The Pima County Sheriff’s Department, with assistance from the FBI, has detained an individual for questioning in connection with the abduction of Nancy Guthrie, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
The individual was detained in a location south of Tucson, Arizona, the source said, and law enforcement is preparing to search a location associated with the individual.
The development followed the first images released of a masked man approaching Nancy Guthrie’s front door and as investigators continued to search in her neighborhood.
However, there’s no indication that the person who was detained is the figure seen in the newly released video footage.
Earlier Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel released images and video of an “armed individual” in connection with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie.
The images showed someone wearing a mask, gloves, a backpack and armed with a holstered handgun at the front door of Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson-area home around the time investigators suspect she was abducted on Feb. 1.
“[L]aw enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance,” Patel said in his post.
The Guthrie family was shown the images before their public release, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Savannah Guthrie posted the images to her Instagram account, with the message, “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home.”
In a second Instagram post on Tuesday afternoon, Guthrie wrote, “Someone out there recognizes this person. We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”
Nancy Guthrie was taken from her home on Sunday, Feb. 1, according to authorities. A Monday ransom deadline by persons claiming to be Guthrie’s abductors passed as the search for her continues.
Patel said the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s office worked with “private sector partners” in recent days to recover the video footage, which Patel said had been “lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors, including the removal of recording devices.”
“The video was recovered from residual data located in the backend systems,” Patel said. “Working with four partners — as of this morning, law enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump was briefed on the latest details in the case and was reviewing the video footage posted online by Patel.
“We’re just praying for the safety of Nancy Guthrie and that she will return home soon. And the president directed me to please encourage all Americans with any information to call the FBI, and we hope that this case will come to a positive resolution as soon as possible,” Leavitt said.
Anyone with information is urged to call 911, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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