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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

TMZ: "Activity" in Bitcoin Account Tied to Guthrie Case; Law Enforcement Going Door-to-Door in Anne Guthrie's Neighborhood; Photos, Video Show Masked And Armed Person At Guthrie's Door; Source: Google Helped FBI Recover Images Taken By Guthrie Door Camera; Regional SWAT Team Activated; Unclear If Guthrie Connection; How Video & Photos Have Helped Solve Other High-Profile Cases. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired February 10, 2026 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

STURLA HOLM LAEGREID, NORWEGIAN OLYMPIAN: But I don't want to think I didn't try everything to get her back.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Well, whether she decides to take him back or not, she's got a story for the rest of her life to share.

All right, thanks so much to all of you for being with us. Our coverage tonight continues now with Anderson Cooper on AC360.

[20:00:33]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening thanks for joining us.

We begin with breaking news on what has already been a very significant day in the search for Nancy Guthrie, who vanished from her home near Tucson, Arizona, two Sundays ago, just before airtime, TMZ's Harvey Levin told CNN there is now activity in the Bitcoin account mentioned in the purported ransom letter that TMZ and other media outlets received a week ago today. He would not say more than that, but were going to bring you any new reporting on it as we get it.

The other development today, investigators have been going door-to- door in the neighborhood where Savannah Guthrie's sister Annie lives, which is about four miles away from her mom's home.

Now, a backyard neighbor told CNN that law enforcement came by today asking to look around his property, why they're doing this, or what they may be looking for. We do not know. All of this capping a day that began with perhaps the biggest break so far. A video retrieved from Nancy Guthrie's Nest doorbell camera from the morning she was taken. A little more than 40 seconds of grainy night vision footage in all. This is the longest of three clips the FBI released today shows a masked, gloved, and armed individual walking up to the camera, putting a hand over it and turning away revealing a backpack.

The person then walks into the garden entrance, grabs some shrubbery, turns back towards the door there, reaching down right there. The next clip shows the individual apparently trying to arrange the leaves and branches in such a way as to obscure the cameras view of the doorway. Theres a third piece of video as well only three seconds long. We're going to loop it here so you can see it several times where you actually see the gun in a holster on this person's waist.

Now, two other still frames from the video provide the closest possible view of the persons face. The one on the right showing some sort of flashlight in the person's mouth. The nest camera, you'll remember, was disconnected at 1:47 on the morning of January 31st, according to the Pima County Sheriff, who also said the Miss Guthrie had no subscription, meaning it appeared that the footage wasn't saved.

Thankfully, though, the FBI, with help from Google technicians recovered it from remote servers. We do not know whether this is all the video there is or how long authorities have had it, nor has anyone said precisely what time it was taken, except that it was after midnight and before 1:47 A.M. We also don't know if this is what the President was hinting at when he spoke about the case on Friday.

Now, Savannah Guthrie posted the stills and some of the video on Instagram today, saying in the first post we believe she is still alive, bring her home. Adding in the second, someone out there recognizes this person and asking both that that anyone with information to contact the FBI or Pima County Sheriff Department.

So, there's a lot to get to it's our entire broadcast tonight, starting with CNN's Jake Tapper outside the Pima County Sheriff's Department and Ed Lavandera at Nancy Guthrie's home.

Jake, there certainly seems to be a lot of activity in the investigation. What are you seeing? What are you hearing?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER": Well, first of all, we should bring some clarity that KGUN, the local CNN affiliate also reports activity in that Bitcoin account, but it's less than $300.00 activity, so it's unclear what that exactly means. We talked to a Bitcoin and cyber monetary value expert earlier today who talked about how sometimes even just sending one penny to or $1.00 to an account like that can help people track down where that account is. They're actually not untraceable, as some people believe.

But obviously, the biggest break in the story today came, as you mentioned with the FBI release of six different photographic stills and three videos taken from the early morning of Sunday, February 1st, when Nancy Guthrie was abducted. They show an individual who was masked, who is wearing gloves, maybe even several pairs of gloves an individual who has a gun.

Although experts we've talked to all day, Anderson, suggest that first of all, the way that the person is holding the gun where its holstered is not the way anybody with any police, law enforcement or military experience would ever put their gun, because its right in the path of shooting yourself.

Second of all, as you noted, the individual approaches calmly but doesn't seem prepared for the fact that there is a camera seems to be detecting that there might be one, but doesn't seem prepared. And that's why he brings the shrubbery or whatever the plants to cover it up.

So, the question of like, how prepared this individual was, even though he did have a backpack is questionable. But I'm told that since these videos and still images were released, there has been a massive uptick in calls and tips being called into the Pima County Sheriff's Department behind me, but also the FBI.

And so, that plea that Savannah Guthrie made yesterday, that was followed by the FBI and the Sheriff repeating it also for public help, does seem to be activated with this latest information.

[20:05:32]

COOPER: I want to bring in Ed Lavandera. Ed, you are in Nancy Guthrie's neighborhood. What have you been seeing and what do you know about the canvasing or the searching that's been going on in the neighborhood of her daughter, Annie?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we've seen an intensified search in that neighborhood where Nancy Guthrie's daughter Annie lives. And remember, this is important to point out is that this was the location where Nancy Guthrie spent the evening Saturday night with her family members, having dinner and playing cards.

We were told before she was brought back here to a family member. They are about 15 minutes away from where we are. Throughout the afternoon, just I think several hours after the release of these still images and videos from the front door camera here at Nancy Guthrie's house, we started seeing officers and law enforcement activity in that neighborhood again not around Annie Guthrie's house but in the surrounding homes. They're going around asking people if they could search property and that sort of thing, and that canvasing has been going on much of this afternoon.

Anderson, I should also point out we've been here, you know, ten days now covering this story. We also have seen law enforcement activity around that area before the last of which, if I'm correct here is Saturday night. We saw several small group of Sheriff's Deputies going inside Annie Guthrie's home on Saturday night, where they spent almost three hours, we saw one officer coming out wearing latex gloves another officer carrying a bag with something in it and putting it in some of the unmarked vehicles.

So, there has been some focus on that neighborhood. But beyond those two places, we also do know, Anderson, that investigators continue to comb and canvass and recanvass not just the area immediately surrounding Nancy Guthrie's home, but you know, for miles out from here as they try to figure out, I think the belief is clearly this suspect had to have driven into this neighborhood, and they are trying to figure out what that path is, where they went and if there is any kind of camera around here that might have captured those movements and the work to try to find that has continued for days now.

COOPER: And, Ed, can you just talk a little bit about how far Annie Guthrie's neighborhood is from Nancy Guthrie's neighborhood?

LAVANDERA: Yes, it's about, if you -- depending like 15-minute drive, I would say and, you know, you have to wind your way out of this neighborhood. You get on a couple of main roads. And it's not that far away, kind of depending on traffic, but you know, at most 15-minute drive.

COOPER: All right, Ed Lavandera, Jake Tapper, thank you very much. We're going to continue to check in with our folks on the ground throughout this hour as events warrant it.

I want to get perspective now from our panel of experts, former NYPD detective, David Sarni is here with me; former FBI Deputy Director, Andrew McCabe; CNN chief law enforcement intelligence analyst, John Miller is here. He's taking a call. There's a lot of fast-moving developments. So, he's receiving some calls about retired FBI hostage negotiator Richard Kolko is also with us.

So, let me start, Andrew McCabe with you. The images that you're seeing, this the word of movement on the Bitcoin, although, according to Jake Tapper, talking to local affiliate was a small amount some $300.00. What do you see going on here?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It's a really hard one to pin down, Anderson. There's all kinds of potential explanations for a transfer of an amount of money that is far less than we know what the demand was, right? This could be the owner of the account you know, making sure that the account is still active. It could be the owner of the account trying to send clearly unrelated transactions through that wallet in an effort to distance himself from the demands and from having provided the identity of that Bitcoin wallet to the Guthries.

So, it's -- you know, the one thing that we can say with, with some confidence is it does not seem to be related to the payment of a $6 million ransom.

COOPER: David, what stands out to you?

DAVID SARNI, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Well, a lot of things, these have a lot of moving parts. And one thing I have to say is the video is interesting because when you look at a video, you look at things that you see and what you don't see.

What you see is what appears to be a gun in that holster. That holster does not match what the gun would be holding.

COOPER: Yes, I want to just zoom in on the gun here for a second and show that.

SARNI: Yes, it's sticking out. It looks like it, just it's kind of like just a happenstance where they found a holster, put it there. We can't tell if it's an operational gun, but it doesn't matter. Anytime you see a gun like that, it's going to be considered a gun.

The other thing that just surprises me is when he went to the door and he tries to cover it up. You know, when I talk about, I've investigated burglaries in the past burglars go through doors and windows.

If this is going to be a pry burglary, he would have actually had the pry material or burglar's tools available to him. That knapsack is packed to the brim. He doesn't have anything in his hands to do that.

So, he starts looking around. So, my concern is, you know, what's in that backpack, given the fact it was so filled, which is a concern to me because you know, we've seen -- how many people put their backpacks that filled. Is it a transient individual? I mean, this person has done things like this in the past because he's wearing gloves, he's wearing a mask.

COOPER: You know what's interesting is I just put an image up on the on the right-hand side of your screen where you see this individual without the bag, without the gun in their pocket. Authorities have not said at what time this was taken or where in the sequence of events was taken. But it's interesting that there is an image of them without that bag without that gun, and in all the other images this person has the bag, has the gun.

SARNI: So, this is where you see now what you don't see, a vehicle. Because the camera only captures what the camera captures. So, is there a vehicle he went to pick up the property to go back to the location? Is there a driver that's with him? Is there another person that's with him?

He is the first considered lead to do this break in or whatever it was going to be. You know, it's an abduction at the end, as a result. You know, is this a -- was anything else taken from the house? And we've never been told that or told what kind of entry was it? Or forced entry? Was it a window entry or a front door entry? That's never come up.

And as investigator, that's what I always look for. I look for -- if it's a pry burglar, you know we are going to look at people who are suspected to do pries, because usually criminals will do the same thing every time, they become habitual.

So, you know, I'm not a psychologist about that, but I've seen that happen in the past. Pry guys do pry work. Window guys do window work. Is this -- you know, are we talking about an abduction? Burglars don't -- nighttime burglars are dangerous. They don't want to involve themselves. They are dangerous in the sense they're going to be in contact with a person. So that gun might be a deterrent for that individual not to resist or anything like that.

But this isn't a normal burglary in a sense because the person who lived there is no longer there. So, that's you have to look at.

COOPER: I want to bring in Richard, an FBI spokesman post online tonight that the Bureau released the video from Miss Guthrie's front door within hours of obtaining it. Does that surprise you that they would do it that quickly? Is it a sign of just the urgency behind here? RICHARD KOLKO, RETIRED FBI NEGOTIATOR: There's various reasons why they want to release the video and the timing of it. We can go back to the Boston bombing, the marathon. You remember they held on to the video, the suspects, for several days while they tried to do investigations. But while they looked at this case, they made that decision to get it out early. I'm sure there's a lot of pressure from many different entities that were trying to force that out. But I have to tell you, I think this is huge.

Those are -- that's great video. I know we always want to be better, but anybody who looks at that person and, you know, if you've got kids, if you've got family members, you recognize how they walk, you recognize how they squat, how they bend over. And that is obvious there that somebody is going to recognize that person for who they are and what we're hoping based on is Savannah's call yesterday to please pick up the phone.

So, they've got to just connect those two things, the recognition of who that might be, and then somebody picking up to make that critical call, that tip, that that the law enforcement has been waiting for.

COOPER: Yes, John Miller is back with us. John, what are you, what stands out to you? What are you learning?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, it's just been an amazing day. And this turn in the case, everything Rich Kolko said is, when you look at this, the first thing you think is, hey that's the sum of all fears. That's literally the picture of the boogeyman we've all feared since we were kids

But B, what can you do with a guy who's covered head to toe in things made to obscure his identity? But as Rich said, and we've learned in other cases, think of Luigi Mangione, who was very well disguised. There's somebody out there who's going to recognize some of that. It's going to stir up more tips. And there's so many things about him --

COOPER: I'm just circling images like, you know, you can see a, what appears to be a mustache looks quite closely cropped.

MILLER: Looks like he has facial hair at the top of the mask. It looks like he's got facial hair at the top the bottom of the mask. It suggests perhaps a mustache and a goatee or a mustache and a beard.

COOPER: You can also see eyebrows, obviously, or then will look particularly bushy like in the Mangione, but again, the hat may be obscuring some of it.

MILLER: And it's been discussed, but I mean, the placement of the holster here is a holster for a large gun, a revolver with a five- or six-inch barrel, which he is wearing where nobody who ever handled a gun with any kind of training would ever wear it.

COOPER: Yes, let's put that just in full screen here in close up. It is, I mean, it would seem to indicate, I mean again, the, the way the position is and again as you said, it's very -- it seemed to indicate they would be right-handed if they wanted to pull the gun out of the holster, it would be very hard to pull it out with the left hand.

[20:15:10]

MILLER: But either way, from a tactical standpoint, from a safety standpoint, if you're wearing a gun in front and you're confronted by somebody else, it is easier for them to get it out of that holster than it is for you. Just by pushing back and grabbing it. So tactically, it's ridiculous. If your aim is because it's a real gun or let's say it's a prop gun, to have the first person, the first thing your victim see is, there's a man approaching with a gun. That might be a logical place to put it just to get the victim to comply.

But we see an individual who came, apparently equipped. The backpack is full, you know, that could have zip ties. It could have masks. It could have blindfolds gags all the things that you need to execute a kidnaping and yet he's reaching for shrubbery to obscure the camera when somebody who had planned this properly would have simply brought a small piece of black electrical tape, put it over the lens, and then remove the camera, you know, at their --

COOPER: I'm circling the glove because it's interesting to me, the gloves, they do seem to have something underneath I mean, it doesn't look like the persons hand is directly underneath those gloves. They seem, in a number of images, I mean, quite kind of large, you know.

MILLER: Yes, they seem bulky and some of the images as you point out, they almost appear to be mittens. But in others depending on the light, you can see the outline of fingers. But he's also got them pushed up under the sleeves. He has gone to a lot of trouble to try and not leave DNA, including sweat DNA, skin cell DNA. He's trying to be all covered up.

So, that's about these images that night. But there's also all the other parts of this investigation that are going on. What this really did, was it stimulated a great deal of tips, it's the kind of thing that they needed to stir the pot because people were running out of things to say they had seen.

COOPER: If somebody knows this person or thinks they do. This would be a person who their pattern of behavior, David, is likely to have changed in this last week. I mean, if you have a hostage, you've hidden them somewhere. You've got to deal with them. You've got to deal with all the stress of it. If you have a job you're probably not going to your normal job. So, if somebody you know who looks like this, who's disappeared from their job the last couple of days.

SARNI: Actually, you have to have a plan because this is the whole thing about it. How planned was it? It's planned to the fact that you could see this, the individual come, they're prepared, mask, bag, gloves. He's ready to go now.

Now, the after, I always call the post event that had to be prepared before because now, you're dealing with a person regardless that she's 84-years-old, 150 pounds and I still think, and this is the other thing, how could he do that by himself? And that's the thing, to take someone out by yourself regardless. There's apparently is an injury that she sustained. We don't know what caused that injury to cause her to bleed. Those are things you're looking at, but you have to have changed, your lifestyle had to change.

COOPER: Also, if this was somebody who knew the systems in the house, why are they taking shrubbery and trying to cover a camera with shrubbery?

SARNI: That's the big issue again because there's preparation and then there's an oops, you know, we're looking at the oops. And this is the oops that we have right now, the mistake that was made because they couldn't get the video out.

COOPER: Andrew, we have just learned that the Regional SWAT Team in Pima County has been activated. We don't know if it's connected to the Guthrie case. No one is confirming that. Obviously, we don't want to get ahead of anything. We want to be careful what we are saying.

I know you used to run the FBI SWAT team. Can you just run through some possibilities of what they would be used for? If they were needed in this type of a situation?

MCCABE: Yes, sure. What they'll be used for is the recovery or the attempted recovery of Nancy Guthrie when they have a location to search. And, you know, because you've probably got a flood of tips and information coming into this tip line now. We have these videos; we have these still frame photos that have been released to generate more information.

At this point, you have as the law enforcement commander of this operation, you have to be prepared to send in a tactical team to conduct that rescue. Anytime that moment comes up, that could come in the next time your phone rings. It could be, hey, I think I saw her in the house next door to me. What's your address? We're on our way.

So, the fact that they put the team on standby doesn't necessarily indicate that they have information that they're going to go out and execute on immediately. They're just getting the right assets ready. And in a place where they can deploy them on a moment's notice fully armed, fully prepared in the vehicles they need, with the equipment they have need standing by.

I think it's also possible that you might see the FBI HRT Team deployed to Arizona for the same purpose. Now, it's possible they're not there already, and so they need a local team to kind of cover over that eventuality just until they get there. But you will likely see a series of teams, kind of backing each other up until the moment comes that they have a target to approach.

COOPER: We're going to take a short break, on more new developments as we learn them. More from Tucson when our breaking news coverage continues. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:24:45]

COOPER: We'll go now with CNN's John Miller, before the break, described as the sum of all fears. New video released today from Nancy Guthrie's doorbell camera shortly before she was taken.

There is more breaking news tonight. We heard just moments ago that the Regional SWAT Team has been activated though we want to stress we have no idea yet what that is in connection with, also, activity. Apparently, the first activity in the Bitcoin account purportedly set up to receive the ransom. A deposit of less than $300.00, according to CNN affiliate KGUN.

[20:25:09]

In addition to all of that, new word from the FBI, the bureau saying that they released this video within hours of receiving it.

Back now with the panel. Richard Kolko, I want to show an image which is a still photo of the shoes of this individual. And I think what's interesting about it is if you, obviously, they have access to Nancy Guthrie's home to her entranceway, if you know the size of those tiles you could probably get a pretty good accurate assessment of the shoe size of this person. Could that be significant?

KOLKO: All of that is significant, using the photographs they can measure the tiles, they'll get the shoe size. If you look at the zoomed-out picture, you can see the top of the person's head. And I counted three bricks above them. And if you count those three bricks, it's easy to see how many bricks are below. So, you'll get a height, there are people that can certainly estimate what his weight is so all that will be put together, biometrics, whatever they have. And then what's going to happen.

And we've done this in previous cases is they'll probably come up with different teams to analyze this person and they'll break it up, you're on the backpack team, you're on the sweater team, you're on the sneaker team. And those people will work with the manufacturers to try and find exactly what shoe that is what size. That goes the same for the sweater the backpack, et cetera. And then they'll try to track down where they're sold. How are they sold, Amazon, at a hardware store or a sporting goods store?

And they'll look for receipts; look for anything they can put together. And if you can find a receipt for the backpack and a receipt for the shoes with the same name on it, now you've got somebody who can actually go take go take a look at.

COOPER: This image that I just put up on the screen encircled. I'm not sure what that is. It looks, I mean it, there's some people have said that it looks could be like a cell phone coming out of a pocket not sure if that would be of significance to anyone but interesting nonetheless. John, can you just -- go ahead.

KOLKO: It sure would. It would be a huge significance. I'm sorry, it would be a huge significance to the people that are doing the cell phone tracking and any electronic device tracking, and all the agencies have that capability. So, if he's emitting any sort of signal, that is very helpful for investigators.

COOPER: John, what do you think the likelihood that there are, that this is the only person or that there would be others waiting? Again, I can't, I don't understand that if they had cased the place or been in the place before, why is he going around and shrubbery, assuming it's a him putting up, you know, shrubbery in front of this camera? It seems very kind of --

MILLER: It seems spontaneous, as if he wasn't aware it was going to be there. You know, he walks up to it he covers it with his hand. He assesses it. He goes and gets the shrubbery, again, you know, a piece of black tape could have done the same job and removing it is curious but I think there is -- there's the possibility that there would be accomplices. There's a couple of things about things that were found in the house that suggest that there could have been more than one person. And it's a very ambitious plot to carry out by yourself. But we've seen plenty of lone kidnappers, and we've seen plenty of kidnappings done by, you know, pairs and threes.

So, you've got to keep an open mind. I think as the FBI tries to extract more video from whatever other elements of the Nest system that are on the interior of the house, that might become apparent. The flip side is it's one person doing the work in the house and another person waiting in the vehicle. That she's removed in, that's the only way she could have gotten out of there at that time in that neighborhood would be a car or a van.

COOPER: Andrew, do you think it's likely that there's more than one person involved?

MCCABE: Yes, I think for all the reasons that John just mentioned, I think it makes logical sense that there would be at least one other person involved. But you know, the unfortunate fact is we just don't know with the images we have. I also think it's really interesting that we have not heard any indication from law enforcement of a forced entry into the residence. We haven't seen any indication of that.

So, it doesn't mean there wasn't one. But if you assume for the moment that there wasn't a forced entry, that raises the prospect that the person who we're seeing in this video, who is clearly probably not done this before doesn't look particularly, it doesn't look to have covered all his bases particularly well. It is possible that this person or whoever was with him was expecting to be let into the residence by Nancy Guthrie.

So, you know, we're a long way from determining if that's the case but I would suggest that investigators are probably considering that possibility right now.

COOPER: David, what would that tell you?

SARNI: Well, you know, when we talk about burglaries and things like that, you're looking at a house. Could you have left the door unlocked? And that's one thing that might have been told them. The door was unlocked. They went to the door, saw the door. It wasn't, and that could be it. You know, you said burglars are people who are going to enter, enter through windows or through doors, the only way you're going to get through.

What this person is doing is they walk in, they see this like, oh my God, what am I going to do? So now they try to figure this out. You know, the person who's doing the perp in this vault is prepared but not prepared enough, and I just still have a problem with the amount of material or how heavy that bag looks. You know, if you went to a location, why are you carrying that entire bag?

I know you carry prop. You carry things, you may carry ties, you may carry all this but that is a full bag. And not only that, he never, the perp in this case is a he, but the perp in this case does not go in the bag to pull anything out to pry off that that the camera and or attempt to block it with any other way but the materials around them.

[20:30:57]

So then you have to ask, does he know what's in the bag? Is that bag too full? Is that bag -- what does have that bag -- what does that bag really have?

And then when I look at this, is it a transient individual when they have all this bags or this is a guy they -- could this person just, we need you to do this and they do this? I mean, these are things you have to look at because we -- I mean, just based on what you see, there is a professionalism to it where you're prepared to go in there, you have a gun placed in a location where you're going to cause fear.

And then again, the lack of professionalism when you're looking to put like grass and flowers on top of their camera. That's where the problems I have with it.

MILLER: And --

COOPER: We're going to -- go ahead, John.

MILLER: No, go ahead.

COOPER: Yes, we're going to take a quick break. A lot going on, a lot of moving parts right now. More on how the FBI and Google managed to recover the videos that we've been showing, which officially -- which officials initially said were not safe. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:36:01]

COOPER: Major night of new developments so far in the Nancy Guthrie case. New activity in the Bitcoin account set up to receive ransom money. The regional SWAT team activated, though we're not yet certain of what or any connection it may have with the case.

Also, a day of police activity near daughter Annie Guthrie's home. And, of course, new word on how the video you're watching actually came to be.

CNN's Hadas Gold joins us with more on that. How was the footage recovered? What do we know?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so the camera that was on Nancy Guthrie's door frame is from Nest, which is owned by Google. And according to a source who spoke to our colleague, Brian Stelter, Google was actually served a search warrant, a subpoena, to be able to find this footage, which is very common in these types of cases.

And the source said that it was Google engineers who actually worked with authorities to recover this footage. The recovery process, they said, took several days and was so technically complex that investigators were not sure they'd be able to be successful. But they were, and FBI confirmed that the footage was released to the public. We all saw it just a few hours after it was recovered.

Now, Nest and Google have not commented at all publicly on this, but the FBI Director, Kash Patel, did give us a hint. He said this video was covered -- recovered from residual data that was located in back- end systems.

COOPER: It's interesting because initially they said, you know, she didn't have a subscription so it couldn't be saved, but obviously they figured out a way. I don't really know what the back-end systems even means, but I'm glad there's smarter people at Google who do.

It's remarkable, John Miller, I mean, just remarkable they were able to get this.

MILLER: I mean, there's a big shout-out to the Nest people, the Google engineers, the FBI's OTD, Operational Technology Division. These are very talented scientists across the board, but the way it goes is you want to check your Nest camera, you can dial into it on your phone and see it.

But because her subscription wasn't one of the ones where you can rewind four hours or look at historic footage, all of that stuff just gets recycled into the big recycle bin. But it doesn't go away. The problem is, with every Nest camera in America, it all goes into the same bin. How do you locate that footage from those cameras that is at the bottom of some pile that's about to be erased?

You know, you serve a subpoena, you do a preservation order saying don't erase anything until we start looking for this, but it's really a needle in a haystack, which is why it took them that number of days to recover it because it was never meant to have anything happen to it except to be recorded over with everything else in that pile.

And if it was easy to locate it, especially if it was a recording subscription where they could have gone into the account and just pulled it up, it might have happened on the first day. A lot of work went into this, and the result was truly remarkable because by the design of their own system, it was never meant to be found. They engineered that.

COOPER: Andrew McCabe, the small amount of money, $300, according to CNN's local affiliate there, $300 in the -- in a Bitcoin account associated, according to the local news affiliate and also TMZ, with the letter that they saw. What does that say to you?

MCCABE: It doesn't say very much, unfortunately. As we were talking about at the top of the hour, it's clearly not consistent with the amount that was requested in the demand or demanded in the initial letter. This could be a move by the person who controls that account to push some totally unrelated, non-nefarious amount of money through the wallet in an effort to make it look like, hey, I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm just using my Bitcoin wallet as I normally would, you know, paying my bills or gambling or whatever he does with that.

It's kind of a, you know, an effort to kind of make it hide in plain sight, as it were. But it's clearly not what we were looking for in terms of evidence of receipt of a ransom amount.

MILLER: And it could be a controlled probe from either direction, meaning --

COOPER: Law enforcement or the --

MILLER: It could be the suspect saying, if I put money in here, what is the reaction going to be with that account? It could be someone else.

[20:40:08]

And that is -- that includes anybody who had those alphanumeric codes saying, if I put money in here, who takes it out? Where does it go? Well, it doesn't tell you who takes it out, where does it go, and where does it go from there? Or it could be somebody sending money in there for perfectly normal reasons, not knowing that that account is in the middle of all this. Although I suspect that account was set up for the sole purposes of this, which is why it's been dormant.

COOPER: And again, going back to the canvassing, the searching of Annie Guthrie's neighborhood, why would that be at this stage the focus?

SARNI: You always go back. You don't -- you know, what you do in these investigations is you will do everything you need to do, and then you have a new set of eyes and you go back and do it again. Because you know what? People -- can things be missed the first time? Yes.

Even though you'll do a search and you'll do a canvas, because sometimes those canvases, you knock on a door, there's no one at that door, you have to go back and make sure that you get an answer from that person at that door. So that's the way it is.

It's -- you know, because of the distance that you have, you know, you're talking about these ransom notes sent to local networks, you're going to deal with, you know, how far could they have been ready to go with this -- with a kidnapped individual, with an abducted individual. How far you intended to go, because that deals with gas, that deals with tolls, that deals with a lot of things.

So even those shorter distances, could they have disposed of something that something was missed? And that's why that video is so important, because now you see things that someone might have seen or left somewhere and go, I recognize that. And, John, I know you said that earlier about the mask. That could be something that might have been discarded.

Because as professionals of people of law, people make mistakes. And that's the one thing you're looking for, and that's what investigators do, is find the mistakes and exploit that mistake to find the person.

COOPER: Everyone stay with us. Up next, we're going to take a look at how the release of photos and videos can help crack high-profile criminal cases, what's happened in the past. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:46:11]

COOPER: We've been talking tonight about what the photos and video that you are seeing could be telling law enforcement, not to mention anyone, who might recognize anything about the person in them. As CNN's Brian Todd shows us, the release of key images is often critical in solving major cases.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): April 2013, in the harrowing days right after the Boston Marathon bombing, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was working the case, says investigators were at a dead end, and debated internally whether or not to release images they had of the suspects. They decided they had no choice but to release them to the public.

MCCABE: You always want to work silently and quietly if you can, but the fact was we were at an end point. There was no -- there were no other leads to pursue, and I think that's very telling for what you're seeing in this case.

TODD (voice-over): The release of those images led to a flood of tips from the public. Law enforcement was then able to track two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to a Boston suburb. Tamerlan died following a standoff with police. His younger brother was captured hours later.

September of last year, moments after the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University, surveillance footage showed a man getting off a roof of a nearby building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then to have somebody getting down off that roof with a -- with something that could be a weapon, again, it's not just helping the case, it's breaking the case.

TODD (voice-over): Those images were seen by a Utah man whose instincts told him the person in the black T-shirt and sunglasses was his son. He confronted his son and convinced him to turn himself in. December 2024, following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan, it wasn't just the video of suspect Luigi Mangione lowering his mask to flirt with a woman in a nearby hostel that got him caught. It was a series of videos seemingly tracing his every move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The thing that got me, the thing that really told me that the world had changed, is when they were able to trace him to and from the shooting scene. I mean, blocks, blocks and blocks, simply by following him on cameras along the route.

TODD (voice-over): Five days after the shooting, the manager of a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, called to report a suspicious customer, saying other customers there recognized the man's eyes and eyebrows from the surveillance images. Mangione was then captured.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on-camera): Retired FBI Agent Steve Moore says now with the release of these new images in the Guthrie case, this person seen in those images could likely be rattled. That in and of itself, he says, could help investigators because now as more tips start coming in stemming from the release of those images, that person could maybe alter their behavior significantly and maybe be more likely to make a crucial mistake. Anderson?

COOPER: Brian Todd, thanks very much.

Back now with the panel. John, you made the point earlier during, I think, a break that now that people have seen the backpack, they've seen, you know, the balaclava this person was wearing, if those were ditched somewhere, somebody -- it might jog someone's memory of like, oh yes, I saw that backpack in my garbage can or in a garbage can here and here.

MILLER: So there's a number of opportunities there. One, if they were thrown away together, you know, there's those giant gloves and a ski mask and somebody came across them, you know, now they would be thinking back saying, I thought that was odd in a place where even at night it's not above 50 degrees.

Do they still have them? I mean, the ski mask alone has a high potential to offer DNA, as do the gloves. The other opportunity is, were they discarded together? Were they discarded separately? Were they purchased together?

Did somebody order all of this stuff from one store, from one website, from Amazon, whatever, as part of the mission kit that they came prepared with to do this kidnapping, this abduction? That's another opportunity. We've seen it in the case of recent bombings.

[20:50:14]

Think of the attempted bombing of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee headquarters is in Washington, where the man who eventually was charged with that, they went through his purchase records and allegedly he had purchased all of those components, albeit from different places. So, you know, starting off with who ordered a ski mask in Arizona, you're going to begin with a relatively short list.

COOPER: Richard, I mean, looking at this, given this -- the fact that the person, you know, didn't know there was a camera there and was trying to do it with shrubbery, do you believe there were others involved?

KOLKO: Well, it depends what -- as David said, if it was potentially a burglary, I think it would be one person. But if it was an abduction, I think it's a high likelihood that there's more than one person involved. It would have been planned, whether somebody covered the front, the back.

And we've said that they would have taken two people to control her, at least two, any person to control, takes more than one person on the way out the door. So it depends which way the crime is. But also, if it's a burglary, I think a much better chance is just a local person there. But the fact that they just picked that house that night at that time, I still find a little not plausible.

COOPER: David Sarni, I mean, in your experience, if it starts out as a burglary, how does it become a hostage situation?

SARNI: That's why I kind of read from the investigations that I've done that there's going to be a -- that type of situation. Burglars usually do during the day. They're going to take the property and run. A nighttime burglar is one I've always been concerned about because they have a propensity to cause harm to somebody because there'll be somebody home.

When this happened, is it a burglary? And that's the question. It looks as if, when it starts that way, but it's rare that you see them actually take somebody out. If it's a one-person thing, you're not. They're going to -- they may injure the person, they may hit them, whatever, and they're going to flee.

When it comes to taking someone out of the house, that is a rarity, at least when it comes to an abduction because that adds to their crime. They've already done a burg. They want to get out. They want to get the property and get out.

And that's the reason why, with the bag being so full, you know, that's an issue because the bag is full. And this is the question I had. Was anything removed from the house that wasn't or was taken? Because if it is a burg, they're going to take property and put it into a knapsack or into a pillowcase.

And when it comes to the victim here, if it's a, you know, one-person burg, they're out. That's why it looks more than likely that there's two. And the thing is, you don't see a vehicle in the camera shot. That's the other thing. You don't see another person in that camera shot.

MILLER: And I also, you know, I subscribe to Dave's theory, which is, you know, a burglar coming in should have an empty backpack. That's where a property that's stolen is going to go, not one that is full to the brim. And second, a burglar who encounters someone in what is supposed to be a midnight, 2:00 in the morning burglary, then it turns into a home invasion.

If you end up injuring or killing that person, you're more likely to leave them there and flee than take them with you.

COOPER: Yes.

MILLER: You're taking the heat with you.

COOPER: Up next, more on what we are learning about what is going on right now, and about Nancy Guthrie. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:57:29]

COOPER: We're coming up on the top of the hour with new developments continuing Nancy Guthrie's disappearance two Sundays ago. Andrew McCabe is getting ready for the source a few moments from now. Back now with John Miller and David Sarni.

This person or persons, they had a pretty good lead before anybody noticed she was gone. They had eight, nine hours or something.

MILLER: Yes, I mean, you have --

COOPER: You can do a lot in that time.

MILLER: You have from basically from 2:07 a.m. until 11:56 when the family gets there, so that's a big head start. That's a lot of ground you could cover. But we can't make that the box because beyond that, there's been nine, 10 days depending on when you start your clock for when they would be moving that they could have covered other ground.

And when you look at the history of these kidnappings, Jaycee Dugard, Steven Stayner, Elizabeth Smart, everybody in Salt Lake City was looking for her. She was in San Diego. No one in San Diego was looking for her. In those other two cases, they were between 200 and 170 miles away where people thought, well, this didn't happen here.

So in this case, yesterday's message from Savannah Guthrie was, even if you're far away from Tucson, be alert. And, you know, we don't know how this will pan out but that's a possibility --

COOPER: That made sense to you to hear from her.

SARNI: Absolutely. Because the other thing is knowing that they -- when they make the notifications to the local media and the TMZ, how far were they -- so they were familiar at least with the networks there because I'm from New York. I have no idea what networks to reach out to. They have some familiarity with that.

They've had to set something up where you have to put this -- you have to take the abducted persons you have and you've got to keep them alive and this has been several days. And not only that, you know, is that note really part of this person? In other words, does the perp in this video connect to the ransom note?

And that's the connection you have to figure out. Because if it's just a ransom note that it's -- that's not that part of it, there must be more nefarious reasons as to why she was taken. Because that's where the issue is. Can we tie this person to the note?

And I'm telling you, all the investigators right now are doing all that. They're trying to take these leads and seeing if they match up and saying, yes, now we have more of a -- I'm watching the evidence, we more have a trail of all of this now.

COOPER: Does it feel to you though that things are moving at a clip here?

MILLER: Yes. My -- the sense I'm getting from talking to people in the periphery of this is there's a great deal of activity going on now. Now we have to ask ourselves, is that an investigative lead that, you know, had come in before and has just broken and panned out? Or is that the result of the number of new tips that are coming and the number of people they have to put out on them?

We've seen both neighborhoods around Annie Guthrie's house and around the Nancy Guthrie house also be flooded with investigators tonight. So they're chasing leads, but they're also still out there asking questions.

COOPER: John Miller, David Sarni, appreciate your expertise.

The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. See you tomorrow.