Man Detained for Questioning in Nancy Guthrie Case Is Released
The development came after investigators released chilling video showing a masked figure on Ms. Guthrie’s front porch the morning of her disappearance.
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Investigators released a man who had been detained late Tuesday in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. Earlier, authorities released new video showing a masked figure at her doorstep on the night she vanished.CreditCredit…F.B.I, via Associated Press
Follow the latest updates on the Nancy Guthrie case.
Pinned
Nicholas Bogel-BurroughsChelsia Rose Marcius and Jill Cowan
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reported from Rio Rico, Ariz.
Here’s what to know.
A man who was detained during a traffic stop by investigators looking into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie has been released after questioning.
In an interview early Wednesday, the man said he had not heard about Nancy Guthrie but hopes that she is found safe. “I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” he said, speaking on the doorstep of his wife and mother-in-law’s home in Rio Rico, Ariz.
The F.B.I. and the Pima County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday had carried out a “court-authorized search” related to the investigation in Rio Rico, Ariz., about an hour’s drive south of Tucson, Ariz., the county sheriff, Chris Nanos, said in a statement.
As of 1:20 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the department had not yet confirmed that it had released the person it had detained for questioning. But a spokeswoman, Angelica Carrillo, said investigators had “completed their search of a property in Rio Rico.”
Investigators questioned the man after he was detained during a traffic stop south of Tucson, more than 10 days into the search for the 84-year-old mother of the “Today” host Savannah Guthrie.
Outside a home in Rio Rico, a woman said the man was her son-in-law and that investigators had broken down her door and were searching the house. She said her son-in-law had been delivering food when he was stopped by the police. She insisted that the masked figure in a newly released surveillance video was not him.
The footage, released earlier, shows a masked person on Nancy Guthrie’s porch around the time that she is believed to have vanished from her neighborhood near Tucson early on Feb. 1. The person is wearing a ski mask, gloves and a backpack, and appears to be armed with a pistol.
Cable news pundits and true crime enthusiasts have spent more than a week analyzing the scant details of Ms. Guthrie’s case as they have trickled out. The authorities said early on that they were investigating the disappearance as a kidnapping, and Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have released a series of videos pleading with whoever is involved to reach out to them. They said they were prepared to listen to ransom demands.
It was not yet clear whether the authorities believe the person being questioned is the same person in the video, according to a second law enforcement official familiar with the case. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share details.
Here’s what we’re covering:
Chilling video: The 44 seconds of silent black-and-white surveillance footage released on Tuesday shows a masked figure approaching Ms. Guthrie’s house and raising a gloved hand to block a Nest doorbell camera. The camera was eventually disabled. Read more ›
Footage delay: Federal authorities said the doorbell video released on Tuesday had been “previously inaccessible,” but declined to explain why. Experts said it likely took longer to find the video because Ms. Guthrie did not pay for a subscription to the Nest service. Read more ›
Rio Rico: The town where officials detained a person for questioning has long been a key transit point for smugglers because of its location near Interstate 19 and the wild desert hills that stretch across the border with Mexico. A Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was killed near the town of about 20,500 in a shootout with armed bandits in 2010.
Timeline: Ms. Guthrie’s older daughter, Annie, and her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, were the last people to see her before she vanished. Mr. Cioni drove Ms. Guthrie home from dinner. Hours later, at about 1:47 a.m., her front door camera was disconnected. Investigators believe that she was most likely taken soon after. Read more ›
Ransom demand: The authorities had said last week that they were reviewing a message sent to a Tucson television station, but did not confirm that it was related to a purported ransom note sent earlier, which demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin.
Feb. 11, 2026
Laura Chung
Digital currencies like Bitcoin are hard to track and often used by extortionists.
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A Bitcoin wallet listed in a note claiming to be from Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapper received a small payment, according to a Tucson, Ariz. television station.Credit…Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A Bitcoin wallet listed in a note claiming to be from Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapper has received a small payment, according to a Tucson, Ariz. television station, thrusting cryptocurrency into the center of a case that has gripped the nation.
The episode highlights why digital currencies have become a common tool in ransom demands, and how difficult they can be to trace.
Several news outlets received a supposed ransom note last week demanding payment to a Bitcoin wallet. One of them, KGUN, a Tucson television station, said on Tuesday night that the wallet had received a payment for less than $300. It remains unclear whether the person who sent the note is actually connected to Ms. Guthrie’s abduction.
Since Bitcoin emerged in 2009, it has become a common payment method in extortion schemes, including ransomware attacks and kidnappings, because it allows transactions to be conducted outside the traditional financial system.
Unlike bank transfers, Bitcoin transactions do not require names or physical locations. They rely instead on a string of characters known as a Bitcoin address.
“The other alternative option that you have if you’re a kidnapper, for example, or you’re engaged in some other form of ransom demands, is you ask for a briefcase brimming with cash to be dropped off somewhere,” said Anton Moiseienko, an associate professor of law at Australian National University.
“But that requires physical contact. Someone needs to leave cash. Someone needs to pick it up. Bitcoin can operate across countries, geographies, continents and so on,” he said.
Tracing a cryptocurrency transfer presents two main challenges: identifying who owns the account and where the money ultimately goes, said Dennis Desmond, a cyber-intelligence lecturer at Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast and a former F.B.I. special agent.
He likened the challenge to searching for a needle in a stack of needles.
“If the funds are immediately transferred to other wallets, aggregated, consolidated, and then again shipped out to other wallets, or hundreds of wallets in different countries, it’s very difficult to recover those funds,” said Mr. Desmond.
Still, cryptocurrency transfers are not as difficult to trace as criminals may assume. Each transaction is recorded on a publicly viewable ledger known as a blockchain.
The authorities, often working with specialized cryptocurrency-tracking companies, can monitor transactions from a particular wallet and determine whether the money is moved to other wallets or digital exchanges, Mr. Desmond said.
From there, the authorities may be able to gather identifying details, such as associated IP addresses, when a wallet was created and how frequently it has been used.
For example, in 2021, federal officials recovered most of the Bitcoin ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline after a ransomware attack shut down the company’s computer systems, prompting fuel shortages and a spike in gasoline prices. The authorities did not disclose how they retrieved the funds.
Feb. 11, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
A man who was detained in the search for Nancy Guthrie was released after a few hours.
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Carlos, who declined to provide a last name, told reporters on Wednesday that the police detained him for several hours before releasing him.CreditCredit…Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
A man was released from custody early Wednesday morning after being detained for questioning in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie.
The release of the man was a blow to investigators, who are entering their 11th day of trying to determine who may have abducted Ms. Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother and where she is now.
The man who was released, a 36-year-old named Carlos, said that he had been in his car on Tuesday evening in Rio Rico, Ariz., about an hour’s drive south of Tucson, when police officers asked him his name and then detained him.
He was held for several hours, he said, before eventually being released with wrists swollen from handcuffs.
Carlos, who declined to give his last name, gave an account of his detention in a brief interview on the porch of the home he shares with his wife and mother-in-law in Rio Rico just before 1 a.m. on Wednesday, after the police had combed through the house.
He said he had not heard of Nancy Guthrie, who was abducted from her home near Tucson on Feb. 1, but hoped that the police found the culprit.
“I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” he said. “They better do their job and find the suspect that did it so that they can clear my name.”
A spokeswoman for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, which is leading the investigation along with the F.B.I., said only that investigators had finished searching a property in Rio Rico, which is near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The detention and release of the man came a day after what appeared to be the biggest break in the case, when the authorities were able to recover footage from Ms. Guthrie’s doorbell camera that showed a masked, armed person at her doorstep on the night she went missing.
Savannah Guthrie has pleaded with anyone who recognizes the person in the video to reach out to the authorities.
Feb. 11, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
The Pima County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Department has not yet confirmed that it released the man it had detained for questioning. But a spokeswoman, Angelica Carrillo, said investigators have “completed their search of a property in Rio Rico.” Sheriff’s department vehicles left the home where the man is staying a few minutes ago.
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Credit…Cassidy Araiza for The New York Times
Feb. 11, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
The man who was detained by the police earlier tonight for questioning was released. In an interview on the doorstep of his wife and mother-in-law’s home in Rio Rico, Ariz., he said he had not heard about Nancy Guthrie but hopes that she is found safe. “I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” he said.
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Carlos, who declined to provide a last name, told reporters on Wednesday that the police detained him for several hours before releasing him.CreditCredit…Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Feb. 11, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
A woman outside the house being searched in Rio Rico, Ariz., said the man the police have detained is her son-in-law. She said that investigators have been swarming her house, and broke down the door, but that she knew nothing of any crime. After speaking with reporters, and complaining about how the police had treated her family and house, she walked past the yellow crime tape toward her door.
Feb. 11, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
The woman who said her house was being searched said her son-in-law was working, delivering food, when he was stopped by the police and detained. She said he spends the weeks in Tucson, working in the shipping business and staying with his mother. The woman said her son-in-law and daughter have been saving to rent their own apartment. She was adamant that the person in the doorbell camera video released by the police today was not her son-in-law.
Feb. 10, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
Police officers have cordoned off Camino Agosto, a road near Interstate 19 in Rio Rico, Ariz., about an hour’s drive south of Tucson, where investigators are carrying out a search related to the investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
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Credit…Ty Oneil/Associated Press
Feb. 10, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
The F.B.I. and Pima County Sheriff’s Department are carrying out a “court-authorized search” in Rio Rico, Ariz., about an hour’s drive south of Tucson, related to the investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman said. She said the operation is expected to last several hours. It comes after the police detained someone for questioning in connection with the case.
Feb. 10, 2026
Kim Murphy
Rio Rico, Ariz., where officials detained a person for questioning related to the Nancy Guthrie disappearance, has long been a key transit point for smugglers because of its location near Interstate 19 and the wild desert hills that stretch across the border with Mexico. A Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was killed near the town of about 20,500 in a shootout with armed bandits in 2010.
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Feb. 10, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
A person is being questioned in connection with the apparent abduction of Nancy Guthrie, Sheriff Chris Nanos of Pima County said in a statement. Deputies detained the person during a traffic stop south of Tucson, he said.
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Credit…Cassidy Araiza for The New York Times
Feb. 10, 2026
Chelsia Rose Marcius
Investigators working on the apparent abduction of Nancy Guthrie have detained a person for questioning, according to a senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the case. It was not immediately clear whether the person, who was detained in Rio Rico, Ariz., about an hour’s drive south of Tucson near the border with Mexico, was considered a suspect in the disappearance of Guthrie, 84.
Feb. 10, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
Several news outlets received a supposed ransom note last week demanding payment to a Bitcoin wallet. One of them, KGUN, a Tucson television station, said on Tuesday night that the wallet had received a payment from somebody. That payment, the station said, was for less than $300. It remains unclear whether the person who sent that ransom demand is actually connected to Nancy Guthrie’s abduction.
Feb. 10, 2026
Jacey Fortin
Why the Guthrie doorbell footage took more than a week to retrieve.
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Images provided by the F.B.I. show surveillance footage taken at the home of Nancy Guthrie on a Nest camera.Credit…F.B.I. via Associated Press
Doorbell camera footage of a masked man at Nancy Guthrie’s front door was made public on Tuesday, 10 days after her family last saw her.
The video — silent, grainy and in black-and-white — shows a person approaching Ms. Guthrie’s doorstep on the night she was abducted. The person wears a ski mask, gloves, a backpack and what appears to be a holstered handgun.
The authorities have known since last week that the camera was disconnected at 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 1. But in a statement on Tuesday, the F.B.I. and the Pima County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Department said that the footage had been uncovered only “as of this morning,” and that the images had been “previously inaccessible.”
It was unclear why the footage took more than a week to retrieve. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department referred questions to the F.B.I., which declined to offer more information.
The video does offer a clue. It is stamped in the upper right corner with a name: Nest, a home electronics brand that is part of Google.
An internet-enabled Nest doorbell, which sells for about $150, can record video and alert homeowners to sounds and movements on their doorsteps. Owners can pay a monthly subscription to get premium features, like long-term video history.
If Ms. Guthrie had had a paid subscription to a premium package, the authorities might have had access to footage stored on her account, said Adam Wandt, an associate professor and the deputy chair for technology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
But Ms. Guthrie did not pay for a subscription that would have stored the video, according to Chris Nanos, the Pima County Sheriff. So while she may have been able to access real-time video, historical footage would probably be stored only on a server somewhere in one of Google’s vast data centers.
It is unclear whether investigators used a warrant to obtain the footage. They may not have been required to, because the kidnapping of Ms. Guthrie, who is the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, might be considered an exigent circumstance — a legal exception to the warrant requirement under the Fourth Amendment.
Google did not immediately respond to questions about the footage, but Mr. Wandt speculated that finding the data could have taken days.
First, investigators would have had to request the data from Google.
“Sometimes those requests are clear and simple,” Mr. Wandt said. “However, they often are not, and they might take more than one back-and-forth. And then the company might need a day or two, or three, to figure out how to get that data.”
Feb. 10, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
The 44 seconds of video that show the Guthrie abduction suspect.
Three snippets of video released by the authorities on Tuesday gave the first glimpse of a suspect in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of the “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
The silent, black-and-white doorbell camera videos total just 44 seconds, but what they depict is frightening: a masked, armed person approaching Nancy Guthrie’s doorstep late at night, shortly before she was abducted.
For the past 10 days, it appeared that the footage had been lost, but the F.B.I. and Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that they had managed to get it on Tuesday morning after working with private companies and accessing “residual data” in “back-end systems.”
Here is what the videos show:
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Credit…@FBIDirectorKash, via X
The person approaches the front door of Ms. Guthrie’s home, just north of Tucson, Ariz., seemingly holding a flashlight in their mouth. The F.B.I. declined to provide the exact time of the footage, but said it was on the morning that Ms. Guthrie was abducted.
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Credit…FBI, via Associated Press
The person at the front door is wearing a ski mask, a backpack, gloves and a jacket. The person also has what appears to be a handgun holstered at the waist.
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Credit…FBI, via Associated Press
The person looks around the porch and notices the Nest doorbell camera, quickly raising a gloved right hand to block it.
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Credit…FBI, via Associated Press
Despite trying to block the camera, a few of the person’s features are visible: eyes, eyebrows and part of the mouth. About 10 seconds after blocking the camera, the person turns around.
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Credit…@FBIDirectorKash, via X
The masked suspect walks off Ms. Guthrie’s porch and bends down to pick up some foliage. The person quickly looks around before returning to the front door.
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Credit…F.B.I, via Associated Press
There, the person, once again holding a flashlight in their mouth, tries to drape the plant around the camera to occlude its view.
The police have said that the doorbell camera was disconnected at 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 1.
At 2:28 a.m., Ms. Guthrie’s pacemaker lost contact with her cellphone, which was later found at the home, suggesting that she was taken at that time.
She has not been heard from since.
Feb. 10, 2026
Sonia A. Rao
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department asked people not to order food to the address of Nancy Guthrie’s house, after a Domino’s pizza was delivered for a YouTuber live-streaming the scene. The driver, who did not know the address was Guthrie’s, took the pizza to the front door. Cookies were also delivered. “Please do not order food delivery to a crime scene address,” the sheriff’s department posted. “This interferes with an active investigation.”
Feb. 10, 2026
The New York Times
A timeline of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
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The authorities in Pima County, Ariz., have repeatedly closed and reopened the crime scene at Nancy Guthrie’s house near Tucson since she was reported missing on Feb. 1.Credit…Rebecca Noble/Reuters
For more than a week, the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of the “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, has confounded the authorities. And because it involves the possible abduction of a celebrity’s relative, it has captivated much of the nation.
Investigators have spent days analyzing notes from people claiming to be the kidnappers, including one that demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin. In the latest development, the authorities on Tuesday released black-and-white surveillance video and images from Ms. Guthrie’s doorstep.
The video was taken by a disabled doorbell camera. They show a person wearing a ski mask, gloves and a backpack early on the morning of Feb. 1.
Here is a timeline of the major developments in the case.
9:48 p.m., Jan 31.
Nancy Guthrie Is Last Seen
Just after 5:30 p.m., Ms. Guthrie took an Uber to the nearby home of her older daughter, Annie, and her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni. The three spent about four hours together, eating dinner and playing games, before Mr. Cioni drove her home.
Ms. Guthrie’s garage door opened at 9:48 p.m. and closed two minutes later, according to the authorities. Mr. Cioni watched to make sure Ms. Guthrie made it safely inside. That was the last time anyone in her family saw or heard from her.
1:47-2:28 a.m., Feb. 1
Ms. Guthrie’s Front Door Camera Is Disconnected
Ms. Guthrie’s front door camera was disconnected at 1:47 a.m. About 25 minutes later, a camera somewhere on her property detected motion, but recorded no video, because she did not have a subscription to the device’s service provider.
At 2:28 a.m., about 15 minutes after the camera was set off, Ms. Guthrie’s pacemaker lost contact with her cellphone, which investigators would later find inside the house, suggesting this may have been about the time she was taken.
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Chris Nanos, the Pima County sheriff, said that his deputies saw “something at the home that didn’t sit well,” and that it became clear that Ms. Guthrie had been forced out against her will.Credit…Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images
Feb. 1, morning
Ms. Guthrie Is Reported Missing
When Ms. Guthrie did not arrive at a friend’s house to watch a live-streamed church service on Sunday, the friend notified Ms Guthrie’s family. Family members went to her house just before noon to check on her, discovered she was missing and called 911.
The authorities found her phone, wallet, hearing aid, daily medication and car. At her front stoop, they found an empty mount where a doorbell camera had once hung, and on the tile below they saw spatters of blood, which DNA analysis later confirmed to be Ms. Guthrie’s.
Sheriff Chris Nanos of Pima County, Ariz., told The New York Times that investigators found even more worrying signs of violence at Ms. Guthrie’s home. “There were things at that home that were of concern,” he said. “That scene, there were things that, I thought, this doesn’t sit well.”
He declined to elaborate, but investigators spent the week combing through the home, its garage and the surrounding scrubland.
Feb. 2
A Ransom Note Arrives
Roughly 24 hours after the sheriff’s department first posted a missing-person bulletin for Ms. Guthrie, a Tucson television station, KOLD, received a note claiming to be from her kidnapper. The station forwarded it to the authorities.
The celebrity gossip site TMZ, which received a copy the next morning, reported that the letter demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin for the release of Ms. Guthrie. Harvey Levin, the outlet’s founder, described the letter on a broadcast as “very well constructed.”
Feb. 3
Savannah Guthrie Withdraws From NBC’s Olympics Coverage
As investigators acknowledged that they had few answers about who may have kidnapped Nancy Guthrie, NBC Sports said Savannah Guthrie would not be part of the network’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Italy. Mary Carillo took her place alongside Terry Gannon as a host of the network’s coverage of the opening ceremony on Friday.
Savannah Guthrie also has been absent from the “Today” set to be in Tucson with her family. Hoda Kotb, her co-anchor on “Today” from 2018 until 2025, returned to the show to fill in for her former colleague.
Feb. 4
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The “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, flanked by her siblings, Annie and Camron, said in an emotional video that she wanted to hear directly from anyone who may have taken her mother.Credit…Savannah Guthrie, via Instagram/UGC, via, via Reuters
Ms. Guthrie’s Children Plead for Her Safe Return
Ms. Guthrie’s children recorded their first emotional address to their mother’s kidnapper and posted it to Savannah Guthrie’s Instagram account. Savannah Guthrie, trying to hold back tears as she read from a paper, said her family had heard about purported ransom letters that had been sent to news organizations.
She said that they wanted to hear directly from anyone who may have taken their mother, but that they first needed proof she was alive.
“We are ready to talk,” she said, flanked by her older siblings, Annie and Camron Guthrie. “However, we live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive, and that you have her.”
Feb. 6
Another Note and Another Video
KOLD received another message from the supposed kidnappers. The message, which the station forwarded to the police and did not describe publicly, came from a different IP address than the ransom note, but the senders appeared to have used the same methods to mask their location and identity, the station said.
Harvey Levin, the founder of the celebrity gossip site TMZ, which received a copy of the note the next morning, said it did not come with proof that Ms. Guthrie was alive, but it did begin by saying she was “safe but scared.”
The next day, the Guthrie siblings released another video. It was 20 seconds long and cryptic. Savannah Guthrie, speaking without a visible script, said into the camera: “We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace.”
Feb. 9
Savannah Guthrie Says Her Family Is at ‘An Hour of Desperation’
As the search entered its second week, Savannah Guthrie implored the public for help in finding her mother, saying in an Instagram video that she and her siblings believed that she was “still out there.”
“We are at an hour of desperation,” she said.
Feb. 10
Surveillance Images Reveal a Masked Figure
New images and videos released on Tuesday showed a masked, armed person at Nancy Guthrie’s doorstep on the night she was abducted, the first significant break in the investigation.
The black-and-white footage, released by the F.B.I. and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, depicts a person wearing a ski mask, gloves, a backpack and what appears to be a holstered handgun outside Ms. Guthrie’s home, just north of Tucson. Investigators said the person was armed.
Late in the day, the authorities detained a main for questioning in the case but released him early Wednesday. In an interview, the man said he had not heard about Ms. Guthrie’s disappearance but hoped that she would be found safe. “I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” he said, speaking on the doorstep of a home in Rio Rico, Ariz., about an hour’s drive south of Tucson.
Feb. 10, 2026
Luke Broadwater
White House reporter
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that President Trump has seen the new F.B.I. footage of the suspect in the abduction of Savannah Guthrie’s mother and encourages anyone who can identify that person to contact officials and help with their investigation.
Feb. 10, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
Savannah Guthrie shared the new video footage from her mother’s doorstep camera to her Instagram account and wrote: “Someone out there recognizes this person. We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”
Feb. 10, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
A masked person came to Guthrie’s doorstep before her disappearance, images show.
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Images captured by a doorbell security camera at Nancy Guthrie’s house in Tucson, Ariz., on the morning of her disappearance.Credit…Pima County Sheriff’s Department, via Reuters
New images and videos released on Tuesday showed a masked, armed person at Nancy Guthrie’s doorstep on the night she was abducted, the first significant break in the search for the 84-year-old mother of the “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
The black-and-white footage released by the F.B.I. and Pima County Sheriff’s Department depicts a person wearing a ski mask, gloves, a backpack and what appears to be a holstered handgun outside of Ms. Guthrie’s home, just north of Tucson. Investigators said the person was armed.
In a video from Ms. Guthrie’s doorbell camera, the person can be seen approaching Ms. Guthrie’s door and trying to block the camera with a gloved hand. The person then grabs plants from beside the front stoop and — holding what appears to be a flashlight in their mouth — tries to use them to obscure the camera. The police have said the camera was disconnected shortly before the abduction on Feb. 1.
The Pima County sheriff said last week that investigators were unable to retrieve any footage from Ms. Guthrie’s surveillance cameras because she did not pay for a subscription that would have stored the video. But a joint statement from the sheriff’s department and F.B.I. on Tuesday morning said that investigators had eventually recovered the video Tuesday morning by accessing “residual data.”
The videos are the strongest pieces of evidence yet that might help identify a suspect in the abduction of Ms. Guthrie, as the search entered its 10th day.
Savannah Guthrie shared the footage on Instagram and wrote that her family believes Nancy Guthrie is still alive. “Someone out there recognizes this person,” she wrote. “We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that President Trump had watched the footage with “disgust” and that he encouraged anyone with information to call the F.B.I. The agency has offered a $50,000 reward for Ms. Guthrie’s return or for information leading to the conviction of her abductor.
The police have said that Ms. Guthrie’s doorbell camera was disconnected at 1:47 a.m. on the day of her abduction, and that her pacemaker disconnected from her cellphone — indicating that she was taken from the home — 41 minutes later.
Since Ms. Guthrie’s abduction, two supposed ransom letters have been sent to news outlets, and Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings have pleaded in videos for their mother’s kidnapper to return her, saying they would pay a ransom. It remains unclear if the notes sent to the news outlets were actually sent by the abductor.
Nancy Guthrie is mentally sharp but has trouble moving and takes daily medication without which she could die, her family has said.
In an Instagram video that was released on Monday, Savannah Guthrie asked the public to report anything strange to the authorities, whether in Tucson or far away.
“She was taken,” Ms. Guthrie said of her mother, “and we don’t know where.”
Luke Broadwater, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Shawn McCreesh and Reis Thebault contributed reporting.
Feb. 10, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reporting from Rio Rico, Ariz.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has said that concern about Nancy Guthrie was initially sparked when she failed to show up to church on Feb. 1, but a spokeswoman is now clarifying that it was actually a friend’s house. Guthrie and the friend had planned to watch a livestream of a church service together. When she didn’t show, the friend contacted Guthrie’s family members, who went to her home and called 911 when they could not find her.
Feb. 9, 2026
Reis Thebault and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Reis Thebault reported from Tucson, Ariz.
‘We believe our mom is still out there,’ Savannah Guthrie says in latest video.
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1:42
Savannah Guthrie posted a new video on Instagram on Monday pleading for the public’s help in finding her mother, Nancy Guthrie.
The “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie on Monday implored the public to help find her mother, who has been missing for more than a week, saying in a video that she believes she “is still out there.”
“We are at an hour of desperation,” Savannah Guthrie said in her plea, which she posted on Instagram.
Her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, was abducted from her home outside Tucson, Ariz., early Feb. 1, the authorities have said. Her family last saw her a few hours before. Ms. Guthrie had dinner with her older daughter, Annie, and her son-in-law, who dropped her off at her house around 9:50 p.m. on Jan. 31, said Chris Nanos, the Pima County sheriff.
Investigators later found a splatter of her blood on the front stoop and said her doorbell camera had been disconnected and removed shortly before she was apparently taken from her house.
The frantic search for Ms. Guthrie has riveted the nation and frustrated the authorities, who have repeatedly combed the area around her home and have broadened their hunt beyond state lines.
In her video, Savannah Guthrie said that the police have been “working tirelessly, around the clock,” but that they are still unsure of her mother’s location.
“She was taken, and we don’t know where,” Savannah Guthrie said.
The authorities have not identified any suspects.
Savannah Guthrie did not say explicitly whether the family believed Ms. Guthrie was still alive, and investigators have said they do not know. In a video posted on Saturday, Savannah Guthrie had asked her mother’s abductor to return her “so that we can celebrate with her” and said the family would pay the person to do so.
The latest message from the Guthrie family came shortly before a deadline mentioned in a supposed ransom note sent to several news outlets after the abduction. One of those outlets, the Tucson-area TV station KGUN, said those claiming to be the captors were demanding $6 million by Monday evening.
It remained unclear whether the note was in fact sent by kidnappers, and F.B.I. agents have said they were working to validate it. Officials have acknowledged that the demand could be from impostors.
A statement from the F.B.I. on Monday said the agency was “not aware of any continued communication between the Guthrie family and suspected kidnappers.”
“We still need the public’s help,” the statement read. “Someone has that one piece of information that can help us bring Nancy home. We need that person to share what they know.”
The Monday video signaled something of a shift in the Guthrie family’s public communications. In prior statements, they have addressed the culprits, and sometimes their mother. But in the newest video, Savannah Guthrie spoke directly to the public, asking for tips “no matter where you are, even if you’re far from Tucson.”
The F.B.I. has issued a $50,000 reward for information leading to Ms. Guthrie’s safe return or to the conviction of her abductor or abductors.
Savannah Guthrie said she and her siblings, Annie and Camron, were bracing for “another week of this nightmare.”
Feb. 6, 2026
Michael Levenson
Kidnappings by strangers in the United States are exceedingly rare.
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The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie, is the latest case of its kind to capture the nation’s attention, reviving fears about kidnappings.Credit…Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images
The authorities in Arizona have said they are investigating the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, as a possible kidnapping and are examining purported ransom notes sent to several media outlets.
If she were abducted by a stranger, at age 84, that would make her case extremely unusual. Most kidnappings in the United States involve family or custody disputes, and a vast majority of the victims are children, experts say.
Investigators in Ms. Guthrie’s case have said they have not identified any suspects since she was last seen at her home outside Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday night. Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have released emotional videos in which they say that they are ready to talk to anyone who may have taken her, but that they first need proof she is alive.
In general, kidnappings targeting older people are extremely rare and often involve a scam or financial motive, said Carrie Landau, a retired F.B.I. agent who focused on crimes against children and human trafficking investigations during her 21-year career. She recalled two cases she worked on in which adult victims were abducted and driven to A.T.M.s to withdraw money. One of the victims was also sexually assaulted, she said.
Dr. Mark S. Lachs, a geriatrician at Weill Cornell Medicine, who studies elder abuse, said he was not aware of any studies about the prevalence of adult kidnappings in the United States. In general, reported abductions of older people usually turn out to be cases in which a family member or another person close to the victim has taken them and isolated them as part of some sort of dispute, he said.
“A stranger abduction is unusual in my experience,” Dr. Lachs said.
Most kidnappers also have some connection to the victim in cases of child abduction.
Elizabeth Smart, for instance, was 14 when she was taken from her bedroom in Utah at knife point in 2002 and held captive for nine months. She was rescued after her sister realized that the voice she heard during the kidnapping belonged to a handyman who had worked at the Smarts’ home.
“For the most part, there is a knowledge of the family; there is an awareness” among kidnappers, said John E. Bischoff III, vice president of the missing children division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Cases in which a stranger grabs a victim on the street or takes someone from their home are “exceedingly rare,” and particularly challenging to investigate, Mr. Bischoff said. “For example, there is no built-in suspect pool,” he said. “Where is the starting point if it is a true nonfamily abduction?”
Ms. Guthrie’s disappearance is the latest case of its kind to capture the nation’s attention, reviving fears that have been stoked by the abductions of Charles A. Lindbergh’s baby, Charles Augustus Jr.; Patty Hearst; J. Paul Getty III; Etan Patz; Adam Walsh; and Polly Klaas, to name a few.
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Adam Walsh was 6 when he was abducted from a Florida mall and murdered in 1981. His father, John Walsh, later became the host of the television series “America’s Most Wanted.” Credit…Associated Press
By the mid-1980s, such cases, combined with misleading claims that as many as 50,000 children were being abducted by strangers every year, had fueled a panic that left “a residue of anxiety about stranger abductions that lasted quite a while,” said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
The Denver Post won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for a series that examined the myth that most missing children had been abducted by strangers, and found that a majority were runaways or involved in custody disputes.
Since then, Dr. Finkelhor said, the number of kidnappings has decreased, partly because the crime has become much more difficult to carry out in an era of surveillance cameras, license plate readers and cellphone tracking data.
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Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was taken from her bedroom in Utah at knife point in 2002 and held captive for nine months.Credit…Jim Young/Reuters
Research has shown that a few dozen to 100 children in the United States are kidnapped by strangers every year, compared to hundreds of thousands who are taken by family members, Dr. Finkelhor said.
The National Crime Information Center logged the circumstances of 263,079 missing-person cases in 2022 and found that 95 percent had been coded as runaways, 0.9 percent as kidnapped by a noncustodial parent and 0.1 percent as kidnappings by a stranger.
Mr. Bischoff said he was among those who grew up with the stereotypical image of a kidnapper being a stranger with aviator sunglasses and a van. “I can’t say those cases never happen because they do,” he said. “But they’re much rarer than the fear we were raised with.”
Feb. 6, 2026
Reis Thebault and Neil Vigdor
The sheriff at the center of a chaotic search.
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Sheriff Chris Nanos of Pima County, Ariz., has at times seemed surprised at the intense attention given to the search for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the “Today” show anchor Nancy Guthrie.Credit…Rebecca Noble/Reuters
It was Day 5 in the search for Nancy Guthrie, and the international media were packed into a small briefing room on the south side of Tucson, Ariz. Reporters had lined up early to hear Sheriff Chris Nanos of Pima County, and they were bursting with questions. Had the police made any headway? Did they have a suspect? Most of all: Was Ms. Guthrie still alive?
Sheriff Nanos stepped to the lectern: “I want to begin by offering our condolences,” he said, pausing as the room collectively tensed.
But, no, he was not breaking grim news in the case of Ms. Guthrie. A separate tragedy had occurred the night before, some 200 miles north, where an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter had crashed, killing two state troopers who were responding to a gunfight.
The hunt for Ms. Guthrie was still stalled, turmoil was all around, and Sheriff Nanos was trying to navigate the maelstrom.
On Thursday, as he addressed the growing horde of journalists for the first time in 48 hours, the pressure to find Ms. Guthrie was mounting and the story was only getting weirder. There was the impending deadline, imposed by a possibly bogus ransom note, demanding millions in Bitcoin by early that evening. The unsubstantiated reports of a person of interest. The removal, return and re-removal of crime scene tape around Ms. Guthrie’s home.
There was also the imminent arrival of the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel. The possibility that artificial intelligence might make any proof of life from a kidnapper difficult to trust. And, hovering over it all, the celebrity of Ms. Guthrie’s daughter, Savannah Guthrie, a host of the “Today” show, whose association with the case has made it a national obsession.
Sheriff Nanos has seemed surprised at the intense attention.
“I’m not used to everybody hanging on my words and then trying to hold me accountable for what I say,” he told reporters, somewhat sheepishly, at an earlier news conference.
The sheriff is the face of an investigation that has the press and the public desperate for answers, refreshing social media feeds and flooding department inboxes with requests for information. And yet, until there’s a break in the case — one that won’t tip off the perpetrators if he reveals it — he can’t offer much. So he rehashes and declines to elaborate, sometimes apologetically, noting the continuing nature of the search.
Some wish he’d just stop talking altogether.
“It’s important to have a reason to have a press conference, and not just have one,” said Dr. Matt Heinz, a fellow Democrat who is a member of the Pima County board of supervisors. “I can’t watch them. I don’t find them helpful, productive or reassuring.”
But Thursday’s briefing did yield some key clarifications.
The F.B.I. said the authorities were taking seriously a ransom note sent to at least three news outlets that included facts about the crime scene and a specific timeline for its monetary demand.
The initial deadline for payment was 5 p.m. on Thursday, said Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Phoenix office. The note did not specify a time zone. Compounding the confusion, a second deadline was set for Monday. Mr. Janke declined to say what was threatened if the money were not sent in time.
After consulting with the F.B.I., Ms. Guthrie’s children recorded a video saying they were ready to talk with her abductors. As of Thursday evening, they had heard nothing.
It was not clear whether the ransom note was genuine, but officials said at least one man had been arrested and charged with sending a different phony demand to the Guthrie family. The notoriety of the case and the digital tools that enable such fakery have added to the frenzy around the investigation.
The handling of the crime scene has done the same. This week, after the police finished an initial sweep of Ms. Guthrie’s house, officers removed the yellow tape that cordoned off the property. Journalists then took turns walking up to the front stoop and examining a splatter that Sheriff Nanos later confirmed to be Ms. Guthrie’s blood.
Private security eventually arrived to ward off trespassers. The police returned Wednesday afternoon and once again strung up crime scene tape. Officers spent a couple of hours searching the property, removed some items and left. They took the tape with them.
Sheriff Nanos said on Thursday that, in hindsight, he should have instructed officers to keep the perimeter up to preserve the scene. When asked whether he was concerned about the possible contamination of evidence, he said, “I’ll let the courts worry about that.”
Sheriff Nanos, whose elected position puts him over a department with about 1,500 employees, was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, where he began his career as a police officer in 1976. After about eight years working the beat in his hometown, he moved to Pima County, started as a corrections officer and steadily rose through the ranks.
This week is not the sheriff’s first time at the center of the news. Almost exactly 15 years ago, he was staring down a similar throng of television cameras as he answered questions about the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
More recently, he has made headlines for his handling of a series of scandals.
The F.B.I. has probed his department for misuse of funds, inmates at Pima County jails have died at an alarming rate, the state attorney general’s office has investigated his handling of a reported sexual assault by a deputy, and he has been accused of retaliating against his 2024 election opponent, who was a lieutenant in his department.
His track record has alienated members of his own party, such as Dr. Heinz, the county supervisor, who has called on Sheriff Nanos to resign and endorsed his Republican opponent in the latest contest.
But Sheriff Nanos has also won plaudits in his liberal county for refusing to aid federal immigration raids and for criticizing agents who conduct operations in masks. He thanked President Trump for committing so many federal resources to Ms. Guthrie’s case, but he said in an interview that he wasn’t holding his breath for a phone call from the White House.
The sheriff has been working on the case constantly, triaging tips sent directly to his cellphone and carrying on a text exchange with Savannah Guthrie. “This is just going to be really devastating for her if we can’t find her alive,” Sheriff Nanos said.
At the Thursday briefing, the biggest gathering yet, reporters peppered him with questions about the minutiae of the investigation. When asked if he should have called in regional and federal reinforcements sooner, Sheriff Nanos replied with a candor that was by then familiar.
“You know, it’s Monday morning quarterbacking,” he said. “I do it all the time, so you have the opportunity to do it for me. I’ll take that hit.”
Feb. 4, 2026
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Reis Thebault
Reis Thebault reported from Tucson, Ariz.
What happened with Nancy Guthrie’s doorbell camera?
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Investigators Say Doorbell Camera Was Disconnected Before Nancy Guthrie’s Kidnapping
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More details and a timeline were released on the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie.CreditCredit…Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images
A doorbell camera was disconnected from Nancy Guthrie’s home on the night she was kidnapped, the police said on Thursday, depriving investigators of crucial evidence as they search for the mother of the “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie.
The authorities in Pima County, Ariz., said at a news conference on Thursday that they still had no suspects in the abduction of Nancy Guthrie, 84, more than four days after she was taken from her home just outside Tucson. They confirmed that blood spattered on Ms. Guthrie’s front porch was hers.
