Person of Interest Detained in Nancy Guthrie Case (Full Transcript)
[00:00:00] Speaker 1: A suspect has been taken into custody in Arizona over the disappearance 10 days ago of the mother of a high-profile U.S. television presenter. Nancy Guthrie, the mother of NBC's Savannah Guthrie, is believed to have been kidnapped at night from her home in Tucson. Earlier, the FBI released photos and video footage of an armed individual in a full-face balaclava, apparently tampering with a front-door camera, which was outside Nancy Guthrie's home. The person wearing a backpack is seen raising a gloved hand to the camera and then appearing to cover the lens with some vegetation. Our North America correspondent David Willis has the latest from Tucson.
[00:00:45] Speaker 2: The sheriff's department have detained a person of interest, as they put it, in connection with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. That person is now being questioned, I understand, by local law enforcement, and it's thought they were detained at a location to the south of the city of Tucson, and that a search of a building nearby is being carried out or has already been carried out. It's reported that law enforcement basically got a series of tips that led them to this particular person, but this comes, of course, just a matter of hours after the release of video footage taken from the doorbell camera at Nancy Guthrie's home, which shows a masked man on the porch just moments before she disappeared, attempting to block the camera, first with his hand and then with leaves from the front garden. It's unclear if the two are connected, but certainly I understand that the release of that video footage prompted a lot more calls to local law enforcement tip lines, so we will have to wait and see whether, indeed, that those two things are connected. But after four days of virtual silence on the part of law enforcement here, just putting out very limited statements, today, over the last few hours, have seen a considerable amount of activity in this case.
[00:02:29] Speaker 1: David Willis there, who's in Tucson for us. Well, we've just been hearing that the Pima County Sheriff's Department, assisted by the FBI's evidence response team, is conducting a court-authorized search of a location in Rio Rico, Arizona, related to the Nancy Guthrie investigation. This operation is expected to last several hours. We will keep it across this. As we hear any more news, we will update you.
- Authorities detained a person of interest in Arizona related to Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
- FBI-released footage shows a masked individual trying to block a doorbell camera before the disappearance.
- Tips to law enforcement may have contributed to the detention following the video release.
- A court-authorized search is underway in Rio Rico with FBI evidence response support.
- Investigators have not confirmed whether the detained person is the same individual seen in the footage.