Person detained over disappearance of Nancy Guthrie
In this image provided by NBCUniversal, Savannah Guthrie, right, and her mother Nancy in 2019 (Nathan Congleton/NBCUniversal/AP)
A person has been detained for questioning in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of show host Savannah Guthrie, officials said on Tuesday.
Deputies detained the person during a traffic stop south of Tucson on Tuesday, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
The department, along with the FBI’s Evidence Response Team, was also conducting a court-authorised search in Rio Rico, about an hour south of Tucson, on Tuesday night as part of the investigation, the department said in a statement. It was expected to take several hours.
It was not clear if the person being questioned is the person captured on surveillance video from outside Nancy Guthrie’s home, which was released earlier on Tuesday.
The FBI, who referred questions to the sheriff’s department, released surveillance images of a masked person with a handgun holster outside the front door on the night Nancy Guthrie vanished, offering the first major break in a case that has gripped the nation for more than a week.
The person wearing a backpack and a ski mask can be seen in one of the videos tilting their head down and away from a doorbell camera while nearing an archway.
The footage shows the person holding a flashlight in their mouth and trying to cover the camera with a gloved hand and part of a plant ripped from the yard.
The images did not show what happened to Nancy Guthrie or help determine whether the 84-year-old is still alive.
FBI director Kash Patel said the “armed individual” appeared to “have tampered with the camera”. It was not entirely clear whether there was a gun in the holster.
The videos were pulled from data on “back-end systems” after investigators spent days trying to find lost, corrupted or inaccessible images, he said.
“This will get the phone ringing for lots of potential leads,” said former FBI agent Katherine Schweit. “Even when you have a person who appears to be completely covered, they’re really not. You can see their girth, the shape of their face, potentially their eyes or mouth.”
By Tuesday afternoon, authorities were back near Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood, using vehicles to block her driveway. A few miles away, law enforcement was going door-to-door in the area where daughter Annie Guthrie lives, talking with neighbors as well as walking through a drainage area and examining the inside of a culvert with a flashlight.
Investigators have said for more than a week that they believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will. She was last seen at home on January 31 and reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed blood on her porch was hers, authorities said.
She has high blood pressure and issues with mobility and her heart, and she needs daily medication, officials have said.
Until now, authorities have released few details, leaving it unclear if ransom notes demanding money with deadlines already passed were authentic, and whether the Guthrie family has had any contact with whoever took Nancy Guthrie.
Savannah Guthrie posted the new surveillance images on social media on Tuesday, saying the family believes Nancy Guthrie is still alive and offering phone numbers for the FBI and county sheriff. Within minutes, the post had thousands of comments.
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