The FBI announced on Wednesday that it was conducting “an extensive search” along multiple roadways close to the Arizona home of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie who has been missing for 10 days.
The development came after authorities released a man earlier in the day who was detained in a traffic stop following several hours of questioning “in connection to the investigation”, according to reports.
The FBI gave no indication of what it was looking for in its sweep of the Catalina Foothills area near Tucson, where Nancy Guthrie, 84, was reported missing from her home on 1 February.
A post from the FBI’s Phoenix bureau on X urged motorists and the media “to remain especially cautious when passing law enforcement personnel near the roadways”.
In a separate development, TMZ reported that it received a note early Wednesday from an anonymous person demanding one Bitcoin (about $67,000) from the Guthrie family “if they want the name of the individual involved”. The note has not been formally authenticated.
Meanwhile, an individual who identified himself to reporters as Carlos Palazuelos said he was the person held after a traffic stop on Tuesday in Rio Rico, about an hour’s drive from the Guthrie residence.
“I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” he told the New York Times from what he said was his wife and mother-in-law’s home in Rio Rico, claiming not to have heard about the case.
The Pima county sheriff’s department announced on Tuesday night that deputies had “detained a subject during a traffic stop” and that the person was “being questioned in connection to the Nancy Guthrie investigation”.
Palazuelos, a 27-year-old delivery driver, told reporters he was “terrified” by his detention, but insisted he was innocent, NBC News reported.
“[It’s] something I didn’t do. I felt like I was being kidnapped, bro. They didn’t tell me anything,” he said.
Chris Nanos, the Pima county sheriff, said in a statement that his deputies and the FBI conducted a “court-authorized search” related to the investigation in Rio Rico, a town close to the Mexican border. Nanos gave no details about the search, and in a separate post on X early Wednesday said: “No press conference is scheduled at this time.”
There was no official confirmation of the individual’s release from the FBI or Pima county officials by early morning Wednesday, but Angelica Carrillo, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department, told the Times that investigators had “completed their search of a property in Rio Rico”.
The developments followed Tuesday afternoon’s release by the FBI of “previously inaccessible” still images and a 44-second video of a person in a ski mask prowling at the doorstep of Nancy Guthrie’s residence in the Catalina Foothills area north of Tucson, captured by her doorbell camera on the morning of her disappearance.
The black-and-white photographs depict a masked figure wearing gloves and a backpack approaching the door of the house, and in one image the person waves what appears to be a plant. In another, they begin to dismantle the Nest camera.
In recent days, Nanos had expressed frustration to reporters about the speed of obtaining imagery. As the search entered its second full week on Monday he told the Associated Press: “I wish technology was as easy as we believe it is, that here’s a picture, here’s your bad guy. But it’s not.”
The breakthrough was announced on Tuesday by Kash Patel, the FBI director.
“Working with our partners, as of this morning, law enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera,” he wrote on X.
Also on Tuesday, the FBI announced a $50,000 reward for “information leading to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance”.
Detectives have conducted a number of searches of Guthrie’s house, which was declared “a crime scene” early in the investigation, and the surrounding area, with at least one vehicle being removed, and drone footage showing FBI agents poking a pole into a septic tank.
Savannah Guthrie, who has hosted NBC’s Today show since 2012, has posted several videos on social media appealing for the return of her mother, with whom she said she shares a special bond, especially after the death of her father when the presenter was a teenager.
Nancy Guthrie has mobility issues and needs regular medication to stay alive, her daughter said.
In the days since Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, the case has become a source of frustration, and much intrigue. Investigators found blood on the doorstep, and looked into the authenticity of several notes reportedly demanding a $6m ransom from the Guthrie family in cryptocurrency, which Savannah Guthrie said in one of the videos: “We will pay.”
One of the notes sent to an Arizona television station last week purportedly included a demand for money by Monday afternoon, a deadline that passed without incident.
In one bizarre incident, a person was spotted attempting to deliver a pizza to the Guthrie residence, which was later revealed to have been ordered by reporters on scene covering the story. “We can’t believe we have to say this, but media on scene: please do not order food delivery to a crime scene address. This interferes with an active investigation,” the Pima county sheriff’s department posted on X.
In a separate post on Sunday afternoon, the department said: “No suspects, persons of interest, or vehicles have been identified.”
