The FBI revealed new details about the man they now describe as the suspect in the abduction of Nancy Guthrie, based on new evidence investigators gathered from the 84-year-old’s doorbell camera.
The suspect was described as a man around 5 feet 9 inches tall with an average build, the FBI said in a social media post Thursday evening. Footage from the doorbell camera of Guthrie’s Tucson home showed the man was wearing a black “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack, according to the FBI.
The FBI on Thursday also raised the reward for information leading to Guthrie’s location or to the arrest of a person involved in her disappearance to $100,000.
“We hope this updated description will help concentrate the public tips we are receiving,” the FBI’s post said, which added that the agency has collected more than 13,000 tips about the case since Feb. 1, when Guthrie’s family reported her missing.
Her disappearance unfolded in front of a worldwide audience that was familiar with Savannah Guthrie as the host of the “Today” show and, over the past two weeks, saw her as a distraught daughter in search of her mother. The case has drawn intense interest from internet sleuths, a show of support from President Donald Trump and a flurry of special news segments, namely from NBC, Savannah Guthrie’s home network. Still, it remained slow-moving and mysterious.
Nancy Guthrie’s family reported her missing around noon on Feb. 1, after she spent the previous evening having dinner and playing games at the home of her daughter, Annie, who lives nearby. Her family then dropped her off at home, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos previously said.
Investigators said they believed Guthrie had not left the house on her own — both because of her existing illnesses and because of what they saw at the scene. Guthrie struggled to walk and was taking daily medications that were critical to her survival, authorities and her family said. Nanos divulged days later that blood discovered on the porch matched Guthrie’s DNA and that her doorbell camera had been disconnected.
In the days that followed, local and national news outlets reported receiving ransom letters from purported abductors. Some of those demands appeared to be fake, and officials arrested one person in connection to an “impostor ransom demand,” said Heith Janke, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix office.
In a video message, posted to Instagram last week, the Guthrie family acknowledged that they had seen the ransom letters in the media. Speaking directly to the person who may have sent the demands, Savannah Guthrie said the family was ready to communicate but wanted proof of life.
“We need to know without a doubt that she is alive, and that you have her,” she said in the video, sitting beside her two siblings. “We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen.”
A turn in the case came Tuesday, when the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department released photos and video they had recovered from Guthrie’s doorbell camera. The visuals appeared to show a person, wearing a ski mask and gloves, hiding themselves from the view of the camera. FBI Director Kash Patel said the person appeared to be “armed” and tampering with the camera.
Later that night, the sheriff’s office said it had detained a person for questioning and was searching a property in Rio Rico, about an hour drive from Tucson. But the sheriff’s office said Wednesday that they had released the man they questioned.
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