NEW OVERNIGHT: Person of Interest Detained, Released Hours Later in Nancy Guthrie Investigation

00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.

00:00:11
Speaker 2: It is Wednesday, February eleventh, and after a day of the biggest development so far in the Nancy Guthrie disappearance, we got another major development yesterday word of a person of interest being taken into custody. But already this morning we're getting word that person has been released. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Rohades. When we saw the surveillance video they released yesterday, man in a mask on the front porch, I said, there's no doubt bout the time we get up in the morning, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a development.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: This wasn't it that I was thinking, No.

00:00:44
Speaker 3: It wasn't.

00:00:44
Speaker 4: Well, as we were going to bed, we were getting word this was late last night, that someone had been detained. We thought, you know what, by the time we get up in a couple of hours, we may have a person of interest in custody.

00:00:57
Speaker 3: That was not what ended up happening. And oh it happened for a little while.

00:01:02
Speaker 4: It did for a little while, and guess what that person of interest is talking. So this has been a fascinating development where we actually got to hear from the guy the police detained.

00:01:11
Speaker 2: Talking a lot, and it's so interesting to hear what he had to say because he seemed quite frankly clueless, and to be honest with you, he said these words, I don't know who Nancy Guthrie is. Not just I don't know her personally. He was saying, I don't know Savannah Guthrie. I don't know Nancy Guthrie. He used these words, I don't follow the news. And you saw his videos. The guy seemed kind of believable in that I don't know how I got involved in all this.

00:01:32
Speaker 4: He seemed very believable and a guest and actually fairly calm given what had just happened to him.

00:01:38
Speaker 3: He had been detained.

00:01:39
Speaker 4: He said, no one even talked to him, they didn't ask him any questions. His house got raided, his family, he had a wife.

00:01:45
Speaker 3: His mother.

00:01:46
Speaker 4: I mean, this was an incredibly I'm sure frightening, disruptive, overwhelming feeling this And this is a town, what right on the Mexican border, so there's got to be a lot of concern just in that community period. So to have this all happen without any explanation, he seemed like he was still in shock.

00:02:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I was surprised he was taught, but he was being hounded on his porch. Everybody, this was the house that they were searching, and folks were aware of the search. So if we go back in the day a little bit, yes, and we'll talk about everybody's probably aware by now that they released surveillance videos of the front porch. They recovered this video and images of someone in a ski mask on that front porch.

00:02:23
Speaker 1: They released these.

00:02:24
Speaker 2: Yesterday robes and that's when everybody thought, Okay, the clues are gonna start coming in. They even told folks stop calling nine one one, call a tip line because you're overwhelming us.

00:02:33
Speaker 1: We're getting so much.

00:02:33
Speaker 2: So robes on the heels of that to hear they had a person of interest, everybody had to automatically think, wow, this is it. Hours after that video they got somebody in custody Andro. So this stings pretty badly really when you because we were ramping up yesterday and all signs are pointing to there's a break in this case.

00:02:55
Speaker 4: Yes, finally some answers for the Guthrie family. Finally we can figure out what happened to Nancy Guthrie and more important, where she is because that is still up in the air.

00:03:05
Speaker 3: We got these statement around.

00:03:07
Speaker 4: Eight nine o'clock last night in the evening where the Pima County Sheriff's Department said this. Earlier today, Pima County Sheriff's Department deputies detained a subject during a traffic stop south of Tucson. The subject is currently being questioned in connection to the Nancy Guthrie investigation. Additional information will be released as it becomes available. That is a moment where you just think, Aha, finally they have someone and they'll get some answers.

00:03:35
Speaker 2: And that statement was official, but even hours before they put out an official statement, word had gotten out. Everybody was reporting that somebody was in being detained. Now ropes before we get to Carlos is his name? I want to include this door Dash statement. Now we're again we didn't have official word from authority, so as we say, there's a void, and people start filling in blank. So word started getting around that this was possible, possibly some a delivery driver, to the point that one delivery service decided we need to speak up, and that was DoorDash. That's right out of statement yesterday.

00:04:08
Speaker 3: And here's what they said.

00:04:08
Speaker 4: We are urgently investigating reports that an individual detained in relation to the Nancy Guthrie case was a delivery driver. We have reached out to law enforcement and are ready to support their critical investigation in any way we can. Like tens of millions around the world, our hearts are with the Guthrie family during this heart wrenching time. That's pretty telling the fact that DoorDash felt like they needed to distance themselves from any potential connection to this case. As rumors were circulating that this man potentially was a door dash driver.

00:04:39
Speaker 2: That man has it said himself, Yes, I am a door dash driver. No, I am not a kidnapper. Now he didn't give his last name, and I haven't seen it float out there, but he only said his name, Carlos. But the first indication we started getting with several hours ago before this recording actually is still pretty early morning on the East Coast, but we got word just over hour two of and then video started emerging of him on this porch. Obviously it's not some big sit down interview. You could tell he just got caught on his porch with lights in his face. And one of the things he did say to reporters robes when he was asked, were you shocked to be detained?

00:05:14
Speaker 1: Fuck? Yeah, I was. That was just to your point.

00:05:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, he seemed completely caught flat footed by all this stuff. What am I doing here? So going through some of the things he said robes, he said he didn't even know why he was being detained for the first couple hours.

00:05:30
Speaker 3: And that's that's frightening.

00:05:32
Speaker 4: They just had him in a room, didn't read him his rights, didn't tell him why he was being detained, didn't ask him any questions. He said that he felt like he was being randomly followed, and so he chose to pull over.

00:05:44
Speaker 3: And he was concerned.

00:05:45
Speaker 1: He made the choice.

00:05:46
Speaker 3: I mean, thinking about it, said, He's on this border town.

00:05:49
Speaker 4: This is a town known for abandons, and so maybe he was concerned given his you know, the way he looked and how we've seen folks be targeted. He's like, I'm just gonna pull over and make sure everything's okay. So that was an interesting part of the story. Has how it all unfolded.

00:06:07
Speaker 2: So they take him back to the house. He says he was handcuffed to the point he was displaying this to the reporters on the scene. Look, ma rister swollen from being in those handcuffs, those restraints, he said. But at this point he was talking to them, Carr had been giving back to him. House had been turned back over. In fact, he was doing the interview up there so long and they were asking me about the house, and he kind of opened the door and looked in and said, yeah, they broke some stuff, and now da da. Someone in the house finally told him to cut this off. Yes, he said, okay, I gotta go. I don't know who it was or what was happening, but he understood that instruction, and somebody finally said that's enough. But Rose, he had several interesting things to say, in several interesting quotes.

00:06:42
Speaker 4: I thought, yes, he said, of course, you mentioned that he did not know who Nancy Guthrie was, doesn't watch the Today Show, doesn't know who Savannah Guthrie is?

00:06:50
Speaker 2: Today question news. You remember his answer the way he said no. They asked, do you know who Nancy Guthrie is? He almost had a smart and sarcastically no, I don't know.

00:07:00
Speaker 1: I don't know who she is.

00:07:03
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, He's like they told me this lady, I don't know her name. And then one of the reporters said Nancy Guthrie said, yeah.

00:07:10
Speaker 3: That's her.

00:07:11
Speaker 2: That was a bizarre exchange. It's hard to believe that this story going on and he lives miles from her home and he wasn't even aware of the story. That's hard to believe. But in watching him, he seemed like, oh, it.

00:07:23
Speaker 4: Seemed very legit, and he seemed very authentic and real when he said all of that, And he also said this, I hope they get the suspect because I'm not it. They better do their job and find the suspect that did it so they can clear my name because I'm done. I mean, he he's like, I'm done, but he, you know, rightfully so wants his name cleared.

00:07:43
Speaker 3: But it makes a lot of sense given.

00:07:44
Speaker 2: The seriousness of everything and the dire circumstances. Was a He was an odd, authentic relief to some degree of just how I guess, I mean explaination how so many people are getting caught up in this thing who have nothing to do with it. To a certain degree, it was so interesting to see him. But Robes, this was hard, this was heavy, This was hopeful. It is what yesterday was and to have it all happen like this roabes. We have to it happened before the Kirk shooting, right the Charlie Kirk shooting, where we couldn't believe I haven't found somebody yet. And then oh they got the guy. Oh they don't got the guy. Didn't it happen with the Columbia shooting. Had somebody at the hotel? I guess this happens in investigations and things being watched this closely. If it was the case not watched this closely, we might have never heard that this guy was ever detained.

00:08:32
Speaker 4: That's true, and it does seem like and we did get reports that police were going through there's not a lot of surveillance video in this town.

00:08:39
Speaker 3: In this area.

00:08:40
Speaker 4: It is rural, it is It's not some town where you have surveillance cameras at every stoplight. So we know that they had gone to a nearby circle k and we're looking for vehicles of interest. They were trying to find anyone who was driving in the area. That makes perfect sense. So it also makes sense that they found this DoorDash driver who probably was driving around the time or in the area at a time where it would have fit the timeline for her abduction. So it might have just been he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and they had to clear him. They had to they had to vet him, they had to talk to him, they had to search his home, they had to search his vehicle, and they had to clear him.

00:09:18
Speaker 3: And that's that's what little information they have right now.

00:09:21
Speaker 2: And some might want to go, well, what are they doing? Investigative work, and this is how it goes. It's just with something so high profile, it's difficult. And Hella was again I said, yesterday was a hopeful day. Look those it was the biggest break in the case yesterday to see those images from that door camp.

00:09:36
Speaker 4: And look, one would hope that this is just the beginning now that we do have and it hasn't even been a full twenty four hours since that surveillance video has been released. And what we and so many people have been talking about is someone knows and Savannah even said this herself, someone knows or recognizes the eyes, the clothing, the gate, just the mannerisms of that person from that surveillance video. Someone out there is going to say, oh my god, I know who that is.

00:10:02
Speaker 2: All right, well, folks, stay with us in the midst of all this investigative work, and in the midst of this high profile case that has captivated the country, the Pima County Sheriff Department had put out had to put out a statement yesterday that was for the most part directed at the media. They can't believe and we can't believe they even had to say this.

00:10:22
Speaker 1: Stay here, all.

00:10:33
Speaker 2: Right, we continue here on this Wednesday update on the Nancy Guthrie case. A fast moving day of what was no doubt biggest developments we've seen in the case. One of them, of course, the surveillance video that they were able to release showing someone in a mask on the front stet with the backpack, gloves on and appeared to be armed, messing with the door cam getting tips on that. But the other big break is that a person of interest was detained. But that person has already as everybody as the country is getting up this morning going to find out that person has been released. There back not to square one, Robes, but they're back to at least square when it comes to having a suspect. They say they do not have one at all.

00:11:09
Speaker 4: Yes, they do not, but I do think that as a part of the process they at least can eliminate and eliminating people does help. And if they have a few vehicles that they know they're looking at or or concerned about, they at least could check that one off the box.

00:11:22
Speaker 3: That box that I'm sure it doesn't feel.

00:11:25
Speaker 4: Like any sort of compensation or an acknowledgment of that probably doesn't feel great to the guy who got detained, whose house got searched, who's had some broken pieces they said they were.

00:11:34
Speaker 3: I guess the woman who was inside the home.

00:11:36
Speaker 4: I don't know if it was his mother or his wife, was upset about how police had ransacked their.

00:11:41
Speaker 3: Home, so to speak.

00:11:42
Speaker 2: Earlier it was a woman that they spoke to at the house that described him as our son in law that was there at the house. So who knows there but Rose. You remember, I think it was the first few days of the investigation. You had pointed out to me that what Pema County put out a statement saying they might have to block the rope. Yes was at it because it was just getting too overwhelming. You could imagine the media that's out there. This was in the early days. Story was getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and they say, hey, if you don't start parking and obeying the rules. We might have to close access to the road completely robes. This next one here is and it's a head scratcher, but the County share about there is once again having to put out a statement directed at the media for some of their behavior out there. And I guess they just when you get hungry robes, you forget good etiquette.

00:12:31
Speaker 4: Do you know what I think also happens. Look, these members of the media, we have been there. We have been I had to say, stuck, but assigned to a developing story, a crime scene, and it can go on for days, it can go on for longer, and I think what ends up happening is you are there with a gaggle of other not even coworkers, but people who are your counterparts at other stations. You're ending up in a kind of a social environment. You forget that you're actually on an active or a part or nearby an active crime scene, and there's an amount of respect that needs to be remembered, and unfortunately sometimes that members of the press have to be reminded of, because I do think you start to get comfortable, you start to get complacent, you start to forget that this is actually a very serious and ongoing process.

00:13:20
Speaker 3: But yes, here is what.

00:13:22
Speaker 1: You're add to what you're saying. You're exhausted as well.

00:13:25
Speaker 2: You're absolutely exhausted being out there, but you're also roped, sometimes desensitized, and when you're watching a story, it's a human tragedy and sometimes it comes off to some rapports. It's just my job. I'm just covering a story, and you forget the human side of it. And this seemed like you there's some It's not the biggest thing in the world, but I was kind of shocked to see it.

00:13:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a reminder that that's not an excuse. You still have to remember where you are, what you're doing, and the subject matter that you're covering.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: That all is important.

00:13:54
Speaker 4: But here's what the Sheriff's Department had to put out to members of the media, and they started, we can't believe we have to say this, but media on scene, please do not order food delivery to a crime scene address. This interferes with an active investigation. Please also respect private property laws.

00:14:16
Speaker 3: Thank you.

00:14:17
Speaker 1: That's tough.

00:14:17
Speaker 2: Somebody else who knows, maybe a PA, a lower producer, somebody just made a mistake, wasn't thinking, but that was a pretty big mistake. I kind of imagine ordering a freakin' Domino's pizza, what's your address? And I give them a murder scene where a possible excuse me, crime scene where a woman was abducted.

00:14:38
Speaker 4: And you know what it's again, it shouldn't matter more, but I would feel like it would be more top of mind given that this is someone in the media, someone who everyone knows respects, and a lot of people have a personal relationship with who are on that scene.

00:14:53
Speaker 2: I don't want to go too It's hard to imagine being on the phone or on a Domino's app and you give them see Guthries address to get your fucking Petzer Pepperoni pizza delivered.

00:15:05
Speaker 1: That's a weird one.

00:15:07
Speaker 2: I know, it's a terrible taste. It's in the middle of nowhere, and how I don't know an address to tell them? And you do, man, that's a it's tough to form your mouth or your fingers to type in Nancy Guthrie's address because you want a pizza. That's a tough one. But I don't want to go too far and condemning and who knows, just a mistake.

00:15:24
Speaker 4: With me, yes, and hopefully it will not be made again, because that is that's a that's a pretty I don't even know the word to describe it. It's just it's embarrassing. I feel like it's a it's a stain on all of us because we already get no we do, though, and I understand why we get a bad reputation because we come into these towns.

00:15:39
Speaker 3: Look, I've you've ald New Town some of these towns.

00:15:43
Speaker 4: I remember being in and covering an ongoing story that was so traumatic and terrible, and you knew that your mere presence was disruptive to the community that was already grieving and suffering, and you're you're just aware of the impact your presence has on an area, and just to be that insensitive to order food just is It's tough because it hurts all of us.

00:16:05
Speaker 3: It makes all of us look bad.

00:16:06
Speaker 1: Well, folks.

00:16:07
Speaker 2: As always top right corner of your Apple podcast app, where you see our show page, a little button there says follow you click that you can always.

00:16:13
Speaker 1: Get our updates.

00:16:13
Speaker 2: And there have been so many on this story and many others, but we will stay on the top of this. You can always check our feed that will have news updates. All the time. Our regular morning run newscast is coming your way here in a couple of hours, but as always, we appreciate you spending some time with us. I'm TJ. Holmes On behalf of my dear Emmy Robock. We will talk to you soon