A man who was detained during a traffic stop by investigators looking into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie has been released after questioning.
In an interview early Wednesday, the man said he had not heard about Nancy Guthrie but hopes that she is found safe. “I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” he said, speaking on the doorstep of his wife and mother-in-law’s home in Rio Rico, Ariz.
The F.B.I. and the Pima County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday had carried out a “court-authorized search” related to the investigation in Rio Rico, Ariz., about an hour’s drive south of Tucson, Ariz., the county sheriff, Chris Nanos, said in a statement.
As of 1:20 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the department had not yet confirmed that it had released the person it had detained for questioning. But a spokeswoman, Angelica Carrillo, said investigators had “completed their search of a property in Rio Rico.”
Investigators questioned the man after he was detained during a traffic stop south of Tucson, more than 10 days into the search for the 84-year-old mother of the “Today” host Savannah Guthrie.
Outside a home in Rio Rico, a woman said the man was her son-in-law and that investigators had broken down her door and were searching the house. She said her son-in-law had been delivering food when he was stopped by the police. She insisted that the masked figure in a newly released surveillance video was not him.
The footage, released earlier, shows a masked person on Nancy Guthrie’s porch around the time that she is believed to have vanished from her neighborhood near Tucson early on Feb. 1. The person is wearing a ski mask, gloves and a backpack, and appears to be armed with a pistol.
Cable news pundits and true crime enthusiasts have spent more than a week analyzing the scant details of Ms. Guthrie’s case as they have trickled out. The authorities said early on that they were investigating the disappearance as a kidnapping, and Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have released a series of videos pleading with whoever is involved to reach out to them. They said they were prepared to listen to ransom demands.
It was not yet clear whether the authorities believe the person being questioned is the same person in the video, according to a second law enforcement official familiar with the case. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share details.
Here’s what we’re covering:
Chilling video: The 44 seconds of silent black-and-white surveillance footage released on Tuesday shows a masked figure approaching Ms. Guthrie’s house and raising a gloved hand to block a Nest doorbell camera. The camera was eventually disabled. Read more ›
Footage delay: Federal authorities said the doorbell video released on Tuesday had been “previously inaccessible,” but declined to explain why. Experts said it likely took longer to find the video because Ms. Guthrie did not pay for a subscription to the Nest service. Read more ›
Rio Rico: The town where officials detained a person for questioning has long been a key transit point for smugglers because of its location near Interstate 19 and the wild desert hills that stretch across the border with Mexico. A Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was killed near the town of about 20,500 in a shootout with armed bandits in 2010.
Timeline: Ms. Guthrie’s older daughter, Annie, and her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, were the last people to see her before she vanished. Mr. Cioni drove Ms. Guthrie home from dinner. Hours later, at about 1:47 a.m., her front door camera was disconnected. Investigators believe that she was most likely taken soon after. Read more ›
Ransom demand: The authorities had said last week that they were reviewing a message sent to a Tucson television station, but did not confirm that it was related to a purported ransom note sent earlier, which demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin.
