FBI releases 1st surveillance images from night of disappearance
FBI releases 1st surveillance images from night of disappearance
The FBI on Tuesday released new surveillance videos and photos from the night Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, disappeared.
FBI Director Kash Patel shared the images and videos in a series of posts on X. Patel said the new visuals show an “armed individual,” wearing a ski mask and gloves, “appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance.”
Patel said that law enforcement “uncovered these previously inaccessible new images” from a video that “was recovered from residual data located in backend systems.”
Investigators’ goal in sharing the imagery, experts say, is to engage the public in hopes someone will recognize the individual and provide a crucial tip that could solve the mystery of the suspected abduction of Guthrie in the early morning hours of February 1.
The subject seen in the images released Tuesday is armed, carrying what appears to be a pistol in a holster at the waist. But some experts said the holster and its placement – at the individual’s groin area – suggest this person lacks proficiency with firearms.
“No person with law enforcement or military training would ever carry a firearm in a holster like that, right where that is at almost the center of his body, hanging off of his belt there,” he said. “It’s not very tactically sound for a lot of reasons.”
Steve Moore, a retired FBI supervisory special agent, similarly said the holster and gun did not appear to be appropriately paired.
“It’s kind of ridiculous,” Moore said. “He’s got a small, semiautomatic pistol meant for concealment that he could have put in his pocket, but instead he’s holstering it in a holster made for a large-frame revolver. They don’t even match.”
Nancy raised her three kids in Arizona after Charles passed away in 1988 following a heart attack. They had moved from Australia and settled in their home three years later, with the ownership remaining unchanged since 1985. It is worth an estimated $1.1 million today. Charles was a mining engineer, while Nancy took up a job in public affairs at the University of Arizona as a clerk to make ends meet.
“My father died when I was entering my senior year in high school. I then lived at home all through college,” Savannah said on the Today show about their financial situation. “We didn’t have money to afford the dorm. And that was thing one, but the other was that my sister and I really felt like we should stick with my mom and not leave her alone.”
