Surveillance photos and videos released by the FBI showing a subject linked to the disappearance of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, could “break this case wide open,” according to a retired FBI special agent.
The footage and images depict a person outside Nancy Guthrie’s front door in Tucson, Arizona, wearing a ski mask and gloves, carrying a backpack and what appears to be a weapon.
“Take a look at each piece of clothing. Each article that he has. The weapon. The backpack. Look at his eyebrows. The ski mask. Look at those things individually. And then, collectively, watch how he walks. Look at his gait. Look at the person’s demeanor,” said retired special agent Jas Pack. “Does somebody recognize how somebody walks like that? Somebody’s gonna know that if this is a relative of theirs or a friend or a co-worker, somebody will know them.”
According to the FBI, law enforcement uncovered the images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera on the morning of Guthrie’s disappearance. The 84-year-old was reported missing on February 1.
In one video, the person approaches the front door and raises a gloved hand in front of the security camera at Nancy Guthrie’s home before walking away. Another video shows the individual facing the camera, holding a flashlight in their mouth, then covering the camera lens with what law enforcement officials told CBS News appears to be prairie brush.
The masked figure possibly has a gun on the front of their belt, law enforcement sources said. Two sources told CBS News the person in the images is considered a subject authorities are seeking to identify. However, the individual is not currently classified as a suspect or a person of interest.
Lance Leising, a retired supervisory agent with the FBI, told “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil that the videos show “someone who has taken great planning to hide their appearance, yet poor planning and poor professionalism as to how they approached this door and the ultimate crime scene.”
Pack added, “You’re also able now to go out with a photo of the person, back into the neighborhoods, back to the larger area of Tucson there, with a photo and say, ‘Do you know this person? Have you seen these backpacks? Have you seen somebody carrying a holster like that?’”
Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former senior FBI profiler, also told CBS News that the subject’s attire could reveal their identity. “It’s not unrealistic, and it’s happened in other cases, where the offender actually does a dress rehearsal before they go out and commit the crime. They want to make sure everything fits. Everything feels right. Everything’s where it’s supposed to be on their body,” O’Toole explained. “So, it’s possible that somebody watching that will say, ‘I saw when he went through that dress rehearsal. I saw that clothing.'”
The images were captured by a Nest camera at Nancy Guthrie’s home and released Tuesday, 10 days after she went missing. When asked why it took so long to find the footage, Pack said, “The FBI has recovered a needle in the haystack.”
The FBI and the sheriff’s department said the images were retrieved from “residual data located in backend systems.” Two law enforcement sources informed CBS News that the FBI worked with Google to access the Nest camera video.
“The fact that they’re able to go when there’s no subscription and it’s just out there in cyberspace… is actually really remarkable,” Pack noted.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told reporters last week that Nancy Guthrie’s doorbell camera was disconnected at about 1:47 a.m. the day she was abducted. One of the home’s cameras then detected what the system classified as a person around 2:12 a.m.
Nanos explained that video footage wasn’t immediately available because Nancy Guthrie’s home wasn’t subscribed to the video storage service, and footage would be overwritten after a period of time.
Both Pack and Leising indicated to CBS News that it’s likely more footage exists that the FBI is either trying to recover or has already recovered but not yet released, noting that there were additional cameras inside the home.
Pack also mentioned the possibility of evidence on the welcome mat outside the door, which the person appears to have stepped on. “Hopefully they’ve collected that welcome mat to see if there’s any trace evidence on there from dirt or from gravel or from whatever else that may place him in certain other areas of the city or the country,” he said. “So if any kind of piece of dirt off of your shoe, those types of things, the lab’s gonna be able to take a known sample from the area and see, does that actually belong there too?”
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have released several videos pleading with their mother’s abductor or abductors to bring her home. A deadline from an apparent ransom note demanding payment in bitcoin passed Monday. An FBI spokesperson told CBS News that the bureau was not aware of any continued communication between the Guthrie family and the suspected kidnappers.
Savannah Guthrie responded to the new images on Instagram Tuesday, writing, “Someone out there recognizes this person. We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”
No suspects have been identified in the investigation as of Monday night.
Pack added that, beyond someone potentially recognizing the subject, the release of the images could increase pressure on the individual. “Usually, that’s when the criminals will make mistakes,” he said. “They’re gonna feel the pressure. So they’re making decisions right now. They know somebody’s gonna recognize that backpack. It’s just a matter of time where somebody’s gonna recognize the clothing they’re wearing or his eyebrows or his gait.”
“So I think the pressure is really on them, and it’s what investigators are counting on so they can flush them out and find where they are.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nancy-guthrie-disappearance-video-analysis-fbi/