TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Fresh tracking images from Nancy Guthrie’s porch the night she went missing, along with intense police activity across Arizona and the man’s arrest, has raised hopes that authorities are nearing a major breakthrough.
Until then, the man had been released after questioning, so it was unclear Wednesday where the investigation into last week’s disappearance of Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of the “Today” show host, had ended. Savannah Guthrie.
FBI agents fanned out across the block about a mile from Guthrie’s home Wednesday morning, knocking on doors and searching the dense desert terrain filled with cacti, bushes and boulders. Several hundred detectives and agents are now assigned to the investigation, which is expanding in the Tucson area, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.
Barb Dutrow, who was jogging around one neighborhood where teams were searching, said an FBI agent told her they were looking for anything that might have been thrown from the car. Dutrow, who was visiting from Louisiana for the convention, said she “can’t imagine the feeling of a family when their mother was taken away.”
A day earlier, authorities said they stopped a man near the U.S.-Mexico border, just hours after the FBI released videos showing a person approaching in a gun holster, ski mask and backpack. Nancy Guthrie is at home in Tucson. The man told the media early Wednesday that he was released after several hours and had nothing to do with Guthrie’s disappearance last week.
Authorities did not say what led them to stop the man Tuesday, but confirmed he had been released. The sheriff’s department said its deputies and FBI agents also searched a location in Rio Rico, the town south of Tucson where the man lives.
It was the latest twist in the investigation he has gripped the nation since Nancy Guthrie disappeared on February 1st. Until Tuesday, authorities did not appear to be making much progress in figuring out what happened to her or finding who was responsible.
Black-and-white images released by the FBI showing a masked person trying to cover the doorbell camera on Guthrie’s porch marked the first major break in the case. But the pictures didn’t show up what happened to her or to help determine if he is still alive.
FBI Director Kash Patel said investigators spent days trying to find lost, damaged or inaccessible images.
Although the images do not show the person’s face, investigators hope someone will know who was on the porch. More than 4,000 calls came in Pima County Sheriff tip line within the past 24 hours, the department said Wednesday afternoon.
For more than a week, authorities said they believed Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will. She was last seen at home on January 31 and was reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed the blood on her front porch was hers, authorities said.
Savannah Guthrie posted new footage on social media and said the family believed their mother was still alive.
Longtime NBC host and her two siblings indicated a willingness to pay the ransom.
It is unknown if the ransom notes demanding money with deadlines that have already passed were authentic and if the family had any contact with whoever took Guthrie.
TMZ reported that it received a message Wednesday from someone who claimed to know the identity of the kidnapper and that they had tried unsuccessfully to contact Savannah Guthrie’s brother and sister. The person asked for bitcoins in exchange for information, TMZ reported. The FBI did not immediately respond to a message.
Authorities said Nancy Guthrie was on several medications, and there were early concerns that she might die without them.
Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.