A person was detained for questioning in the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case Tuesday during a traffic stop south of Tucson, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. The detention came hours after FBI officials released surveillance footage showing a masked individual approaching the 84-year-old’s front door the morning she was abducted.
The Sheriff’s Department said that the detained subject was in the process of being questioned on Tuesday evening. Officials have not released the individual’s identity or offered any details about how the person might be connected to the case.
Sheriff’s officials were working with the FBI to complete a search in Rio Rico, Ariz., on Tuesday evening, a department spokesperson said. The court-authorized search is expected to continue for several hours and is taking place near the area where the subject was detained, the spokesperson said.
Rio Rico is a semi-rural community about 12 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border and 56 miles south of Tucson.
A woman told CNN Tuesday evening that authorities had detained her son-in-law and were searching her Rio Rico home. She said that her son-in-law “had nothing to do with that [Guthrie’s kidnapping].”
“I told them you can go in and search my house, there is nobody there,” she told CNN. “I have nothing to hide.”
The release of surveillance footage Tuesday and the subsequent detention marked the first major breaks in the investigation, which has spanned 10 days.
The images, recorded at 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 1, show someone wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack tampering with the Nest camera at Guthrie’s front door. A gun is holstered at the person’s waist, positioned at the front of their body where it is easily visible.
In the footage, the person approaches the front door, notices the camera and tries to cover the lens with their hand. Then they look around the patio and yard area, apparently for something to obstruct the camera, and settle on some greenery that they position in front of the lens.
When authorities arrived at the home in Arizona later that day, the camera was gone.
In an investigation with numerous dead ends, the footage was expected to be crucial in helping law enforcement move the case forward, experts say.
“This is huge,” said University of Hawaii Police Chief Andrew Black, who was formerly an FBI special agent in charge of the Tucson office. “He or she is not going to be dressed exactly as they were here, but they’re going to have used some of these articles of clothing in daily life. It is likely someone may recognize them.”
The images were circulated less than a day after a ransom deadline to pay Guthrie’s abductors $6 million in bitcoin passed with no sign of the 84-year-old and no proof of life from kidnappers. There has been no indication any ransom was paid and the FBI also said it is not aware of any communication between the abductors and the Guthrie family.
The FBI said Monday that it had not identified any suspects in the bizarre kidnapping case, which began 10 days ago when Guthrie’s family reported her missing after she did not show up at a friend’s house to watch a church service and wasn’t at her Tucson home.
Authorities initially thought it was a missing person’s case, but there were several indications at the home, including blood droplets near the front door, that hinted at something far more sinister.
FBI releases surveillance video in Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case
“Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, one of Nancy’s daughters, shared the footage in two posts on Instagram on Tuesday with a plea for the public’s help. Savannah Guthrie says in one post that she and her siblings believe their mother “is still alive.”
“Someone out there recognizes this person,” she wrote. “We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the White House weighed in on X, saying: “The President encourages any American across the country with any knowledge of this suspect to please call the FBI who continue to assist state and local authorities. The prayers of the entire White House are with the Guthrie family.”
Law enforcement had been working for days to recover any images or video footage that may have been “lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors — including the removal of recording devices,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.
Investigators were not initially able to access footage from Guthrie’s surveillance cameras because she did not pay for a subscription to store the video. Patel said in a post on X that the footage was recovered from “residual data located in back-end systems.”
A law enforcement source told The Times on Tuesday that officials spent a considerable amount of time working to retrieve data from the Nest camera. Sources also said they’re working on the assumption that the masked individual is a man.
Authorities on Tuesday were visiting homes in the neighborhood of one of Guthrie’s daughters, Annie, to ask if they recognize the person in the video and see if they have other information to share, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
The sources spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case.
Mary Ellen O’Toole, a professor at George Mason University and a former FBI profiler, said the video footage is helpful to investigators in more than one way, including providing some insight into the personality of the alleged kidnapper.
“This has really breathed a sense of life and encouragement into the case and not just because they’re any photos, but I think they’re really useful photos,” she said. “Someone is going to recognize this individual. They’re going to recognize the clothes, they’ll recognize the gait and how he carries himself. I think that is going to be significant.”
O’Toole was struck by the ease in the person’s gait as they walked around Nancy Guthrie’s front porch, a sign that not only were they comfortable in high stress situations, but also that they’d probably been there before.
“The way he’s walking around is very casual,” she said. “It’s not rushed, he doesn’t move around like he’s trying to dodge or dart, but slowly, comfortably. The fact that you’re just about ready to commit an extremely violent crime inside someone else’s home and you’re walking around as though you’re in Home Depot trying to figure out what to buy is very telling.”
The ease in the person’s movements could also indicate that the individual has a history of entering places where they are not supposed to be, such as other people’s homes or businesses late at night. The individual might be someone who identified Nancy Guthrie as a target and then visited her home to develop intelligence about her, or it could be someone she knows, O’Toole said.
“There’s no way at this point to say it’s a relative or a close friend, or it’s somebody that targeted her ahead of time,” she said.
Pleas from the family for Guthrie’s return have become increasingly urgent as time has passed. Guthrie was taken from the home without any of her medications and it’s not clear how long she can survive without them.
“We believe our mom is still out there. We need your help,” Savannah Guthrie said in a video on Instagram on Monday. “So I’m coming on just to ask you, not just for your prayers but no matter where you are — even if you’re far from Tucson — if you see anything, if you hear anything, if there’s anything at all that seems strange to you, that you report to law enforcement. We are in an hour of desperation.”