Investigators trying to find Nancy Guthrie face a difficult but familiar challenge in law enforcement: how to identify a masked person.
Authorities made a major breakthrough Tuesday when they released footage of an armed man wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack standing at the front door of Guthrie’s Arizona home and tampering with a Nest camera the morning she was abducted.
The video has led to a flood of nearly 4,000 new tips in the past day, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. A 36-year-old man was taken into custody after a traffic stop south of Tucson, but was released hours later. Deputies and FBI forensic experts and agents searched his family’s home overnight but did not find Guthrie.
Law enforcement experts said the video represents the first major lead in the case but that uncovering the individual will be a challenge. During the COVID-19 pandemic, police departments across the country have struggled to solve crimes committed by people wearing masks — even crimes captured on video. In many cases, they used data from electronics and geocoding to help build the case.
But experts say the real game changer in the Guthrie case will come when someone recognizes the man in the footage. Small things like their clothes, gait and behavior can deceive someone.
“There is technology that is helpful but not conclusive,” said Andrew Black, a former FBI special agent and police chief at the University of Hawaii in Tucson. “People who know the person are in a better position to make identification.”
Read more: Why is video of a masked intruder such a game-changer in the Nancy Guthrie investigation?
The video appears to be the most compelling evidence ever made public in what many consider a highly unusual kidnapping.
Ransom kidnappings usually involve organized crime, some bitter business dispute or personal conflict. In most cases, kidnappings are committed by someone the victim knows, said Adam Bercovici, a retired lieutenant who oversees the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Investigations Section.
“This kidnapping violates all the rules,” he said, adding that given how long Guthrie had been missing and her medical history, he would treat the case as a murder investigation.
There has been no trace of the 84 year old man for 11 days. She was taken from her home without any medication and it is unclear how long she could survive without it.
Kidnappings involving elderly people are rare.
According to FBI data, there were more than 49,000 cases of kidnapping and abduction in the United States last year. According to the data, Guthrie’s age group – 80 to 89 years old – had only 145 cases, less than 1%.
Bercovici and other experts say investigators are likely looking for people who may have come into contact with Guthrie and knew that she lived alone in a relatively isolated area. Seemingly random abductions often involve someone known to the victim, even directly. Elizabeth Smart was infamously kidnapped in Utah in 2002 by a man later identified as a servant who previously worked at the family home.
There was much excitement Tuesday when police announced a man had been detained for questioning, but that ended when he was released hours later and Guthrie has still not been located. A Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said the man’s detention was “part of following up on incoming leads.”
Authorities have not officially released the man’s identity or provided any details about whether he may be connected to the case. The man told reporters outside the home that he had never heard of the Guthrie family and had not heard any news about the case. The police did not ask him any questions while he was being detained, he said.
“I hope they catch the suspect, because that’s not who I am,” he told reporters. “They better do their job and find the suspect who did this so they can clear my name.”
Since Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance on February 1, her abduction – and the unusual manner in which it came to public attention – has confounded law enforcement.
Agents were continuing to search for the grandmother on the side of the road in the foothills north of Tucson on Wednesday as they tried to identify a suspect who could help them solve the case.
FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Tuesday night that agents are considering more than one person as a “person of interest” in the case.
“We are looking at individuals who are, as we say, persons of interest,” Patel said.
Authorities are also offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to Guthrie’s whereabouts.
The case took another bizarre turn Wednesday morning when TMZ announced that the outlet had received a letter demanding payment of one bitcoin — which was worth about $67,000 at the time — in exchange for the name of Guthrie’s kidnapper.
According to TMZ, the note said, “If they want the name of the person involved, I want 1 Bitcoin in the following wallet. The timing is more than relevant.”
This was at least the fourth ransom demand made in this case. The day after Guthrie’s disappearance, several news outlets received similar ransom notes that investigators deemed legitimate. A few days later, a note was sent directly to the Guthrie family, purportedly from a man who lives in Hawthorne, who authorities now say was an impostor.
On Friday, another ransom note was sent to a television station in Arizona.
Sources told The Times that authorities had no evidence that the person writing the ransom note was Guthrie. But he also said the February 2 note appeared credible because it included details about a specific damaged piece of property and the location of an accessory in the home that had not been made public.
Mary Ellen O’Toole, a George Mason University professor and former FBI profiler, said it would be unusual for a kidnapper to communicate with family through the media when those individuals typically shy away from public attention.
“I’ve only seen a handful of cases over the years where someone would do that, because that level of arrogance is bound to backfire on you,” he said.
Experts say at this point, the best lead authorities have appears to be surveillance footage.
The images, recorded at 1:47 a.m. on February 1, show a man approaching the front door, looking at the Nest camera and trying to cover the lens with his hand. A gun is hung around the person’s waist, located at the front of their body where it is easily visible.
The person looks around the patio and yard area, apparently for anything obstructing the camera, and sits down on some greenery which they place in front of the lens.
When officers arrived at the home later that day, the camera was missing.
Former Houston and Austin police Chief Art Acevedo said that although the mask makes identifying a suspect more challenging, it is not an impossible task for law enforcement.
“The public will be the biggest resource,” he said.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
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