New images and videos released on Tuesday showed a masked, armed person at Nancy Guthrie’s doorstep on the night she was abducted, the first significant break in the search for the 84-year-old mother of the “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
The black-and-white footage released by the F.B.I. and Pima County Sheriff’s Department depicts a person wearing a ski mask, gloves, a backpack and what appears to be a holstered handgun outside of Ms. Guthrie’s home, just north of Tucson. Investigators said the person was armed.
In a video from Ms. Guthrie’s doorbell camera, the person can be seen approaching Ms. Guthrie’s door and trying to block the camera with a gloved hand. The person then grabs plants from beside the front stoop and — holding what appears to be a flashlight in their mouth — tries to use them to obscure the camera. The police have said the camera was disconnected shortly before the abduction on Feb. 1.
The Pima County sheriff said last week that investigators were unable to retrieve any footage from Ms. Guthrie’s surveillance cameras because she did not pay for a subscription that would have stored the video. But a joint statement from the sheriff’s department and F.B.I. on Tuesday morning said that investigators had eventually recovered the video Tuesday morning by accessing “residual data.”
The videos are the strongest pieces of evidence yet that might help identify a suspect in the abduction of Ms. Guthrie, as the search entered its 10th day.
Savannah Guthrie shared the footage on Instagram and wrote that her family believes Nancy Guthrie is still alive. “Someone out there recognizes this person,” she wrote. “We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that President Trump had watched the footage with “disgust” and that he encouraged anyone with information to call the F.B.I. The agency has offered a $50,000 reward for Ms. Guthrie’s return or for information leading to the conviction of her abductor.
The police have said that Ms. Guthrie’s doorbell camera was disconnected at 1:47 a.m. on the day of her abduction, and that her pacemaker disconnected from her cellphone — indicating that she was taken from the home — 41 minutes later.
Since Ms. Guthrie’s abduction, two supposed ransom letters have been sent to news outlets, and Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings have pleaded in videos for their mother’s kidnapper to return her, saying they would pay a ransom. It remains unclear if the notes sent to the news outlets were actually sent by the abductor.
Nancy Guthrie is mentally sharp but has trouble moving and takes daily medication without which she could die, her family has said.
In an Instagram video that was released on Monday, Savannah Guthrie asked the public to report anything strange to the authorities, whether in Tucson or far away.
“She was taken,” Ms. Guthrie said of her mother, “and we don’t know where.”
Luke Broadwater, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Shawn McCreesh and Reis Thebault contributed reporting.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports for The Times on national stories across the United States with a focus on criminal justice.
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