By Richard Winton and Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times
Investigators trying to find Nancy Guthrie are posed with a daunting and familiar challenge in law enforcement: how to identify a masked person.
Authorities got a huge break Tuesday with the release of footage of an armed individual wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack approaching the front door of Guthrie’s Tucson home and tampering with a Nest camera the morning she was abducted.
It was seen as a key piece of evidence that could help break the case wide open and was followed by a flurry of tips to law enforcement. But identifying the person behind the mask isn’t a simple task.
A 36-year-old man detained following a traffic stop in Rio Rico — a semi-rural community about 60 miles south of Tucson — was released after several hours. Deputies and FBI forensics experts and agents searched his family’s home overnight but did not locate Guthrie.
Officials have not officially released the individual’s identity or offered any details about if or how the person might be connected to the case. The man told reporters outside the home that he’d never heard of the Guthrie family and hadn’t followed news about the case. Police didn’t ask him any questions while he was detained, he said.
“I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” he told reporters. “They better do their job and find the suspect that did it so they can clear my name.”
Since disappearing Feb. 1, Nancy Guthrie’s abduction — and the unusual way it has played out in the public eye — has confounded law enforcement.
University of Hawaii Police Chief Andrew Black, a former FBI special agent in charge in Tucson, said it’s difficult to say exactly what the release of the man means for the investigation aside from the fact that authorities simply don’t have “enough to justify an arrest.”
Agents on Wednesday were continuing to search for the 84-year-old grandmother along roadways in the foothills north of Tucson as they try to identify a suspect that could lead them to the end of the case.
FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News on Tuesday night that agents are looking at more than one individual as a “person of interest” in the case.
“We are looking at people who, as we say, are persons of interest,” Patel said.
The latest bizarre twist in the case came Wednesday morning, when TMZ announced that the outlet had received a letter demanding a payment of one bitcoin — worth about $67,000 at the time — in exchange for the name of Guthrie’s kidnapper.
“If they want the name of the individual involved, then I want 1 Bitcoin to the following wallet. Time is more than relevant,” the note stated, according to TMZ.
It was at least the fourth ransom demand made in the case. Soon after Guthrie went missing, several news outlets received identical ransom notes that investigators treated as legitimate. Days later, a note was sent directly to the Guthrie family, allegedly from a man living in Hawthorne, California, that authorities now say was an impostor.
Authorities are offering a $50,000 reward for information in the case.
But at this point, the best lead for authorities appears to be the surveillance footage, experts say.
The images, recorded at 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 1, show a person approaching the front door, noticing the Nest camera and trying to cover the lens with their hand. A gun is holstered at the person’s waist, positioned at the front of their body where it is easily visible.
The person looks around the patio and yard area, apparently for something to obstruct the camera, and settles on some greenery that they position in front of the lens.
When authorities arrived at the home in Arizona later that day, the camera was gone.
There has been no sign of Guthrie for 11 days. She has been without medication since she was taken from her home on Feb. 1.
The case was odd from the beginning, according to experts, and doesn’t follow a typical playbook.
Kidnappings for ransom are extremely rare, and the kidnapping of a senior citizen are even more infrequent, especially those with medical needs, said said Adam Bercovici, a retired lieutenant who oversaw the Special Investigation Section of the Los Angeles Police Department.
“This kidnapping violates all the rules,” he said.
In the last year, there were more than 49,000 cases of abductions and kidnappings in the United States, according to FBI data.
There were only 145 cases, or less than 1%, in Guthrie’s age group — 80 to 89 years old — according to statistics. Kidnapping for ransom of seniors is virtually unheard of unless the person is a wealthy executive or does business with criminal organizations. Most kidnappings involve people with connections and even strange cases aren’t often strangers, according to experts. Elizabeth Smart’s infamous 2002 kidnapping was done by a person later identified as the family’s occasional handyman.
As time has worn on, pleas from Guthrie’s family have grown more urgent.
“Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, one of Nancy’s daughters, shared the footage of the masked individual at her mother’s front door in two posts on Instagram Tuesday with a plea for the public’s help. In one post she says the family believes their mother is “still alive.”
“Someone out there recognizes this person,” she wrote. “We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”
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