Angelica Carrillo, a spokeswoman for the Pima County Sheriff’s Office, said according to CNN that authorities are executing a search warrant at a residence in Rio Rico, Arizona, as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.
The sheriff’s office previously said it was questioning an individual who was pulled over “during a traffic stop.” A law enforcement official confirmed the person was taken into custody in Rio Rico.
In a statement, the department said it was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct a court-authorized search Tuesday night at a property in Rio Rico, about an hour south of Tucson. The search was expected to continue for several hours.
Rio Rico is located about 60 miles south of Tucson, near the US-Mexico border.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said it remains unclear what prompted law enforcement to stop the individual detained in the Nancy Guthrie case, but noted that authorities had sufficient grounds to take the individual in for questioning.
“We don’t know the lead that led law enforcement to this person. We don’t even know if that lead came from the public release of the surveillance video and photos,” McCabe told CNN.
NewsNation’s Brian Entin said he spoke with the detained man’s mother-in-law, who denied allegations that her son-in-law was involved. He wrote that he owns the house where the search was conducted and that authorities seized all of their electronic devices, while claiming that her son-in-law had nothing to do with the case.
In an interview, the woman said they didn’t know about Nancy. “We don’t know her at all. I don’t know who she is,” she said.
It is not known if it was the same person who was detained.
Nancy Guthrie went missing on February 1st, and the case has drawn national attention ever since. Until Tuesday, authorities appeared to have made little progress in figuring out what happened to the 84-year-old mother of “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie or identifying those responsible.
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What do the posted videos show?
Videos released by the FBI earlier Tuesday show the individual wearing a ski mask and backpack. At one point, the subject lowers his head and turns away from the doorbell camera as he walks to Guthrie’s front door. The footage also shows the individual holding a flashlight in his mouth and attempting to cover the camera using a gloved hand and a piece of plant pulled from the yard.
The clips, totaling less than a minute, gave investigators and the public their first glimpse of someone outside Guthrie’s home in the foothills near Tucson. However, the footage did not reveal what happened to her or indicate whether she remains alive.
FBI Director Kash Patel said an “armed individual” appeared to be “tampering with the camera,” though it’s unclear whether a gun was actually in the holster. Patel added that the videos were retrieved from data on “back-end systems” after investigators spent days searching for footage that had been lost, damaged or otherwise unavailable.
Read also | Nancy Guthrie case: Internet launches its own hunt for doorbell footage
Meanwhile, Savannah Guthrie shared another message from her family saying they believe their mother is still alive. The Guthrie family and authorities urged anyone with information to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI, 88-CRIME, 520-351-4900 or submit tips at tips.fbi.gov.