Woman says son-in-law was person detained for questioning in Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapping, Rio Rico house being searched

An Arizona woman who lives in the home being searched by authorities in connection with the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie said her son-in-law was detained at a traffic stop earlier today.

The seemingly confused woman, who was not identified by name, told ABC15’s Lillian Donahue that investigators “keep going in and out” of her Rio Rico home, where they were taking pictures, according to the clip posted on X. 

“I don’t know why,” she said.
A woman speaks to reporters after her son-in-law was detained in Nancy Guthrie’s case on Feb. 10, 2026.CNN
“They showed me a video to see if it was him, to see … if I recognize the things he was wearing, he doesn’t have any of that. He doesn’t have anything that comes in the video,” she said of surveillance footage she was shown from outside the missing 84-year-old’s home.

When asked if the person in the footage looked like her son-in-law, the resident replied, “No, it doesn’t look like him. No, not at all.”

She added that her son-in-law hasn’t been “in trouble” since he was underage.

Officials descended on the home – 15 miles north of the Mexican border – Tuesday night after receiving a tip that “the lady was in my house,” the woman told NewsNation.

She maintained her son-in-law’s innocence, but said he was in Tucson “all week” delivering packages for “like UPS.”
Police investigate a car stopped by officers in Arizona on Feb. 10, 2026.CNN
He was detained late Tuesday while making DoorDash deliveries alongside his wife and their children.

“I don’t know what kind of questions they asked him,” she said.

The perplexed mother-in-law said she wasn’t home at the time law enforcement agents broke down her door and raided her home.

“They went inside, busted the doors from my house, they went inside and took my son to the living room,” she said.

The woman said she was not familiar with the Nancy Guthrie case. She’d only seen the news on Facebook, but hadn’t closely followed the story.

“They already asked us a lot of questions about it, like I said I have nothing to hide, you can go in my house, you can search anything you want, there’s nothing to hide. I don’t know the lady, I don’t know about the lady,” she told NewsNation.

The agents also confiscated the phones of all family members at the house, the woman claims.

Investigators have searched for the missing mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie since she was reported missing on Feb. 1.

Earlier Tuesday, the FBI released photos of a masked and “armed individual” caught on video tampering with a doorbell camera outside the elder Guthrie’s home on the morning of her disappearance.

The suspect seemed to have a flashlight in his mouth — and lumbered around Nancy’s patio in sneakers, a fleece and a backpack as he fumbled with the camera, one point grabbing nearby flowers and placing them in front of the lens.

The footage marks the first time law enforcement has released any clue about a possible suspect in the case, which has spanned 10 days.

No charges have been filed against the detained man.