The detention came hours after FBI officials released surveillance footage showing a masked individual approaching the 84-year-old’s front door the morning she was abducted.
The Sheriff’s Department said the detained subject was in the process of being questioned last night. Officials have not released the individual’s identity or offered any details about how the person might be connected to the case.
Sheriff’s officials were working with the FBI to complete a search in Rio Rico, Arizona, yesterday, a department spokesperson said. The court-authorised search is expected to continue for several hours and is taking place near the area where the subject was detained, the spokesperson said.
Rio Rico is a semi-rural community about 92km south of Tucson.
A woman told CNN yesterday authorities had detained her son-in-law and were searching her Rio Rico home. She said her son-in-law "had nothing to do with that [kidnapping]."
"I told them you can go in and search my house, there is nobody there," she told CNN. "I have nothing to hide."
The release of surveillance footage yesterday and the subsequent detention marked the first major breaks in the investigation, which has spanned 10 days.
The images, recorded at 1.47am on February 1 (local time), show someone wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack tampering with the Nest camera at Guthrie’s front door. A gun is holstered at the person’s waist.
In the footage, the person approaches the front door, notices the camera and tries to cover the lens with their hand. Then they look around the patio and yard area, apparently for something to obstruct the camera, and settle 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.
In an investigation with numerous dead ends, the footage was expected to be crucial in helping law enforcement move the case forward, experts say.
The images were circulated less than a day after a ransom deadline to pay Guthrie’s abductors $US6 million ($NZ9.9m) in bitcoin passed with no sign of the 84-year-old and no proof of life from kidnappers. There has been no indication any ransom was paid and the FBI also said it was not aware of any communication between the abductors and the Guthrie family.
Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie, one of Nancy’s daughters, shared the footage in two posts on Instagram yesterday with a plea for the public’s help. Savannah Guthrie says in one post she and her siblings believe their mother "is still alive".
Yesterday, the White House weighed in on X, saying: "The President encourages any American across the country with any knowledge of this suspect to please call the FBI ... The prayers of the entire White House are with the Guthrie family." — TCA
