Nancy Guthrie: Man detained near US-Mexico border in connection to alleged abduction of TV star’s mother

A man is in custody and being questioned by police in connection with the alleged kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department detained the man following a traffic stop near the US-Mexico border.

“The subject is currently being questioned in connection to the Nancy Guthrie investigation,” police said.

A law enforcement official told CNN the man was detained in Rio Rico, around 20km north of the US-Mexico border.

Police are also reportedly executing a search warrant at a property in Rio Rico, which is expected to last several hours.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said additional information will be released as it becomes available, and no press conference is scheduled at this time.

There is no evidence to suggest the man detained is the same figure seen in the CCTV footage released by the FBI earlier today.

The disturbing footage shows a man wearing a ski mask, gloves, backpack, and what appears to be a gun holster.

The images recovered from a Google Nest camera on the front doorbell of Nancy’s home in Tucson were recorded at 3am on February 1, a day after her family last saw her.

Police have said the camera was disabled in the early hours of February 1. The Pima County sheriff said last week that investigators were unable to retrieve any footage from Nancy’s surveillance cameras because she did not pay for a subscription that would have stored the video.

However, a joint statement from the sheriff’s department and FBI on Tuesday morning said that investigators had eventually recovered the video Tuesday morning by accessing “residual data.”

Nancy’s pacemaker disconnected from her phone in the pre-dawn hours of February 1, when she presumably was kidnapped. She disappeared hours after relatives dropped her off at her home on January 31.

Relatives reported her missing the following day when she failed to show up for Sunday church services.

Savannah Guthrie shared the footage on Instagram and wrote that her family believes Nancy is still alive. “Someone out there recognizes this person,” she wrote. “We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”

FBI director Kash Patel told the media that investigators are looking at more than one individual as a “person of interest” in the case.

“We are looking at people who, as we say, are persons of interest,” Mr Patel said.

So far, no charges have been laid.