Man questioned about Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance says he was released
The news is the latest twist in a case that has gripped the US, after the FBI released images of a masked man at the missing woman’s home
Fresh surveillance images from Nancy Guthrie’s porch the night she went missing, coupled with intense police activity across Arizona and the detention of a man had raised hopes that authorities were nearing a major break.
By Wednesday, however, the man said he had been released after questioning, leaving it unclear where the investigation stood into last week’s disappearance of Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
Just hours after the FBI released videos on Tuesday of a person wearing a gun holster, ski mask and backpack and approaching Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, authorities said they had stopped a man near the US-Mexico border for questioning.
The man told several media outlets early on Wednesday that he was released after several hours and had nothing to do with Guthrie’s disappearance last week.
Authorities have not said what led them to stop the man and had not confirmed he was released. The sheriff’s department said its deputies and FBI agents also searched a location on Tuesday night in Rio Rico, a city south of Tucson where the man lives.
It was the latest twist in an investigation that has gripped the nation since Nancy Guthrie disappeared on February 1. Until Tuesday, it seemed authorities were making little headway in determining what happened to her or finding who was responsible.