Federal investigators widened their search for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie on Wednesday as fresh details emerged about how the suspect captured in newly released door camera footage may have been able to leave the scene without a vehicle ever being identified.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Phoenix Field Office and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department are investigating the disappearance of Guthrie, the mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, who was last seen at her home in the Catalina Foothills area of Tucson, Arizona, on the evening of 31 January. In a public appeal accompanying released footage, the FBI said it was offering “a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance”, adding that she is “considered to be a vulnerable adult who has difficulty walking, has a pacemaker, and needs daily medication for a heart condition”.
Authorities have not named a suspect. However, the case intensified after the FBI released door camera images and video showing a masked individual at Guthrie’s front door on the morning of her disappearance, appearing to tamper with the camera. The FBI said the footage showed “an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance” and that investigators were seeking information that would “lead to the identity of this individual”.
Local reporting in Arizona said the FBI and sheriff’s department described a technical effort to retrieve footage that had initially been considered inaccessible. According to a statement cited by AZPM, investigators said the agencies had been working with “private sector partners” to recover images or video that may have been “lost, corrupted or inaccessible”, and that the video was recovered from “residual data located in backend systems”.
The focus on the recovered footage has raised new questions about how the person seen outside the home arrived and left, and why investigators have not publicly identified a car linked to the incident. Retired FBI agent James Gagliano, speaking on Fox & Friends, suggested the surrounding neighbourhood could have helped an abductor avoid detection because of its layout, limited lighting and patchy camera coverage.
“I want you to think about Manhattan. This is exactly the opposite to that. This is almost like a Jackson Pollock painting,” Gagliano said, describing the Catalina Foothills area where Guthrie lives. “The way that the routes go in and out, the ingress could have been one way, and the egress could have been a different way.”
Gagliano said there were “multiple exits” in the area and that while some routes were covered by traffic dome systems, “some of them aren’t”, adding: “So is it possible if the suspect left via vehicle, he would not have been picked up by a license plate reader or one of these cameras? The answer is yes.” He said it was unlikely the suspect came and left on foot, but noted that the area’s open property lines could also allow movement through backyards. “They don’t have fences out here; the properties butt up against each other, there’s no cyclone fencing or anything restricting access between the properties,” he said.
Authorities have not confirmed whether the suspect used a vehicle, nor have they released details of forensic findings beyond the imagery and ongoing search activity. Investigators have treated the home and immediate area as a crime scene since the early stages of the investigation.
The public release of the footage and the reward appeal coincided with an intensification of activity around the case, including a reported detention during a traffic stop south of Tucson. A man who identified himself as Carlos Palazuelos told reporters he had been detained in Rio Rico, a town near the US-Mexico border, and later released without being charged.
Palazuelos denied involvement and urged authorities to keep pursuing the culprit. “I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” he said, according to reporting cited by national outlets. In another account carried by KATU, he told reporters outside his home that he was “innocent” and said law enforcement held him against his will, claiming he had never heard of the alleged kidnapping.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said in a statement, carried by coverage of the case, that deputies and the FBI conducted a “court-authorized search” related to the investigation in Rio Rico but provided no further detail publicly.
The case has been complicated by reports of ransom notes and cryptocurrency demands, none of which authorities have publicly authenticated as genuine communications from a kidnapper. AZPM reported that investigators had been tracking a ransom note with a 5 p.m. deadline on 9 February that instructed Guthrie’s family to pay $6 million. The Guardian reported that TMZ said it received a note demanding one Bitcoin, described as about $67,000, “if they want the name of the individual involved”, though the report said the note had not been formally authenticated.
Savannah Guthrie has used social media to appeal for help and to urge anyone with information to come forward. In a video quoted by AZPM, she said: “As we enter into another week of this nightmare, I just want to say, first of all, thank you so much for all of the prayers and the love that we have felt, my sister and brother and I… and that our mom has felt.” Investigators have repeatedly stressed her vulnerability because of mobility issues and a heart condition requiring daily medication.
Officials have urged the public to focus on verifiable tips. In its reward notice and accompanying description of the footage, the FBI made clear that the appeal is aimed at identifying the individual shown in the video tampering with the door camera. The agency has not disclosed whether the suspect is believed to have been inside the home, whether Guthrie was confronted at the door, or what investigators believe happened in the hours after she was last seen on 31 January.
The surveillance images, showing a masked person near the front door, have become central to the investigation. AZPM reported that images show a person at the front door with what appears to be a handgun in a front holster. The FBI’s public notice described the individual in the footage as armed and said the video shows the person “appearing to have tampered with the camera”.
Even with the footage, investigators have not publicly tied a specific vehicle to the scene. Gagliano’s assessment was that the terrain and street network could help explain why a car has not been identified, particularly if the suspect was able to take backstreets, avoid well-monitored junctions, or use routes without licence plate readers.
For now, authorities have provided few operational details, beyond confirming the investigation is being led by the FBI’s Phoenix Field Office alongside local law enforcement, and that the goal of the public release is to identify the person seen outside the home. The FBI has asked anyone with information to come forward, emphasising the reward offer and Guthrie’s medical vulnerability as the search continues.
