As the search for Nancy Guthrie continues, a long-time private investigator reveals a “rookie” mistake made by the would-be kidnapper that led to doorbell camera surveillance footage being leaked.
Private Detective Andy Kaye & Page six How law enforcement retrieved the footage and explained it was due to the suspect’s own error in tampering with the camera.
“As long as there is internet, the cameras will record to the server,” Kay said. “According to Nest, without a subscription, they are usually overwritten quickly by the next image. But if the camera disconnects, there should be nothing on the server to overwrite.”
84-year-old mother Nancy today Host Savannah Guthrie was taken from her home on the evening of January 31, according to law enforcement. She was reported missing the next afternoon after friends discovered she had not attended her usual Sunday church service.
On Tuesday (February 10), investigators released new images and video of a masked man approaching Nancy’s property. In the video, the suspect can be seen tampering with the camera, covering it with flowers torn from the entrance, and finally removing the camera from its stand and disconnecting it.
Kay believes it was the camera’s disconnection that allowed police to retrieve the footage. Basically, if a person doesn’t subscribe to the Nest service (Nancy doesn’t), the images will continue to be overwritten with new images. But because the camera was disconnected, the last images of the suspect were never overwritten and were able to be restored.
Kay also noted that the would-be kidnapper appeared to have the weapon mistakenly hanging on his pants, which he viewed as another sign that the suspect was a “newbie.”
“Over the past eight days, the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department have been working closely with our private sector partners to continue to recover any images or video footage from Nancy Guthrie’s home that may have been lost, damaged, or inaccessible due to various factors, including the deletion of the recording device,” authorities said in a statement released along with the new images and footage.
It continued, “Working with our partners – as of this morning, law enforcement has discovered these new, previously inaccessible images showing an armed man who appears to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning she disappeared.”
Hours after the video was released, investigators detained a delivery driver from Rio Rico, a small community 60 miles south of Tucson. The driver was later acquitted and told reporters he was “innocent” and had never even heard of Nancy or Savannah.
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