Man detained by cops in search for Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother speaks out
The suspect said that he did not even know Nancy Guthrie’s name when he was arrested
The man detained by authorities on Tuesday for “kidnapping” Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, has spoken out.
Identifying himself only as “Carlos,” he says that he had “never” even heard of the missing 84-year-old until being detained.
Nancy vanished sometime during the late hours of January 31 and the early hours of February 1, and the desperate search to find her became international news.
The announcement that Carlos had been held came just after the FBI released a chilling picture of a masked man outside of the 84-year-old’s home.
Carlos, who was stopped at a traffic light south of Tucson, told ABC 15 that he is completely innocent.
“They didn't even tell me what's going on until the detectives got here,” Carlos claimed. “They told me I was being detained for kidnapping, and I asked them, ‘Kidnapping of who?’”
According to him, police had “insufficient evidence” to charge him with anything.
“Supposedly, I was at her house, but, like I said, I deliver packages for GLS,” he continued. “I might have delivered a package to her house.”
Carlos told the broadcaster that he was detained for hours before Pima County officers eventually told him he was free to leave.
Jacob Owens, a reporter at KVOA, tweeted that a home belonging to Carlos’s mother, Josefina Maddox, had been searched by police.
“Maddox says her son in-law has nothing to do with Guthrie’s disappearance,” Owens continued. “She adds he doesn’t have what was seen in the footage released today.
“She says he works in Tucson as a delivery driver. She adds officials did not have a search warrant, but she let them in.”
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department broke the news that they had detained a suspect on Tuesday evening in a public statement.
“Earlier today, Pima County Sheriff's Department deputies detained a subject during a traffic stop south of Tucson,” the press release read. “The subject is currently being questioned in connection to the Nancy Guthrie investigation.”
The department added that the suspect was detained with assistance from the FBI, who Carlos says could still bring him back in for further questioning.
A screenshot from the doorbell footage depicts a masked and armed man lurking on Nancy Guthrie’s porch, tampering with her doorbell camera system.
The black-and-white image was obtained by the PCSD after a long effort to recover footage that had been “lost, corrupted, or inaccessible.”
“Over the last eight days, the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department have been working closely with our private sector partners to continue to recover any images or video footage from Nancy Guthrie’s home that may have been lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors - including the removal of recording devices,” the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement posted to X.
“The video was recovered from residual data located in backend systems.”
“Over the last eight days, the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department have been working closely with our private sector partners to continue to recover any images or video footage from Nancy Guthrie’s home that may have been lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors - including the removal of recording devices,” the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement posted to X.
“The video was recovered from residual data located in backend systems.”
The footage and photos were also shared online by FBI Director Kash Patel, who offered a $50,000 reward for information to assist the investigation.
Nancy Guthrie was first reported missing on February 1, after she did not show up for a Church service as usual.
A subsequent investigation found that her home showed signs of a break-in and that traces of blood were on her porch. Forensic testing soon determined that the blood belonged to Nancy.
A ransom letter offering to return Nancy in exchange for $6 million was sent to several publications, but the deadline has since passed with no update.
Savannah Guthrie, the star of the Today show, has said that her family was willing to “listen” to the authors of the ransom note and were prepared to negotiate their mother’s release.
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