By MIKE BALSAMO, ERIC TUCKER, TY O\u2019NEIL and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press<\/p>\n
TUCSON, Ariz.\u00a0 \u2014 A person has been detained for questioning in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, according to two people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
The people said the person was detained in an area south of Tucson on Tuesday. They did not immediately provide additional details, and it wasn\u2019t clear if the person being questioned is the person captured on surveillance video from outside Guthrie\u2019s house released earlier Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The people were not authorized to discuss details of an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
The FBI released surveillance images of a masked person with a handgun holster outside Guthrie\u2019s front door the night she vanished, offering the first major break in a case that has\u00a0gripped the nation\u00a0for more than a week.<\/p>\n
The person wearing a backpack and a ski mask can be seen in one of the videos tilting their head down and away from a doorbell camera while nearing an archway at the home of the mother of \u201cToday\u201d show host\u00a0Savannah Guthrie.<\/p>\n
The footage shows the person holding a flashlight in their mouth and trying to cover the\u00a0camera\u00a0with a gloved hand and part of a plant ripped from Nancy Guthrie\u2019s yard.<\/p>\n
The videos \u2014 less than a combined minute in length \u2014 gave investigators and the public their first glimpse of who was outside Nancy Guthrie\u2019s home just outside Tucson, but the images did not show\u00a0what happened to her\u00a0or help determine whether the 84-year-old is still alive.<\/p>\n
FBI Director Kash Patel said the \u201carmed individual\u201d appeared to \u201chave tampered with the camera.\u201d It was not entirely clear whether there was a gun in the holster.<\/p>\n
The videos were pulled from data on \u201cback-end systems\u201d after investigators spent days trying to find lost, corrupted or inaccessible images, Patel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will get the phone ringing for lots of potential leads,\u201d said former FBI agent Katherine Schweit. \u201cEven when you have a person who appears to be completely covered, they\u2019re really not. You can see their girth, the shape of their face, potentially their eyes or mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Tuesday afternoon, authorities were back near Nancy Guthrie\u2019s neighborhood, using vehicles to block her driveway. A few miles away, law enforcement was going door-to-door in the area where daughter Annie Guthrie lives, talking with neighbors as well as walking through a drainage area and examining the inside of a culvert with a flashlight.<\/p>\n
Investigators have said for more than a week that they believe Nancy Guthrie was\u00a0taken against her will. She was last seen at home Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed blood on her porch was hers, authorities said.<\/p>\n
She has high blood pressure and issues with mobility and her heart, and she needs daily medication, officials have said.<\/p>\n
Authorities initially could not pull images from camera<\/p>\n
Until now, authorities have released few details, leaving it unclear if ransom notes demanding money with deadlines already passed were authentic, and whether the Guthrie family has had any contact with whoever took Nancy Guthrie.<\/p>\n
Savannah Guthrie posted the new surveillance images on social media Tuesday, saying the family believes Nancy Guthrie is still alive and offering phone numbers for the FBI and county sheriff. Within minutes, the post had thousands of comments.<\/p>\n
Investigators had hoped cameras would turn up evidence right away about how Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home in an secluded neighborhood.<\/p>\n
But the doorbell camera was disconnected early on Feb. 1. While software recorded movement at the home minutes later, Nancy Guthrie did not have an active subscription, so Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos had initially said none of the footage could be recovered. Officials continued working to get the footage.<\/p>\n
Savannah Guthrie expressed desperation a day ago<\/p>\n
Heartbreaking messages by Savannah Guthrie and her family shifted from hopeful to bleak as they made pleas for whoever took Nancy Guthrie. In a video just ahead of a purported ransom deadline Monday, Savannah Guthrie appeared alone and spoke directly to the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at an hour of desperation,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need your help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of the nation is closely following the case involving\u00a0the longtime anchor\u00a0of NBC\u2019s morning show.<\/p>\n
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump watched the new surveillance footage and was in \u201cpure disgust,\u201d encouraging anyone with information to call the FBI.<\/p>\n
The FBI this week began posting digital billboards about the case in major cities from Texas to California.<\/p>\n
Connor Hagan, a spokesperson for the FBI, said Monday that the agency\u00a0was not aware of ongoing communication\u00a0between Guthrie\u2019s family and any suspected kidnappers. Authorities also had not identified any suspects, he said.<\/p>\n
Videos from Guthrie siblings appealed directly to whoever took their mom
Three days after the search began, Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings sent their\u00a0first public appeal\u00a0to whoever took their mother, saying, \u201cWe want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the recorded video, Guthrie said her family was aware of media reports about a ransom letter, but they first wanted proof their mother was alive. \u201cPlease reach out to us,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
The next day, Savannah Guthrie\u2019s brother\u00a0again made a plea, saying, \u201cWhoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven\u2019t heard anything directly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then over the past weekend, the family\u00a0posted another video\u00a0\u2014 one that was more cryptic and generated\u00a0even more speculation\u00a0about Nancy Guthrie\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,\u201d said Savannah Guthrie, flanked by her siblings. \u201cThis is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Darlene Superville in Washington, Ed White in Detroit and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By MIKE BALSAMO, ERIC TUCKER, TY O\u2019NEIL and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press TUCSON, Ariz.\u00a0 \u2014 A person…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[73046,139,141,140,73045,73047],"class_list":{"0":"post-151209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-nancy-guthrie","9":"tag-orlando","10":"tag-orlando-headlines","11":"tag-orlando-news","12":"tag-savannah-guthrie","13":"tag-savannah-guthries-mom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}