Nancy Guthrie’s family has said they do not recognize the terrifying masked figure caught on camera outside her home as police detained a person of interest in the case near Tucson, Arizona.
Federal officers finally released doorbell camera footage from the home of Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother on Tuesday, after ten days without any leads into the 84-year-old’s disappearance.
Investigators started combing through bushes near her daughter Annie’s home just hours after doorbell footage showed an armed figure clad in a ski mask and carrying a backpack, wearing black latex gloves. The suspect can also be seen tampering with the mother-of-three’s Nest doorbell camera.
In the footage, the suspect rips the camera from its holder on the door frame. The device was missing by the time sheriff’s deputies arrived that morning.
The individual also attempts to cover the lens with a clenched fist, then searches the area around the door before ripping a bunch of flowers from the entranceway and waving them at the camera.
Nancy’s three children have since said they do not recognize the suspect in the video and are pleading with the public for help catching the kidnapper, NBC News reports.
‘We believe she is still alive,’ Today Show host Savannah Guthrie wrote as she shared the images to Instagram. ‘Bring her home.’
Nancy Guthrie’s family has said they do not recognize the masked man who was seen tampering with her Nest doorbell camera the night of her disappearance. The 84 year old is the mother of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie
A masked figure was seen on Nancy Guthrie’s doorstep in the early hours of February 1
The individual stares right into the lens while holding some plants ripped from outside the Arizona home, seemingly to cover the Nest doorbell camera
Earlier in the day, officers were seen going door-to-door in the neighborhood around Annie Guthrie and her husband Tommaso Cioni’s home, also asking nearby businesses for surveillance footage.
Other agents were seen searching a junkyard, bushes behind Annie and Tommaso’s home as well as another house at the far end of their street.
Neighbor John Grove even told the Daily Mail that investigators asked to search a dry river bed on his property.
‘The cops wanted to know if they could go through that wash next to my house – I said they could,’ he recounted. ‘I asked if it was related to the kidnapping and they said “We can’t tell you that.”
‘They’re playing their cards close to their chest,’ Grove added.
‘I just hope she didn’t get into any difficulties around here – it’s very harsh terrain,’ he said. ‘We had a guy the other day who just moved here and got lost and died.
‘For someone like her, well, it wouldn’t end well.’
Annie and Tommaso were the last people to see Nany before her disappearance on January 31, after she went to their house for dinner.
Tommaso then dropped her back off at her house at around 9.48pm and her garage door closed at approximately 9.50pm, according to police.
By 1.47am, Nancy’s doorbell camera was disconnected, with the newly released footage showing the suspect ripping the camera from its holder on the door frame.
Officers from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department searched through desert land as the investigation into Nancy’s disappearance continued
Officers were seen surveilling the land and speaking to Annie’s neighbors
Investigators are pictured going through Annie Guthrie’s neighborhood
Another video released by officials showed the individual attempting to cover the lens with a clenched fist, then searching the area around the door, ripping a bunch of flowers from the entranceway, and waving them at the camera.
Another clip shared by the FBI showed the individual hunched over as they made their first approach to the door, bowing their head.
The terrifying footage was finally recovered on Tuesday after FBI agents and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department conducted a deep dive into Nest’s backend systems, as Nancy did not have a Nest subscription – which would have automatically uploaded the images and saved them to a cloud storage platform.
Savannah Guthrie has since shared the haunting stills on Instagram, saying: ‘We believe she is still alive. Bring her home.’
Nancy was reported missing after failing to attend a virtual church service with friends, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said.
Since then, law enforcement has continued to comb over the home, which sits on a large lot on a street with no lights, while Guthrie and her two siblings, Annie and Camron, plead for help in finding their mother.
The figure raises their fist while wearing latex gloves, with apparent facial hair also visible, moments before the individual apparently removed the camera
Moments before the individual apparently removes the camera outside Nancy’s home
Annie and Tommaso have said they realized Nancy was missing around 11.10am last Sunday, the Pima County Sheriff’s Office said.
They reported her disappearance to police at 12.15pm. Her phone, wallet, vital daily medications and car were still at her Catalina Foothills home.
Cioni said he saw his mother-in-law enter her home through the garage before driving off the night before at around 9:45pm MT.
Investigators found drops of blood on Nancy’s front porch that were later confirmed to be hers and that her doorbell camera was disconnected at around 1.45am.
Less than 30 minutes later, her security camera detected movement. Her pacemaker stopped transmitting data to her Apple Watch and phone shortly afterwards, suggesting she had been taken out of the devices’ range.
Nancy requires medication every 24 hours and it is unclear if whoever abducted her has ensured she has access to her medication.
Guthrie and her two siblings, Camron and Annie, in a video they shared online asking for help
A ransom note sent to multiple news outlets last week set an initial deadline of Thursday evening and a final deadline of Monday evening.
The notes are said to have made specific reference to damage to Nancy’s home and the placement of a possession, both details that have not been shared with the public.
It is unclear if those specific pieces of information were accurate.
Guthrie said she and her family were taking the demands seriously but there has been no official update on whether the notes’ contents have been verified and if their senders really are holding Nancy captive.
Efforts to negotiate with the alleged captors also stalled, as a digital wallet referenced in the first letter for a potential transaction remained empty, according to TMZ, which was sent a copy of the note.
Once the payment was made, the alleged kidnappers claimed they would return Nancy to Tucson within 12 hours, the outlet reported.
After Monday’s deadline passed, the FBI said it ‘is not aware of any continued communication between the Guthrie family and suspected kidnappers.’
The bureau is now leading all elements of the investigation in connection with Nancy’s kidnapping, including alleged ransom notes.
