By admin 
LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A Los Angeles County man has pleaded guilty to making a fake ransom demand in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.
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Derrick Callella is charged with two counts of telephonic harassment.
His plea deal in Tucson Federal Court calls for five years of probation on each count, to be served at the same time.
Federal prosecutors say the Hawthorne man sent the Guthrie family two text messages and made a phone call shortly after “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother disappeared.
Callella is due back in court for sentencing in September and for now has been ordered into residential drug treatment.
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Savannah Guthrie made an emotional appeal to viewers last month to come forward with any information about her missing mother, a day after it was reported that a ransom note received months ago had indicated that she was dead.
“We are in agony, and we cannot be at peace. … We love our mom. We’ll never stop looking for her,” Guthrie said at the “Today” desk in New York, holding a tissue in her left hand.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, who lived alone, was reported missing from her Tucson-area home on Feb. 1. The FBI released video more than a week later from a camera outside her front door showing a masked stranger. Her blood was found on the porch, but the case remains unsolved.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.