February 6, 2026 • 31 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 1 (02/06) - Sasha Pezenik comes on the show to talk about the latest going on with the search for Savannah Guthrie's mother Nancy. A man was arrested for sending in a fake ransom note for Savannah Guthrie's mom. Mayor Bass gave her first on camera statement about the LA Times report that she altered the Palisades Fire after-action report. Update on the Long Beach mayoral candidate who called for gangs to help get ICE out of the city.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am six forty. You're listening to the John Cobel
podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We are on every day
from one to four and today we've got two rounds
of the Moistline, and the moist Line will be at
three twenty and three fifty And if you want to
join next week's voice line, phone numbers eight seven seven
Moist eighty six, eight seven seven Moist eighty six. All Right,
(00:25):
the story on Nancy Guthrie continues. And Nancy Guthries the
mother of Savannah Guthrie, the NBC Today's Show anchor, and
you know by now she was kidnapped from her home
in Arizona a number of days ago, and they're still
(00:46):
they still don't know where she is and what condition
she's in, whether she's dead or alive. There's been various
stories about ransom notes. And we're going to talk now
with Sasha Peznek, ABC News reporter and tell us what
the latest is. Shots.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, yeah, that massive search, as you said, now intensifying now.
Six days since Nancy Gothrie vanished in the middle of
the night from her home in Arizona. The FBI now
offering a fifty thousand dollars reward for any information leading
them to find her, and investigator says, you noted they're
taking seriously the possibility that she's being held for ransom.
(01:25):
They're looking at possible ransom notes sent to several news organizations,
including ABC's Tucson affiliate. Now that note hasn't been verified yet,
but it did have descriptions of Nancy Guthrie's watch, a
demand for bitcoin, and two deadlines, one bet has now
passed and another one coming up on Monday. The Guthrie
family making several emotional pleas to their mother's possible captors,
(01:45):
helping those please will be heard by her mother's kidnappers
directly saying we want to hear from you. We're ready
to talk. And yet at this point authorities haven't turned
up exactly what they really need, and that's some kind
of breakthrough.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
What makes them confident if they've talked about this at all,
that this ransom note that the TV station got is
for real as opposed to I imagine they must be
getting all kinds of cranks in prank messages about ransom,
considering where the world lies, So how do they know
this one is really serious?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Well, they don't for starters. You know, there's a lot
of things that go into verifying a note like this,
and it's also one of the reasons why authorities and
investigations like this often play their cards close to the
vest and they don't want to tip their hand and
give away too many details when a possible real ransom
note might have details that only a kidnapper might know. Now,
(02:50):
there are some indications, as we talked about the mention
of the watch and other things that possibly only a
kidnapper could know that that leads them to believe that
it could possibly be a real ransom note. But as
you've noted, in this day and age, there are a
lot of folks out there who are looking a scam
and that there already has been one arrest of a
ransom note.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Nobody's going to pay anything though, until they get proof
of life. Right. Has there been any indication that she's alive.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
There is no indication that she's alive or dead. At
this point, we really have no indication from investigators or
otherwise that she is except for in this ransom note
that has not yet been verified. They said that she
is scared but safe. We don't know whether it's real
or not, and so investigators are going to be endeavoring
to do everything they can to reach out to set
(03:37):
up a line of communication if this is in fact
a real note from real kidnappers. And we know that
really in a case like this, time is of the essence.
Not just because in investigations like this, the first hours
and days are often critical to chase any trail of
evidence before it goes cold, but you know, this is
also an eighty four year old woman we're talking about here,
who's vulnerable, who has health concerns, she has a pacemaker
(04:00):
she needs on a daily basis, and so really the
clock is ticking down, not just on those deadlines, but
on her well being as well.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Now they're never going to get the money though, and
they're never going to get away with it asked for sure.
If they don't, if they don't produce some proof that
she's still with us, it's just curious behavior on the
part of these alleged kidnappers, because you do have to
show what you've got before you're going to get a
reward for it.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yes, that's exactly right. It's very curious, and that is
a part, an important part of the Guthrie families, please
to a person who might have their mother out there,
not just we want to hear from you, let's talk,
let's set up a way to communicate here, but also
we need proof of life. We need proof that our
mother is okay, and then we can move forward from there.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
We do know the.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Sheriff confirmed yesterday the blood that was found on the
front porch was indeed Nancy Gothrie's blood. But the question remains,
as you said, how could this happen? This lady in
her bedroom, locked in her home at night just is gone.
And that really is something that it's easy to understand.
Boggles the mind here, and so investigators now we're going
(05:12):
to be exploiting every single tool that they have. They're
bringing in additional resources with the FBI forensics experts and
cell phone data experts, trying to figure out who was
in the area which is well hidden by thick desert
brush and vegetation, so it's hard to catch anything on camera.
They don't have that yet either, offering that reward, and
they're trying to figure out really in this forty five
(05:33):
minute window in those wee hours of Sunday morning when
they believe she was abducted. What exactly happened?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
All right? Thanks very much, Sasha Peznik, ABC News with
the investigative unit on this case of Nancy Guthrie. There
doesn't seem to be any reasonable motivation that you could
come up with unless you're doing this for money. The
motivation to kidnap this woman, the uh suspicion they would
(06:02):
have that Savannah Guthrie is probably worth millions of dollars
and would be willing to pay all of it to
get her mother back. That that that was the only
if there was any logic to this, That is the
only thing that makes sense why somebody would do it.
And certainly these these notes indicate that you know whoever
(06:26):
wrote these notes, but indicay, yeah, that that's the uh,
that's the motivation, give us millions of dollars of bitcoin.
But yeah, but if you don't prove that you really
have her and that she's alive, you're not getting a time.
So either the notes are fake or there's some other
(06:46):
story that doesn't obviously make sense. Right now, she Nancy
Guthrie is can't provide anything for the kidnappers except a
lot of money from her daughter. But she's a normal, quiet,
elderly woman who can barely walk and needs a lot
(07:08):
of medicine. So there isn't any She doesn't have any
special secrets, any special knowledge that would make her valuable
to these people.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
A deranged fan who really can't stand Savannah Guthrie. She
used to see her reaction.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Maybe, Yeah, I mean she's pretty middle of the road, though,
I don't think she inspires and it kind of crazy.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Yeah, offered the FBI and all of that, but I'm
just I'm just guessing.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
No, I mean that that's actually a good one, is
if they got some kind of grudge against against Savannah
Guthrie that, But I don't know. She's she's pretty straightforward
and nice and it never struck me as she was
controversial in the least. I mean, she's had to interview
controversial people like Trump, and you know how that goes.
(07:57):
No matter what you when you interview Trump, better what
you do, you're gonna get blown back from somebody.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
He's somebody who has a crush on her, somebody who
wants her attention. I don't know. It's such a baffling case. Yeah,
I'm just spitballing here.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, that's what they're doing at FBI headquarters. They're having
the same conversations when we come back. The fake ransom
note sent by a guy here in the Los Angeles area.
And amazingly, this is not his first current scandal. We'll
tell you about it. He's got a recent scandal that
(08:30):
he's a part of. It's really hard to believe.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So we just talked with an ABC News correspondent, Sasha Peznik,
and it's there's no movement, no news on this kidnapping
of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Savannah Guthrie. There's been
those ransom messages had two deadlines in them. First one
has passed, second one will pass. The circumstances of the
(09:03):
deadlines are not explained, not very much as explained it
at all. You know. It's the question that we discussed
when we ended the last segment, is if you're not
going to show that you have her and that she's alive,
then you're not getting any money. So either this person's
a real lunatic and the all these ransom notes are fake.
(09:27):
Speaking of fake, we've got to talk about the false
ransom note from Derek Kalela of Hawthorne here in the
Los Angeles area. This bozo is forty two years old,
and he sent a message too of two Nancy Guthrie
(09:47):
family members. This is according to the criminal complaint by
the FEDS. And the message sent to the family members
said did you get the bitcoin? Did you get the bitcoin?
We're waiting on our end for the transaction that was
part of it. Now, Derek Kollela, he used this voice
(10:15):
over Internet protocol text and a call application to reach
out to the family, but they linked his phone number
to his email address and to his residence. He texted
the family twice, called him at least once, and according
to the complaint, Kalela has admitted sending the two text messages.
(10:36):
You know who this guy is. He's the same guy
who is charged with unemployment fraud in October by Nathan Hockman,
the La County District Attorney. Do you remember in October
we talked about this. There were thirteen people working for
La County who committed fraud because they filed and received
(10:59):
unemployment benefits during the COVID nineteen pandemic. This was part
of the thirty two billion dollars of lost tax money
because Gavin Newsom is an incompetent fool. There were actually
there were no constraints and no guardrails on who could
apply for unemployment money during COVID. He was told that
(11:22):
Newsom he knew that did nothing about it. Thirty two
billion goes out the door. He doesn't care well one
of the fraudsters, thirteen of the fraudsters worked for La County.
And what if it was Derek Kalela. Well, these guys,
the sociopaths. Remember everyone in the world should take a
(11:45):
course in sociopathic and psychopathic behavior. Sociopaths have no conscience.
This guy is also bizarrely obsessive. God knows how many
scams he's pulled in his life, how much much money
he's stolen. It seems like they have the goods when
it comes to this COVID money. But to think, and
(12:10):
they're not really that bright and sophisticated to think that
you're not going to get caught when you have so
much law enforcement and they're using the most sophisticated technology
at the FBI to examine every single message, no matter
what manner you send the message, whether it's phone, email,
(12:34):
text message. This voiceover Internet protocol, whatever it is, whatever variation,
they are going to track you. So this loser, I
don't know if he's sitting home on bail. I assume
he was at least put on leave. So this loser,
after getting caught in the COVID scam, getting busted, at
(12:56):
least they haven't convicted him yet. Now he hects. He
contacts the Guthrie family. So he's a psycho. He doesn't
care about the suffering that the family is going through.
He's trying to loot them out of money. Who raised
this guy? What's his family about? And of course he
(13:23):
gets hired by La County. Oh, they must have done
a hell of a background check there. They must have
really did one of those psychological interview processes. Of course,
he works for the government. He works for an entity,
the county government, that steals tax money all day long.
(13:49):
The whole purpose of the county government is to steal
people's tax money. It's what they do, it's why they're
in business. So he sees all this corruption around him
and figures, well, this is the world. I want to
be a part of it. I want my share. And
so he got his share of fraudulent COVID money. It's like, hey,
they're not tracking the COVID money, and now he's emboldened.
(14:16):
It's not even I don't think he might never go
to jail the way things are around here. But before
he even goes to jail, it's like, let me, let
me pick up a little side cash from Savannah Guthries family.
How about that? What is out there? And I don't
know how, I don't know how many others have sent
to fake ransom. Oh and of course it's in bitcoin.
(14:40):
You see bitcoin drop by half in value, of course
it did. It's not a real thing, no, no matter,
no matter how much the advocates tell you it's a
real thing, it's not a real thing. There is no
intrinsic value to bitcoin. That's why it drops by half
in a week. And that's why scam artists use it.
And that's how money laundering is done. That's what drug
(15:02):
runners use. Anybody involved in anything illegal, selling anything illegal,
and there's a cash transaction, they're using bitcoin now because
it's difficult to track. All Right, we got more coming up.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
A six forty coming up, after two o'clock, we're going
to have Roger Bailey. He is the attorney for the
excuse me, Roger Bailey is the attorney in the civil
lawsuit that Palisades residents have filed against the City of
Los Angeles and the DWP. And now get this, the
(15:43):
City of Los Angeles is now suing the State of
California over the Palisades fire. Yeah. While the obviously much
of the fault for the fire rests with Karen Bass
(16:03):
and Genice keinonias of the DWP and decisions made by
fire officials, the state is heavily involved in this as well.
It started on state land and it was supposedly the
state employees from the Department of Parks and Recreation who
interfered with the Los Angeles Fire Department when they were
(16:24):
trying to put out the original fire. So the city
of La knows it's going to lose, and lose very badly,
and they want the they want the damages to be
spread out, they don't want to have to pay for everything,
so they're suing the State of California. Of course, Newsom
has always denied the state had any responsibility, and of
(16:46):
course he's lying and So the way I read this,
this is just fantastic because now Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom,
you are going to have to each other trying to
prove who's more at fault for this disaster, because clearly,
clearly there's no possible way to spin this anymore. And
(17:12):
I don't see anybody trying now on Karen Bass. Again,
this isn't going away, at least not here on our show.
She lied and tried to cover up the cause of
the fire, her responsibility for the fire. And when the
(17:33):
after action report came out, it was so bland it
was like reading if it was like reading oatmeal. Clearly
she had it rewritten. She either did it herself or
she ordered people to do it, had to approve of it,
and she's denying it. But the question remains, if it
(17:58):
wasn't her, then why And she tell us who rewrote it?
There are six drafts, so who wrote it? Same thing.
Ronnie Vanaweva, who apparently has lost his ability to speak,
the interim fire chief Bass, according to the La Times report,
consulted with him. And then you have the new stooge,
(18:22):
Jimi Moore, the current fire chief, who tells everybody, well,
what are you going to do with that information. You're
just going to point fingers, point playing, Yes, that's what
we want to do. You got it, So why don't
you spill? Tell us who ordered it? If it wasn't
Karen Bass. Why isn't Karen Bass telling me who made
the changes? Now? NBC reporter, get clip number two ready.
(18:43):
NBC reporter Conan Nolan had Bass's first on camera response
to the report, which leads into what the mayor's race
is looking like. I thought the deadline was today, That's
what most news stories had said, and then I saw
a story yesterday they claimed it was that the deadline
was tomorrow to enter the mayor's race. So the final
(19:07):
field is not set yet. Listen to Conan Nolan's report
NBC four. What would be the purpose of covering up
a report that I ordered?
Speaker 5 (19:16):
A frustrated Mayor Karen Bass responding forcefully to an explosive
report in the Los Angeles Times that she had altered
an after action report on the Palisades fire in order to.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Shield the city from litigation.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
It was completely fabricated.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And by the way, you know who are the sources?
Speaker 5 (19:33):
The time story is based on two unnamed sources who
did not directly hear Bass discuss the fire response assessment.
The paper claims their sources were reciting what they had
heard from two others within the Mayor's office. All of
the sources are anonymous.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Facts were not changed in the report.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
What was changed was the verbiage that was used to
describe it. Last month, Fire Chief Jami Moore admitted that
prior to his arrival, changes had been made to the
PADACE After Action Report, but not to definitive facts, but
as to who could be blamed for failures and staffing
and pre deployment prior to record wins. Meanwhile, the field
of this year's race for mayor widened today and narrowed.
(20:13):
LA Education software entrepreneur Adam Miller announced his candidacy for
the job, and LA County Supervisor Lindsay Horriforth says she's
seriously considering her on Harveth has criticized the city's response
to the Palisades fire, which she represents.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
From the moment the fire broke out, I immediately texted
the mayor, offering our assistance and offering to work collaboratively.
Her response hours later was I think we're good, so
obviously it turned out. We weren't good, we weren't even
close to good, and sort of closing people off and
shutting them out is not what leadership is.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
I have no response to the supervisor, look forward to
continuing working with her on a variety of issues as
we already do. And today, former LA Unified Superintendent Austin
Butner announced in a statement that he is leaving the
race for mayor following the sudden death of his twenty
two year old daughter, writing, our family has experienced the
unimaginable loss of our beloved daughter, Emily. She was a
(21:08):
magical person, the light of our lives. We are still
in mourning. Family has always come first for me. That
is where I need to be at this time.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
That is Colon Nolan from NBC four. Could you play
that opening quote that he had from Karen Bass because
this is a doozy. Did you go, what would be
the purpose of covering up a report that I ordered?
A frustrated mayor tich stop stop? What would be the
purpose of covering up a report that I ordered? She
(21:41):
thinks she's so slick. You're covering it up because the
report that you ordered made you look responsible, and you're
running for mayor, and you don't want that look in
an official report. That's not a good campaign ad if
it's used against you, or when it's used against you.
(22:04):
So that's why I love her fake outrage routine. I
study the tricks that these political losers use, and her
trick is to be incredulous. It's like, why would I
do that? Why would somebody say that? How could you
think that every time she's in a pickle she pulls
(22:24):
the same act. Well, I just can't believe that.
Speaker 7 (22:28):
Could you?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
How could you say that? Why would I do that?
Why would you? You would do that? Because you read
the report and it told too much of the truth.
The battalion chief who wrote the report disowned it, took
his name off it. Why because facts quote unquote were
(22:51):
changed or distorted or omitted erased. It had to be
the facts that made you look. I don't know how
worse you could look, but maybe you don't want to
see it in print. In fact, the stuff, the worst
part of it is stuff that might not even be
in the report. It starts with you ignoring days days
(23:18):
of multiple extreme mornings from the National Weather Service over
fire and wind danger, and you going to going to
Africa anyway, And it's you defunding the fire department, and
it's the fire officials feeling like they had to not
(23:40):
send a full crew up to put out the Lockman fire,
and not deploy firefighters the night before, and not keep
firefighters on a second shift the day of because you
didn't give enough money to get by. And I guess
they got hammered a lot for overspending. You know they've
(24:00):
got ten They got thousands of homeless fires to put
out every day. That costs a lot of money. You
can't take any money away from that budget, the homeless
fire budget, because you let people. You let insane people
live in the streets, drug addicts live in the streets. Ah,
how could somebody say that? Why would I? Because you're
(24:24):
only interested in you. You're only interested in having your
body up on stage for the Olympics in twenty twenty eight.
That's your only purpose in life, being a good sociopath,
a communist sociopath at that. You don't care what happens
to the people's lives in the Palisades. You didn't care
when you got on the plane in Africa. I was
(24:45):
looking at the photos of you drinking with all these
officials in Gowana that a good time. Couldn't tell what
you were drinking, but you had a good time, smiling,
sitting on a couch. Yeah. And meantime, people who were
back home were getting their lives destroyed, and you erased
all the text messages. Gee, I don't know why would
(25:08):
you possibly alter a report? What would be the motivation? Now?
I don't know who the hell is going to replace
you right now, but that's what the campaign's for. We'll see.
I can't believe any living human being would would vote
for Hurt, no matter what. The competition is. More coming up. Oh,
(25:31):
you know when we come back, what do I want
to do? I want to all right, the video that lunatic,
the video clip of the lunatic in Long Beach. Who's
running for mayor, Rohelium Martinez. Remember he wanted to see
fifty five gang leaders come this Monday, Monday to take
back the city from ice. We've got more on that
coming up.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
You're listening to John Cobbels on demand from KFI A six.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
All right, there is some loudmouth loser mayoral candidate. I
doubt he's a serious one. His name is ro Helio
Martinez and He posted a video on social media earlier
this week asking for fifty five gang leaders to gather
to take the city from Ice, claiming he's calling for nonviolence. Well,
if you're calling together fifty five gang leaders, what's the
(26:20):
point if you're not interested in violence? Right, let me
play you the clip if you haven't heard it.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
My name is Rohalio Martinez.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I am calling.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
All fifty five gangs in my beautiful city. I expect
a gang leader from every gang, all fifty five gangs,
and I'm not going to name them by name, but
I'm calling the Latino gangs. I'm calling the Cambodian gangs.
(26:55):
I'm calling the Filipino gangs. I'm calling the Black gang
I'm calling the Pacific Islander gangs. I'm calling all gang
leaders to meet me right here Long Beach City Hall
this coming Monday. Why Monday, specifically, I need you to
(27:16):
be here to meet me in person to take back
the city because our leadership is not doing anything about
it and our police are powerless. Once again, let me
be very clear, my name is Rohelio Martinez. You're twenty
twenty six Long Beach City Mayor, and.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I need your help.
Speaker 7 (27:38):
I need to see fifty five gang leaders here this
coming Monday. We need to take back the city. Enough
is enough. I need to get out of Long Beach,
and this is the only way that I know how
to get them out.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
With strong force, peacefully, with strong force. He remember, he
thinks he's so clever. All shut him off. Enough of him.
He thinks he's so clever. He thinks he's so cute
that if he keeps saying the word peacefully, nothing bad
is going to happen. And this protects him from any
misinterpretation of his words. Now, what he'd like to start
(28:24):
is a violent war against ice. He'd like to start
a race riot too, because his first response in this
news story is that when he was asked what kind
of reaction, he says, I got so many death threats
predominantly from MAGA white supremacists because I didn't call on
(28:47):
the white gangs. How many white gangs are there in
Long Beach, So I guess they were kind of hurt
by that. Real smart ass. Yeah, all the death threats
came from MAGA white supremacists. He if you've got a
bad reaction, it's people don't want to see Long Beach
(29:07):
burned down. They don't want a bloody massacre in the
streets between armed officers and gang members. They don't want
innocent people killed. This guy is a first ballot nominee
for the Moron Hall of Fame. Now he's saying, well,
there was not going to be any war between gang
leaders and ice. And I don't know how many gangs
they are on Long Beach. I picked fifty five because
(29:28):
I'm fifty five years old. No one bothered to ask
me how I came up with that number, because no
one approaches unhinged crazy people. FBI called him, though, I
was like, holy Toledo, this is really the FBI, And
they had questions for him. Has any gang member reached
out to you? And he said no, they had not.
(29:50):
Have you reached out to a gang member? No? And
what do you expect about today, Oh, only a peaceful
community rally in silence. When asked how many people were
ex but to show up, he told her just one himself.
I learned in life you can only count on yourself.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
What is this.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Desperate for attention? This is the this is the disease
that has infected the brains of millions of people. It's
like some narcissism virus. They want attention, and he's willing
to challenge every gang in Long Beach to get into
(30:31):
a bloody fight with Ice if that means he gets
hits and clicks and eventually votes. You're not gonna convince
gang members to commit felonies for your pet issue, all right.
They're busy. Whatever gang members do to earn money and
(30:51):
gain power, they're gonna do. They're not gonna take a
break and start some kind of a race war with
ICE agents. All right. Roger Bailey coming up next. Rogers
the attorney for the plaintiffs in the Palisades, so in
the city over the fire and the DWP and now
the city is suing the State of California for the fire.
(31:14):
They want to spread out the damages. We'll talk about
it with Roger Bailey next. Deborah Mark is live in
the KFI twenty four our newsroom. Hey, you've been listening
to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You can always hear
the show live on KFI Am six forty from one
to four pm every Monday through Friday, and of course
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Can't.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am six forty. You're listening to the John Cobel
podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We are on every day
from one to four and today we've got two rounds
of the Moistline, and the moist Line will be at
three twenty and three fifty And if you want to
join next week's voice line, phone numbers eight seven seven
Moist eighty six, eight seven seven Moist eighty six. All Right,
(00:25):
the story on Nancy Guthrie continues. And Nancy Guthries the
mother of Savannah Guthrie, the NBC Today's Show anchor, and
you know by now she was kidnapped from her home
in Arizona a number of days ago, and they're still
(00:46):
they still don't know where she is and what condition
she's in, whether she's dead or alive. There's been various
stories about ransom notes. And we're going to talk now
with Sasha Peznek, ABC News reporter and tell us what
the latest is. Shots.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, yeah, that massive search, as you said, now intensifying now.
Six days since Nancy Gothrie vanished in the middle of
the night from her home in Arizona. The FBI now
offering a fifty thousand dollars reward for any information leading
them to find her, and investigator says, you noted they're
taking seriously the possibility that she's being held for ransom.
(01:25):
They're looking at possible ransom notes sent to several news organizations,
including ABC's Tucson affiliate. Now that note hasn't been verified yet,
but it did have descriptions of Nancy Guthrie's watch, a
demand for bitcoin, and two deadlines, one bet has now
passed and another one coming up on Monday. The Guthrie
family making several emotional pleas to their mother's possible captors,
(01:45):
helping those please will be heard by her mother's kidnappers
directly saying we want to hear from you. We're ready
to talk. And yet at this point authorities haven't turned
up exactly what they really need, and that's some kind
of breakthrough.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
What makes them confident if they've talked about this at all,
that this ransom note that the TV station got is
for real as opposed to I imagine they must be
getting all kinds of cranks in prank messages about ransom,
considering where the world lies, So how do they know
this one is really serious?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Well, they don't for starters. You know, there's a lot
of things that go into verifying a note like this,
and it's also one of the reasons why authorities and
investigations like this often play their cards close to the
vest and they don't want to tip their hand and
give away too many details when a possible real ransom
note might have details that only a kidnapper might know. Now,
(02:50):
there are some indications, as we talked about the mention
of the watch and other things that possibly only a
kidnapper could know that that leads them to believe that
it could possibly be a real ransom note. But as
you've noted, in this day and age, there are a
lot of folks out there who are looking a scam
and that there already has been one arrest of a
ransom note.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Nobody's going to pay anything though, until they get proof
of life. Right. Has there been any indication that she's alive.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
There is no indication that she's alive or dead. At
this point, we really have no indication from investigators or
otherwise that she is except for in this ransom note
that has not yet been verified. They said that she
is scared but safe. We don't know whether it's real
or not, and so investigators are going to be endeavoring
to do everything they can to reach out to set
(03:37):
up a line of communication if this is in fact
a real note from real kidnappers. And we know that
really in a case like this, time is of the essence.
Not just because in investigations like this, the first hours
and days are often critical to chase any trail of
evidence before it goes cold, but you know, this is
also an eighty four year old woman we're talking about here,
who's vulnerable, who has health concerns, she has a pacemaker
(04:00):
she needs on a daily basis, and so really the
clock is ticking down, not just on those deadlines, but
on her well being as well.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Now they're never going to get the money though, and
they're never going to get away with it asked for sure.
If they don't, if they don't produce some proof that
she's still with us, it's just curious behavior on the
part of these alleged kidnappers, because you do have to
show what you've got before you're going to get a
reward for it.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yes, that's exactly right. It's very curious, and that is
a part, an important part of the Guthrie families, please
to a person who might have their mother out there,
not just we want to hear from you, let's talk,
let's set up a way to communicate here, but also
we need proof of life. We need proof that our
mother is okay, and then we can move forward from there.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
We do know the.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Sheriff confirmed yesterday the blood that was found on the
front porch was indeed Nancy Gothrie's blood. But the question remains,
as you said, how could this happen? This lady in
her bedroom, locked in her home at night just is gone.
And that really is something that it's easy to understand.
Boggles the mind here, and so investigators now we're going
(05:12):
to be exploiting every single tool that they have. They're
bringing in additional resources with the FBI forensics experts and
cell phone data experts, trying to figure out who was
in the area which is well hidden by thick desert
brush and vegetation, so it's hard to catch anything on camera.
They don't have that yet either, offering that reward, and
they're trying to figure out really in this forty five
(05:33):
minute window in those wee hours of Sunday morning when
they believe she was abducted. What exactly happened?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
All right? Thanks very much, Sasha Peznik, ABC News with
the investigative unit on this case of Nancy Guthrie. There
doesn't seem to be any reasonable motivation that you could
come up with unless you're doing this for money. The
motivation to kidnap this woman, the uh suspicion they would
(06:02):
have that Savannah Guthrie is probably worth millions of dollars
and would be willing to pay all of it to
get her mother back. That that that was the only
if there was any logic to this, That is the
only thing that makes sense why somebody would do it.
And certainly these these notes indicate that you know whoever
(06:26):
wrote these notes, but indicay, yeah, that that's the uh,
that's the motivation, give us millions of dollars of bitcoin.
But yeah, but if you don't prove that you really
have her and that she's alive, you're not getting a time.
So either the notes are fake or there's some other
(06:46):
story that doesn't obviously make sense. Right now, she Nancy
Guthrie is can't provide anything for the kidnappers except a
lot of money from her daughter. But she's a normal, quiet,
elderly woman who can barely walk and needs a lot
(07:08):
of medicine. So there isn't any She doesn't have any
special secrets, any special knowledge that would make her valuable
to these people.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
A deranged fan who really can't stand Savannah Guthrie. She
used to see her reaction.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Maybe, Yeah, I mean she's pretty middle of the road, though,
I don't think she inspires and it kind of crazy.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Yeah, offered the FBI and all of that, but I'm
just I'm just guessing.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
No, I mean that that's actually a good one, is
if they got some kind of grudge against against Savannah
Guthrie that, But I don't know. She's she's pretty straightforward
and nice and it never struck me as she was
controversial in the least. I mean, she's had to interview
controversial people like Trump, and you know how that goes.
(07:57):
No matter what you when you interview Trump, better what
you do, you're gonna get blown back from somebody.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
He's somebody who has a crush on her, somebody who
wants her attention. I don't know. It's such a baffling case. Yeah,
I'm just spitballing here.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, that's what they're doing at FBI headquarters. They're having
the same conversations when we come back. The fake ransom
note sent by a guy here in the Los Angeles area.
And amazingly, this is not his first current scandal. We'll
tell you about it. He's got a recent scandal that
(08:30):
he's a part of. It's really hard to believe.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So we just talked with an ABC News correspondent, Sasha Peznik,
and it's there's no movement, no news on this kidnapping
of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Savannah Guthrie. There's been
those ransom messages had two deadlines in them. First one
has passed, second one will pass. The circumstances of the
(09:03):
deadlines are not explained, not very much as explained it
at all. You know. It's the question that we discussed
when we ended the last segment, is if you're not
going to show that you have her and that she's alive,
then you're not getting any money. So either this person's
a real lunatic and the all these ransom notes are fake.
(09:27):
Speaking of fake, we've got to talk about the false
ransom note from Derek Kalela of Hawthorne here in the
Los Angeles area. This bozo is forty two years old,
and he sent a message too of two Nancy Guthrie
(09:47):
family members. This is according to the criminal complaint by
the FEDS. And the message sent to the family members
said did you get the bitcoin? Did you get the bitcoin?
We're waiting on our end for the transaction that was
part of it. Now, Derek Kollela, he used this voice
(10:15):
over Internet protocol text and a call application to reach
out to the family, but they linked his phone number
to his email address and to his residence. He texted
the family twice, called him at least once, and according
to the complaint, Kalela has admitted sending the two text messages.
(10:36):
You know who this guy is. He's the same guy
who is charged with unemployment fraud in October by Nathan Hockman,
the La County District Attorney. Do you remember in October
we talked about this. There were thirteen people working for
La County who committed fraud because they filed and received
(10:59):
unemployment benefits during the COVID nineteen pandemic. This was part
of the thirty two billion dollars of lost tax money
because Gavin Newsom is an incompetent fool. There were actually
there were no constraints and no guardrails on who could
apply for unemployment money during COVID. He was told that
(11:22):
Newsom he knew that did nothing about it. Thirty two
billion goes out the door. He doesn't care well one
of the fraudsters, thirteen of the fraudsters worked for La County.
And what if it was Derek Kalela. Well, these guys,
the sociopaths. Remember everyone in the world should take a
(11:45):
course in sociopathic and psychopathic behavior. Sociopaths have no conscience.
This guy is also bizarrely obsessive. God knows how many
scams he's pulled in his life, how much much money
he's stolen. It seems like they have the goods when
it comes to this COVID money. But to think, and
(12:10):
they're not really that bright and sophisticated to think that
you're not going to get caught when you have so
much law enforcement and they're using the most sophisticated technology
at the FBI to examine every single message, no matter
what manner you send the message, whether it's phone, email,
(12:34):
text message. This voiceover Internet protocol, whatever it is, whatever variation,
they are going to track you. So this loser, I
don't know if he's sitting home on bail. I assume
he was at least put on leave. So this loser,
after getting caught in the COVID scam, getting busted, at
(12:56):
least they haven't convicted him yet. Now he hects. He
contacts the Guthrie family. So he's a psycho. He doesn't
care about the suffering that the family is going through.
He's trying to loot them out of money. Who raised
this guy? What's his family about? And of course he
(13:23):
gets hired by La County. Oh, they must have done
a hell of a background check there. They must have
really did one of those psychological interview processes. Of course,
he works for the government. He works for an entity,
the county government, that steals tax money all day long.
(13:49):
The whole purpose of the county government is to steal
people's tax money. It's what they do, it's why they're
in business. So he sees all this corruption around him
and figures, well, this is the world. I want to
be a part of it. I want my share. And
so he got his share of fraudulent COVID money. It's like, hey,
they're not tracking the COVID money, and now he's emboldened.
(14:16):
It's not even I don't think he might never go
to jail the way things are around here. But before
he even goes to jail, it's like, let me, let
me pick up a little side cash from Savannah Guthries family.
How about that? What is out there? And I don't
know how, I don't know how many others have sent
to fake ransom. Oh and of course it's in bitcoin.
(14:40):
You see bitcoin drop by half in value, of course
it did. It's not a real thing, no, no matter,
no matter how much the advocates tell you it's a
real thing, it's not a real thing. There is no
intrinsic value to bitcoin. That's why it drops by half
in a week. And that's why scam artists use it.
And that's how money laundering is done. That's what drug
(15:02):
runners use. Anybody involved in anything illegal, selling anything illegal,
and there's a cash transaction, they're using bitcoin now because
it's difficult to track. All Right, we got more coming up.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
A six forty coming up, after two o'clock, we're going
to have Roger Bailey. He is the attorney for the
excuse me, Roger Bailey is the attorney in the civil
lawsuit that Palisades residents have filed against the City of
Los Angeles and the DWP. And now get this, the
(15:43):
City of Los Angeles is now suing the State of
California over the Palisades fire. Yeah. While the obviously much
of the fault for the fire rests with Karen Bass
(16:03):
and Genice keinonias of the DWP and decisions made by
fire officials, the state is heavily involved in this as well.
It started on state land and it was supposedly the
state employees from the Department of Parks and Recreation who
interfered with the Los Angeles Fire Department when they were
(16:24):
trying to put out the original fire. So the city
of La knows it's going to lose, and lose very badly,
and they want the they want the damages to be
spread out, they don't want to have to pay for everything,
so they're suing the State of California. Of course, Newsom
has always denied the state had any responsibility, and of
(16:46):
course he's lying and So the way I read this,
this is just fantastic because now Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom,
you are going to have to each other trying to
prove who's more at fault for this disaster, because clearly,
clearly there's no possible way to spin this anymore. And
(17:12):
I don't see anybody trying now on Karen Bass. Again,
this isn't going away, at least not here on our show.
She lied and tried to cover up the cause of
the fire, her responsibility for the fire. And when the
(17:33):
after action report came out, it was so bland it
was like reading if it was like reading oatmeal. Clearly
she had it rewritten. She either did it herself or
she ordered people to do it, had to approve of it,
and she's denying it. But the question remains, if it
(17:58):
wasn't her, then why And she tell us who rewrote it?
There are six drafts, so who wrote it? Same thing.
Ronnie Vanaweva, who apparently has lost his ability to speak,
the interim fire chief Bass, according to the La Times report,
consulted with him. And then you have the new stooge,
(18:22):
Jimi Moore, the current fire chief, who tells everybody, well,
what are you going to do with that information. You're
just going to point fingers, point playing, Yes, that's what
we want to do. You got it, So why don't
you spill? Tell us who ordered it? If it wasn't
Karen Bass. Why isn't Karen Bass telling me who made
the changes? Now? NBC reporter, get clip number two ready.
(18:43):
NBC reporter Conan Nolan had Bass's first on camera response
to the report, which leads into what the mayor's race
is looking like. I thought the deadline was today, That's
what most news stories had said, and then I saw
a story yesterday they claimed it was that the deadline
was tomorrow to enter the mayor's race. So the final
(19:07):
field is not set yet. Listen to Conan Nolan's report
NBC four. What would be the purpose of covering up
a report that I ordered?
Speaker 5 (19:16):
A frustrated Mayor Karen Bass responding forcefully to an explosive
report in the Los Angeles Times that she had altered
an after action report on the Palisades fire in order to.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Shield the city from litigation.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
It was completely fabricated.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And by the way, you know who are the sources?
Speaker 5 (19:33):
The time story is based on two unnamed sources who
did not directly hear Bass discuss the fire response assessment.
The paper claims their sources were reciting what they had
heard from two others within the Mayor's office. All of
the sources are anonymous.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Facts were not changed in the report.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
What was changed was the verbiage that was used to
describe it. Last month, Fire Chief Jami Moore admitted that
prior to his arrival, changes had been made to the
PADACE After Action Report, but not to definitive facts, but
as to who could be blamed for failures and staffing
and pre deployment prior to record wins. Meanwhile, the field
of this year's race for mayor widened today and narrowed.
(20:13):
LA Education software entrepreneur Adam Miller announced his candidacy for
the job, and LA County Supervisor Lindsay Horriforth says she's
seriously considering her on Harveth has criticized the city's response
to the Palisades fire, which she represents.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
From the moment the fire broke out, I immediately texted
the mayor, offering our assistance and offering to work collaboratively.
Her response hours later was I think we're good, so
obviously it turned out. We weren't good, we weren't even
close to good, and sort of closing people off and
shutting them out is not what leadership is.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
I have no response to the supervisor, look forward to
continuing working with her on a variety of issues as
we already do. And today, former LA Unified Superintendent Austin
Butner announced in a statement that he is leaving the
race for mayor following the sudden death of his twenty
two year old daughter, writing, our family has experienced the
unimaginable loss of our beloved daughter, Emily. She was a
(21:08):
magical person, the light of our lives. We are still
in mourning. Family has always come first for me. That
is where I need to be at this time.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
That is Colon Nolan from NBC four. Could you play
that opening quote that he had from Karen Bass because
this is a doozy. Did you go, what would be
the purpose of covering up a report that I ordered?
A frustrated mayor tich stop stop? What would be the
purpose of covering up a report that I ordered? She
(21:41):
thinks she's so slick. You're covering it up because the
report that you ordered made you look responsible, and you're
running for mayor, and you don't want that look in
an official report. That's not a good campaign ad if
it's used against you, or when it's used against you.
(22:04):
So that's why I love her fake outrage routine. I
study the tricks that these political losers use, and her
trick is to be incredulous. It's like, why would I
do that? Why would somebody say that? How could you
think that every time she's in a pickle she pulls
(22:24):
the same act. Well, I just can't believe that.
Speaker 7 (22:28):
Could you?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
How could you say that? Why would I do that?
Why would you? You would do that? Because you read
the report and it told too much of the truth.
The battalion chief who wrote the report disowned it, took
his name off it. Why because facts quote unquote were
(22:51):
changed or distorted or omitted erased. It had to be
the facts that made you look. I don't know how
worse you could look, but maybe you don't want to
see it in print. In fact, the stuff, the worst
part of it is stuff that might not even be
in the report. It starts with you ignoring days days
(23:18):
of multiple extreme mornings from the National Weather Service over
fire and wind danger, and you going to going to
Africa anyway, And it's you defunding the fire department, and
it's the fire officials feeling like they had to not
(23:40):
send a full crew up to put out the Lockman fire,
and not deploy firefighters the night before, and not keep
firefighters on a second shift the day of because you
didn't give enough money to get by. And I guess
they got hammered a lot for overspending. You know they've
(24:00):
got ten They got thousands of homeless fires to put
out every day. That costs a lot of money. You
can't take any money away from that budget, the homeless
fire budget, because you let people. You let insane people
live in the streets, drug addicts live in the streets. Ah,
how could somebody say that? Why would I? Because you're
(24:24):
only interested in you. You're only interested in having your
body up on stage for the Olympics in twenty twenty eight.
That's your only purpose in life, being a good sociopath,
a communist sociopath at that. You don't care what happens
to the people's lives in the Palisades. You didn't care
when you got on the plane in Africa. I was
(24:45):
looking at the photos of you drinking with all these
officials in Gowana that a good time. Couldn't tell what
you were drinking, but you had a good time, smiling,
sitting on a couch. Yeah. And meantime, people who were
back home were getting their lives destroyed, and you erased
all the text messages. Gee, I don't know why would
(25:08):
you possibly alter a report? What would be the motivation? Now?
I don't know who the hell is going to replace
you right now, but that's what the campaign's for. We'll see.
I can't believe any living human being would would vote
for Hurt, no matter what. The competition is. More coming up. Oh,
(25:31):
you know when we come back, what do I want
to do? I want to all right, the video that lunatic,
the video clip of the lunatic in Long Beach. Who's
running for mayor, Rohelium Martinez. Remember he wanted to see
fifty five gang leaders come this Monday, Monday to take
back the city from ice. We've got more on that
coming up.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
You're listening to John Cobbels on demand from KFI A six.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
All right, there is some loudmouth loser mayoral candidate. I
doubt he's a serious one. His name is ro Helio
Martinez and He posted a video on social media earlier
this week asking for fifty five gang leaders to gather
to take the city from Ice, claiming he's calling for nonviolence. Well,
if you're calling together fifty five gang leaders, what's the
(26:20):
point if you're not interested in violence? Right, let me
play you the clip if you haven't heard it.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
My name is Rohalio Martinez.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
I am calling.
Speaker 7 (26:32):
All fifty five gangs in my beautiful city. I expect
a gang leader from every gang, all fifty five gangs,
and I'm not going to name them by name, but
I'm calling the Latino gangs. I'm calling the Cambodian gangs.
(26:55):
I'm calling the Filipino gangs. I'm calling the Black gang
I'm calling the Pacific Islander gangs. I'm calling all gang
leaders to meet me right here Long Beach City Hall
this coming Monday. Why Monday, specifically, I need you to
(27:16):
be here to meet me in person to take back
the city because our leadership is not doing anything about
it and our police are powerless. Once again, let me
be very clear, my name is Rohelio Martinez. You're twenty
twenty six Long Beach City Mayor, and.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I need your help.
Speaker 7 (27:38):
I need to see fifty five gang leaders here this
coming Monday. We need to take back the city. Enough
is enough. I need to get out of Long Beach,
and this is the only way that I know how
to get them out.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
With strong force, peacefully, with strong force. He remember, he
thinks he's so clever. All shut him off. Enough of him.
He thinks he's so clever. He thinks he's so cute
that if he keeps saying the word peacefully, nothing bad
is going to happen. And this protects him from any
misinterpretation of his words. Now, what he'd like to start
(28:24):
is a violent war against ice. He'd like to start
a race riot too, because his first response in this
news story is that when he was asked what kind
of reaction, he says, I got so many death threats
predominantly from MAGA white supremacists because I didn't call on
(28:47):
the white gangs. How many white gangs are there in
Long Beach, So I guess they were kind of hurt
by that. Real smart ass. Yeah, all the death threats
came from MAGA white supremacists. He if you've got a
bad reaction, it's people don't want to see Long Beach
(29:07):
burned down. They don't want a bloody massacre in the
streets between armed officers and gang members. They don't want
innocent people killed. This guy is a first ballot nominee
for the Moron Hall of Fame. Now he's saying, well,
there was not going to be any war between gang
leaders and ice. And I don't know how many gangs
they are on Long Beach. I picked fifty five because
(29:28):
I'm fifty five years old. No one bothered to ask
me how I came up with that number, because no
one approaches unhinged crazy people. FBI called him, though, I
was like, holy Toledo, this is really the FBI, And
they had questions for him. Has any gang member reached
out to you? And he said no, they had not.
(29:50):
Have you reached out to a gang member? No? And
what do you expect about today, Oh, only a peaceful
community rally in silence. When asked how many people were
ex but to show up, he told her just one himself.
I learned in life you can only count on yourself.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
What is this.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Desperate for attention? This is the this is the disease
that has infected the brains of millions of people. It's
like some narcissism virus. They want attention, and he's willing
to challenge every gang in Long Beach to get into
(30:31):
a bloody fight with Ice if that means he gets
hits and clicks and eventually votes. You're not gonna convince
gang members to commit felonies for your pet issue, all right.
They're busy. Whatever gang members do to earn money and
(30:51):
gain power, they're gonna do. They're not gonna take a
break and start some kind of a race war with
ICE agents. All right. Roger Bailey coming up next. Rogers
the attorney for the plaintiffs in the Palisades, so in
the city over the fire and the DWP and now
the city is suing the State of California for the fire.
(31:14):
They want to spread out the damages. We'll talk about
it with Roger Bailey next. Deborah Mark is live in
the KFI twenty four our newsroom. Hey, you've been listening
to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You can always hear
the show live on KFI Am six forty from one
to four pm every Monday through Friday, and of course
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The John Kobylt Show News
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John Kobylt
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