Authorities served a search warrant at a home in Tucson on Friday night in connection to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, who investigators say was kidnapped from her home 13 days ago.
A SWAT team converged on a house located about two miles from Guthrie’s Arizona residence and removed two people from inside, law enforcement sources told The Times.
It is unclear what role, if any, the two individuals may have played in Guthrie’s disappearance, which has flummoxed investigators for almost two weeks.
A man and a woman complied with orders to exit the home, according to reporting from News Nation.
This week investigators got their first major break in the case with the release of footage showing an armed man wearing a balaclava, gloves and a backpack approaching the front door of Guthrie’s home and tampering with a Nest camera at 1:47 a.m. the morning she was abducted.
Later that day authorities detained a man at a traffic stop in Rio Rico, a semi-rural community about 12 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, in connection with the investigation. Deputies and FBI forensics experts and agents searched his family’s home overnight but did not locate Guthrie. He was released hours later and has denied any involvement in the 84-year-old’s disappearance. The Times is not naming him because he has not been arrested or accused of any crime.
Guthrie was discovered missing on Feb. 1 after she didn’t show up at a friend’s house to watch a church service. She was taken from her home without any of her heart medication, and it’s unclear how long she can survive without it.
A day after Guthrie went missing, several news outlets received identical ransom notes that investigators treated as legitimate. Days later, a note was sent directly to the Guthrie family, allegedly from a man living in Hawthorne, that authorities now say was an impostor.
Another ransom note was sent to a television station in Arizona last week.
Sources told The Times that authorities have no proof the person who authored the ransom notes has Guthrie. But they also said the Feb. 2 note felt credible because it included details about a specific damaged piece of property and the placement of an accessory in the home that had not been made public.
On Friday, TMZ said it received a letter from a person claiming to know the identity of who abducted Guthrie and demanding the $100,000 FBI reward in bitcoin.
The person wrote in the letter that they don’t trust the FBI, which is why they’re sending the communication through TMZ, Harvey Levin told CNN.
“The manhunt of the main individual that can give you all the answers be prepared to go international,” the letter reads, according to Levin.
Authorities have released limited details about other evidence in the case.
However, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said Friday that investigators have located several gloves, including some that were found about two miles away from Guthrie’s home, that are being tested.
Authorities also found DNA evidence that does not belong to Guthrie or members of her family at her home. Investigators are working to identify who the DNA belongs to, according to the department.
The post Investigators search Tucson home in Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
