A man was released from custody early Wednesday morning after being detained for questioning in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie.
The release of the man was a blow to investigators, who are entering their 11th day of trying to determine who may have abducted Ms. Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother and where she is now.
The man who was released, a 36-year-old named Carlos, said that he had been in his car on Tuesday evening in Rio Rico, Ariz., about an hour’s drive south of Tucson, when police officers asked him his name and then detained him.
He was held for several hours, he said, before eventually being released with wrists swollen from handcuffs.
Carlos, who declined to give his last name, gave an account of his detention in a brief interview on the porch of the home he shares with his wife and mother-in-law in Rio Rico just before 1 a.m. on Wednesday, after the police had combed through the house.
He said he had not heard of Nancy Guthrie, who was abducted from her home near Tucson on Feb. 1, but hoped that the police found the culprit.
“I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” he said. “They better do their job and find the suspect that did it so that they can clear my name.”
A spokeswoman for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, which is leading the investigation along with the F.B.I., said only that investigators had finished searching a property in Rio Rico, which is near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The detention and release appeared to be a setback in the investigation into Ms. Guthrie’s disappearance.
It came a day after what appeared to be the biggest break in the case, when the authorities were able to recover footage from Ms. Guthrie’s doorbell camera that showed a masked, armed person at her doorstep on the night she went missing.
Savannah Guthrie has pleaded with anyone who recognizes the person in the video to reach out to the authorities.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports for The Times on national stories across the United States with a focus on criminal justice.
The post Man Who Was Detained in Nancy Guthrie’s Disappearance Is Released appeared first on New York Times.
