Police have released a man hours after they detained him in connection to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of US news anchor Savannah Guthrie, CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, has reported.
After taking the man into custody at a traffic stop, police searched his home in Rio Rico, south of Tucson, Arizona, sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News.
After his release, the man, identified only as Carlos, told reporters outside his home that he did not know who Nancy Guthrie was. “I don’t follow the news,” he said.
Guthrie, 84, was abducted from her home near Tucson more than a week ago, sparking a widespread search and desperate appeals from her family.
“I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” Carlos said, according to a video posted on X by CBS reporter Andres Gutierrez.
Carlos, reportedly a deliveryman, said he had been driving around and noticed authorities were following him.
He added that the officers did not ask him any questions and made him wait for hours in a car park.
A woman who identified herself as his mother-in-law earlier said that he had nothing to do with the case.
“They’re just invading my property,” she was quoted as saying by CBS.
The Pima County Sherrif’s Department had confirmed police were conducting a court-authorised search at a location in Rio Rico, south of Tucson, Arizona.
The news of the detention came hours after the FBI released images and videos of a masked person at Nancy Guthrie’s doorstep on the night of her disappearance. Authorities said the individual was armed.
“As of this morning, law enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement on X.
He said authorities had been working to recover images from the home surveillance system that “may have been lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors – including the removal of recording devices”.
The two short videos show the person approach the front door of Nancy Guthrie’s home, then check the camera before moving away, picking up some vegetation from the ground and using it to cover the camera lens.
By Anthony Solly
