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Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of "TODAY" show co-host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing Feb. 1.
After an excruciating 10 days without much to go on, authorities looking for Nancy Guthrie finally have a potential big break: video of an armed, masked person at her doorstep the morning she went missing.
The black-and-white video captured by Guthrie’s doorbell camera, which the FBI and the Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff’s Department shared yesterday, gives investigators clues that could help their search.
“When you get video, it opens up many new avenues and details,” said Eric Draeger, a former Milwaukee police detective who specialized in high-tech tools. “Detectives hope to get something like this in a case like this.”
Bryanna Fox, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida, agreed. “This is the game changer we were waiting for,” she said.
Tips have dramatically increased since the images and video were released, an FBI source told NBC News.
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A man who says he was detained for questioning as part of the investigation into Guthrie’s disappearance has told reporters that he was “terrified” by the ordeal.
The New York Times and other outlets reported this morning that the person detained for questioning last night had been released.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has not confirmed the release or the identity of the person questioned and declined to comment when NBC News asked overnight.
Speaking to reporters outside his house, the site of a police search last night, Carlos Palazuelos, 27, said: “Terrifying. Something I didn’t do. I felt like I was being kidnapped, bro. They didn’t tell me anything.”
Palazuelos, a delivery driver, said he was pulled over by police while driving near his home yesterday and detained. He said he was asked about his whereabouts and where he worked and had his phone taken.
Asked whether he ever delivered a package to Guthrie’s house, he said: “I don’t know, it might have been a possibility.”
Palazuelos said he was questioned because of suspicions his eyes resembled those of the masked person caught on doorcam footage at Guthrie’s address, released by the FBI last night.
“All I know is they showed my in-law a picture of somebody wearing a mask or something and it supposedly looked like my eyes,” he said.
Bryanna Fox, a former FBI special agent and professor of criminology at the University of South Florida, said on the “TODAY” show this morning that she believes the person seen in photos and videos posted by the FBI yesterday appeared to have “some premeditation.”
The person “came there intending to do something very terrible, but didn’t quite think it all the way through,” Fox said.
She said the person falls into a group of people she categorizes as “premeditated, but haven’t quite gotten all the way there yet.”
Fox also noted an image showing the person without a backpack, and a later video shows that he is clearly carrying one. She added that the person “behaviorally,” probably has “a huge ego.”
This investigation into the person who says he was reportedly detained for questioning in the Guthrie disappearance case has been ongoing for a short time. The man who lives at the house searched by authorities says he has since been released from custody.
This individual wasn’t detained just because somebody picked up the phone and said, “Oh, I think it’s that person.”
There could have been a number of factors in that person’s background, and evidence they uncovered that led authorities to believe they wanted to talk to them.
The search of the person’s home was court-authorized, so officials had probable cause. This happens in investigations. Whether or not this person is ultimately charged, we don’t know at the moment, though they’re presumed innocent.
Shortly after Guthrie disappeared, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said that a camera affixed to her door had been disconnected, that she did not have a subscription that would have saved video and that investigators were trying to work with a tech company on the difficult forensic task of recovering any video.
Against those odds, they were successful. More than a week after her reported disappearance, that video was revealed.
An internet-connected Google Nest camera captured an unidentified person in a mask and gloves, carrying a backpack and a gun, approaching Guthrie’s home just before her disappearance. FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau was able to collect the video from “backend systems.”
It’s not yet clear how the FBI was able to collect the video. Experts told NBC News that, in some cases, it is possible to collect data from the complex infrastructure that has enabled cloud-based cameras to become a common household feature.
Read the full story here.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said last night that deputies detained a person for questioning — who identified himself to reporters as Carlos Palazuelos — during a traffic stop south of Tucson, Arizona, yesterday.
A man who lives at the house searched by authorities says he was the person detained for questioning in connection with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie and has since been released from custody.
Pima County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on reports of the release when asked overnight by NBC News.
The man, who identified himself as Carlos Palazuelos, spoke to Telemundo in Spanish outside his house in Rio Rico — the site of a law enforcement search last night. Palazuelos confirmed his house was searched as per a warrant. His front and back door was damaged, he said. Telemundo is part of NBCUniversal, as is NBC News.
He added that agents told him he looked like the person seen in security camera footage from Guthrie’s house, released by the FBI yesterday.
He said that while he was a delivery driver, he doesn’t remember if he delivered anything to Guthrie’s house.
Authorities said early this morning that the search at the property was over and that the investigation was ongoing.
NBC News