More than a week after Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped from her Tucson home, authorities offered few clues.
No video surveillance.
No suspects.
No firm sense of exactly when she was abducted.
No sense of where she was being held or if she was still alive.
But that changed Tuesday morning with the release of surveillance footage of a masked person outside her home.
What it shows
The images of a masked individual appears to have been recovered off a Nest camera located at the front door of Guthrie’s home.
The images, recorded at 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 1, show an individual, wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack, appearing to tamper with the camera at Guthrie’s front porch the morning of her disappearance. A gun is holstered around the person’s waist, positioned at the front of their body and easily visible.
Video footage shows the person approaching the front door, noticing the camera and trying to cover the lens with their hand. The person then looks around the patio and yard area apparently for something to obstruct the camera and eventually settling on some greenery found in the yard.
How they got it
Law enforcement has 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.
Patel said in a post on X that the video was recovered from “residual data located in backend 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. The source spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case.
Why it’s important
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.”
Added 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.”
Where it fits into the timeline
The video fills in a key gap in the timeline authorities have provided about the hours before and after Guthrie’s abduction.
- 5:32 p.m. Saturday: She left her home in the hills north of Tucson to have dinner at the home of a family member. She took an Uber to the dinner but was driven home by family, officials said.
- 9:48 p.m.: Guthrie arrived back home and her garage door opened.
- 9:50 p.m. Data show the door then closed two minutes later.
- 1:47 a.m. Sunday: The individual in the video at the door appears at the door and tries to block the Nest camera.
- 2:12 a.m.: A security camera software detected a person — or possibly an animal — at the home, but there was no video available.
- 2:28 a.m.: Nancy Guthrie’s pacemaker app disconnects from her cellphone. Her phone doesn’t appear to have left her house.
Where things stand
On Monday, a ransom deadline to pay Guthrie’s abductors $6 million in bitcoin passed with no sign of the 84-year-old.
The FBI said Monday that it had not identified any suspects in the bizarre kidnapping case. There has been no evidence Guthrie is taking the medication she needs or proof from kidnappers that she’s still alive.
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.
Nancy’s daughter, “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, shared the security camera footage in two posts on Instagram on Tuesday with a plea for the public’s help. Savannah Guthrie says in one post that the family believes their mother “is still alive.”
