Authorities appeared to come to another dead end in their investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, after they released a man detained in connection with the case overnight.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department detained the man for questioning on Tuesday during a traffic stop south of Tucson. The sheriff’s office and the FBI then conducted a court-authorized search of his home in Rio Rico. His detention came shortly after the FBI released a series of chilling doorbell camera videos and still images of a masked person appearing to tamper with Nancy Guthrie’s security camera and pacing the elderly woman’s front porch the night she vanished without a trace from her Arizona home eleven days ago.
But the search concluded in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and the man was released from custody, leaving the Guthrie family in limbo once again, according to multiple outlets. The man is a delivery driver identified as Carlos Palazuelo, according to NBC News. Palazuelo said that law enforcement agents told him he looked like the person seen in security camera footage from Guthrie’s house, but said he could not remember delivering anything to that location.
“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, and I’m done,” Carlos told reporters as he returned home, according to the New York Times.“Look at what I’m putting my family through.”
Palazuelo said he was shocked at being detained, telling KNXV that he was held in custody from around 4 p.m. Tuesday to after midnight. “What the f*** am I doing here? I didn’t do anything. To be honest, I’m innocent,” he said.
Investigators have struggled to get a grasp on the case, with no suspect or person of interest appearing to be on the horizon nearly two weeks after Nancy Guthrie, 84, is believed to have been abducted. Officials have warned that she is particularly at risk due to her daily dependence on health medication. “The clock is literally ticking,” Sheriff Chris Nanos said on Feb. 3.
Authorities made one key breakthrough on Tuesday, when the FBI released doorbell camera footage of the apparent suspect authorities had previously said they were not able to access.
Authorities say Nancy Guthrie’s doorbell camera was removed and disconnected at 1:47 a.m. the night she went missing. Software still detected a person on camera at 2:12 a.m. Feb. 1. However, no video was available because Nancy Guthrie did not have an active subscription that preserved footage. Nanos said last Thursday that law enforcement sent the camera to a technology company to identify a workaround, but told reporters the company “said they’ve run out of ways to recover any video.”
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Investigators kept probing, and on Tuesday, they released the video footage, with help from engineers at Google, which owns the doorbell camera maker Nest, according to NBC News. Investigators were able to pull the data from “back-end systems,” according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
Patel said the “armed individual” depicted in the doorbell footage appeared to “have tampered with the camera.” Footage indicates the person was wearing a holster.