World
Chilling images are the biggest break so far in the Nancy Guthrie case: Here’s what stands out to law enforcement experts
Video and images showing an armed, masked individual outside the Tucson, Arizona, home of Nancy Guthrie have given new life to the search for the 84-year-old – and may offer investigators important clues about the subject’s identity.
The imagery released by the FBI on Tuesday (local time) is the biggest break so far in the case of the missing mother of “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie. They were captured by Guthrie’s Nest-made doorbell camera and recovered thanks to technical expertise provided by Google, a person familiar with the investigation told CNN’s Brian Stelter.
Investigators’ goal in sharing the imagery, experts say, is to engage the public in hopes someone will recognise the individual and provide a crucial tip that could solve the mystery of the suspected abduction of Guthrie in the early morning hours of 1 February.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said it received more than 4000 tips in the 24 hours since the surveillance photos and videos were released to the public.
Meanwhile, as the search for Guthrie entered its 12th day, neighbours were asked to review their security footage from two days in January as investigators worked to piece together a potential “new timeline” in the case, according to a post shared on the Neighbour App by Ring.
Savannah Guthrie with her mother Nancy on the set of the Today Show. Photo: Nathan Congleton/NBC/Getty Images
Here’s what stands out to law enforcement experts about the footage and images of the armed, masked individual:
The holster
The subject seen in the images 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.
“In my opinion, this is not someone, first of all, who was ever trained to carry a gun,” said CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI.
“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 centre 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.”
New images showing an armed, masked individual outside the Tucson, Arizona, home of Nancy Guthrie have given new life to the search for the 84-year-old. Photo: Amy O’Kruk, CNN via CNN Newsource
The clothing
The images also show the individual covered head to toe, wearing a mask, gloves, a jacket and long pants in addition to the holster and backpack.
CNN senior correspondent Josh Campbell, a former FBI agent, said the individual’s garb “could have been a purposeful attempt to try to prevent leaving behind any DNA at the scene, from skin or hair fibres, as well as fingerprints.”
Each of the subject’s items will be scrutinised, Campbell said, in hopes of determining its brand and thus where the item might be sold.
“In past cases,” he said, “authorities have canvassed places like clothing and hardware stores in order to determine if employees may have recognised a possible subject (from) when the items were purchased.”
The backpack appears to be an Ozark Trail Hiker Pack, part of Walmart’s private-label outdoor brand, according to a CNN analysis.
Investigators also recovered a black glove about a mile and a half from Guthrie’s home, according to the New York Post. It is not clear whether authorities believe it to be the same glove worn by the person in the doorbell camera footage.
If it is the same glove, though, investigators will try to recover DNA, fiber, hair and traces of a plant that was used to cover up the camera, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller said.
The FBI has released new images from a camera at Nancy Guthrie’s house, showing a person who appears to be wearing a mask. Photo: FBI
The gait
The video specifically offers a key insight that the still images can’t: How the individual moves.
The footage shows the subject walking around outside as they approach Guthrie’s home and try to obstruct the camera. While the movement may not be an obvious cue to strangers, experts say it could be recognisable to someone who knows the person.
“We recognise people more by the way that they move than by visual cues, often,” said Josh Schirard, a former SWAT commander. “Understanding how they’re moving, seeing them walk back and forth, is definitely a great way to recognise someone that you might know,” even when other distinctive features may be obscured.
Other experts said the subject’s movement could illustrate a lack of urgency. McCabe said the individual’s approach was “not particularly furtive or concerned.”
Bryanna Fox, a former FBI agent, similarly said the individual “almost saunters up like that’s his house.”
There is “a lack of concern that he’s going to be caught,” she said.
“He still has this kind of air of bravado, that he’s going to be able to get away with this.”
Attempts to obstruct the camera
The video released by the FBI is brief and doesn’t show much in the way of action. But it does capture the subject’s apparent attempts to cover the camera outside Guthrie’s home.
The person appears to first try obstructing the lens with their gloved hand. Then, the individual steps back, seemingly searching the ground. The person ultimately picks up a piece of shrubbery from the yard, then uses the foliage to try to cover the camera.
“This does raise questions about his sophistication and any pre-planning,” said Campbell, the CNN correspondent. “If he had actually conducted surveillance on the home and saw a camera, he would have brought with him means of obstructing it.”
Asked about the attempt to cover the camera with shrubbery, Moore said it suggested the purported abduction of Nancy Guthrie was “highly premeditated and very poorly planned,” adding he believes “this is the first time he’s ever done something like this.”
“What this strikes me as is somebody who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know,” Moore said.
Source: CNN & RNZ
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted of his endorsement from Donald Trump on the eve of Israel’s election, suggesting the two leaders could restart their war against Iran if he wins, after Trump said they should “finish the job”.
“US President Donald Trump has come with a friendship that has never existed before between an Israeli prime minister and an American president. And it is doubtful we will ever have such a friendly president again,” Netanyahu said in a televised appearance late on Sunday night. “He has another two years, and he says he is calling on you to vote for me.”
In his own social media post on Sunday, Trump, who launched the Iran war jointly with Netanyahu in February, said: “Vote for Bibi Netanyahu for Prime Minister, we have to finish the job that we started!”
Netanyahu said Trump was willing to take action “that would finally, finally, remove the Iranian threat”, but only as long as Netanyahu himself remains in power.
“And I have already instructed the Mossad and the IDF (military) to bring down this regime, to bring down this regime because that is the only way to put an end to this threat,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israel’s main intelligence service and military.
Asked for comment on Netanyahu’s remarks, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said: “As President Trump stated, Iran is in very bad condition, both economically and militarily, and the blockade will remain in full force and effect, with oil flowing in record numbers of barrels through the Hormuz Strait.”
“The United States will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections,” Kelly added via email, referring to the November 3 vote in the US.
Netanyahu’s leading opponent, centrist former military Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, posted his own comments on social media, praising Trump as “a true friend of Israel”.
“I value his efforts and his commitment to Israel’s security, and I am confident that he will work in full cooperation with any leader chosen by the people.”
Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP
Eisenkot accuses Netanyahu of fear-mongering
Tuesday’s vote, Israel’s first since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, is the first chance for voters to deliver a verdict on the worst security failure in generations and the wars on multiple fronts that followed.
With Netanyahu already at the helm of the most right-wing government in Israeli history, politics have shifted even further to the right. Nearly all Jewish-led parties, including that of the hawkish Eisenkot, now oppose the “two-state solution” that underpinned decades of peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
But many voters say the divisive politics of Israel’s longest-serving leader make the country weaker. Polls suggest Netanyahu’s Likud Party will lose seats, potentially depriving his coalition of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties of its narrow majority.
Eisenkot and an array of opposition parties ranging from the rump of the centre-left to the right, also have no clear path to unseat him.
Netanyahu, 77, is an unrivaled master of political survival: the only time since 2009 that opponents managed to wrest him briefly from the premiership, it took four inconclusive elections within two years to get him out. He was back 18 months later.
Neither side planned major public events for Monday. But both posted on social media, drumming on the election’s major themes: for Netanyahu, that he is the only leader with the mettle to face down Israel’s enemies; for his opponents, that his divisive politics have weakened the country.
Netanyahu shared an AI-generated video on Monday of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father Ali Khamenei was killed on the first night of US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February. Lying in a hospital bed, the younger Khamenei says his own vote would be “definitely not Bibi. Another term like this and I will be meeting my father sooner than expected.”
On Sunday Netanyahu posted a computer-generated photo of a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv, saying Israel was in existential danger from Iran.
Eisenkot responded by accusing him of “relying on a campaign of fear-mongering, lies, and threats – including images of nuclear bombs in the heart of Tel Aviv. This time, it won’t work for him.”
Trump’s endorsement of Netanyahu carries its own political risks a week before a legislative election in which his own Republicans are seeking to hold onto power.
The Iran war is deeply unpopular in the United States, blamed for a surge in prices especially for fuel. Major fighting has been suspended for months after ceasefire negotiations held without Israeli participation.
Source: Reuters & RNZ
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