produced by Kelly
[23:56]TZ, Jen Newman, Anthony Ali, Aaron Ferrer, Andre Mosc, and Emily Schutz. Ariel Chester is our social media producer. Josh Cohan is director of podcast programming. I'm our managing
[24:07]editor. Thanks to John Newman, Tara Gimble, Aean Mcniff, and Katie Dendos. Special [music] thanks this week to Trevor Hastings, Jim Hill, Luke Bugamman, and Charlotte Gardner. I'm
[24:15]Brad Milky. I'll see you next week.