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CNN Live Event/Special
Search For Nancy Guthrie Continues. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired February 10, 2026 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
MARC LOPRESTI, CEO AND SENIOR MARKET STRATEGIST, MARKET REBELLION: I think that was just the further step in the investigation and preparation of their case against the suspect and the timing of that deposit, which by some reports are 15 minutes before the FBI swarmed that house in that part of Arizona and took custody. Again, we are just hoping and praying that Nancy is returned safely.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We have much more breaking news coverage of the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. Our special coverage will continue right now with Laura Coates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN (voice-over): A major break in the Nancy Guthrie case. The Pima County sheriff's deputies and the FBI have detained a person for questioning.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): The doorbell camera footage showing a person wearing a ski mask and gloves. This person appears to be armed.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: We believe our mom is still out there, and we need your help.
UNKNOWN: All I can say is there is now activity in that Bitcoin account.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is a targeted crime, not a random crime of opportunity.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): He is out there. The whole world knows who he is. So, he's going to change his behavior.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Sheriff deputies of the FBI right now going door to door.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president encourages any American across the country with any knowledge of the suspect to please call the FBI.
GUTHRIE: We beg you now to return our mother to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LAURA COATES, CNN HOST AND SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good evening and welcome to a two-hour special edition of "Laura Coates Live: The Search for Nancy Guthrie." And tonight, there is major breaking news in this case. Someone has been detained for questioning in her disappearance. The Pima County Sheriff's Department posted this moments ago, saying a suspect was detained at a traffic stop south of Tucson. A source tells us that person has not been charged. This is happening just hours after the FBI released new video, new images showing a masked armed person outside of Guthrie's Tucson home the very night she disappeared. She has now been missing for 10 days.
In just a moment, we will unpack everything we've learned with our reporters, with our profilers and law enforcement experts. I want to begin with CNN's Ed Lavandera who is on the ground in Tucson, Arizona. Ed, what do we know about this detention?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is all developing and will continue to develop as we remain on the air tonight. So, we will try to keep gathering as much information as we possibly can as we go into the night because we know there's a great deal of law enforcement activity about 50 miles south of Tucson in a little town called Rio Rico, which is just miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border, just north of the town of Nogales.
So, from here, from Tucson, you take Interstate 19, it goes straight down about 60 miles until you get to the border there, and that is where, we understand, that Pima County sheriffs and FBI officials took a subject into custody or detainment for questioning. So, all of that is continuing to unfold. This happened during a traffic stop.
And clearly, what is significant about this is just how quickly things have changed. This was the 10th day of this investigation and the search for Nancy Guthrie. Until now, there had been almost nothing at least that it looked like on the surface of things had come through to point investigators to the direction of a suspect or a person of interest. Not sure we're quite there yet. We'll wait for the authorities to say that publicly.
But there was nothing until this morning when the FBI released these haunting images of a person approaching the front door of Nancy Guthrie's home here in Tucson, clearly trying to -- with a ski mask on, covered in a jacket late in -- in gloves as well as wearing a backpack, and holstering gun right in front of him. You know, really nightmarish level stuff here.
And after that, we started seeing, obviously, an uptick in calls. The authorities here were telling us that there were coming in tips based on these new videos. Clearly, a key piece of powerful evidence that has helped investigators here. Now, whether or not that has directly led them to this detainment of this person tonight, we still don't know. We are awaiting word of that.
Again, as I mentioned, Laura, all of this developing right now and will continue to develop as we progress through the evening here.
COATES: We also learned, Ed, that there has been some activity in the bitboin account that was referenced in those. We don't actually know if they are legitimate, but they are unverified, but they are ransom notes. What can you tell us about that bitcoin account?
LAVANDERA: Yes, the TMZ reporting, they started noticing movement in there and also an affiliate here in Tucson as well.
[23:05:00]
I think, if I remember correctly, it was an amount of about $300. So, not a whole lot. Remember, the number that was reported on as being demanded in these notes was $6 million. So, there are probably a lot of reasons why that small amount was deposited in this account. So, we're still waiting word from investigators on what they might share on that. We don't quite officially know all of that, but it's interesting that, you know, all of that activity is happening at the same time. We've seen this flurry of activity elsewhere as well.
COATES: Ed Lavandera, thank you. Please stand by. We know there's a lot more to get to.
I want to bring in the investigative experts here. I've got the former FBI deputy director, Andrew McCabe. We've got the retired FBI special agent, Pete Lapp, here as well. There's a lot to unpack.
First of all, I just want to use and choose my words closely, and I know you understand why, because we see a masked individual on that footage, the suspect who purportedly has taken Nancy Guthrie. We don't actually know much about who that person might be, even the gender at this point, but the suspect who has been detained or the person who has been detained, questioned, what do we know?
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Very little, except the general location and that he was taken as part of a traffic stop. So, he was driving his vehicle, he was approached, pulled over by law enforcement, and taken from his vehicle.
COATES: But to get to that point, unpack that for me because that might sound to people after 10 days, well, you've got somebody driving in a traffic stop, not at a home, not at a particular location. What do you think were the steps to actually get to the back where you have a car identified, a person in it, you pull them over, and they're detained?
MCCABE: So, we don't know the lead that brought law enforcement to that person. We don't even know if that lead was derived from the public airing of the video and the surveillance photo that you were showing or the Nest camera photo that you were showing just a few minutes ago. All we know is that investigators had enough reason to pull this person over and bring him in for questioning.
So, it could have been a sort of a pretextual stop. He could be being issued a summon for a moving violation, traffic violation. That all gets you the ability to take that person back to the office even simply for purposes of identification and to hold them briefly while that process has gone through. Now, during that process, you're going to try to talk to that person, you're going to try to build some rapport, you're going to try to convince them to open up and start telling you even innocuous details about their life, where they live, where they've been for the last week, where do they work, you know, who are their family members, all this sort of stuff. And from that seemingly innocuous conversation, you are trying to build towards probable cause. Once you get to probable cause, then you can detain that person and pursue charging them presumably tomorrow.
COATES: You know, it could also be, I was thinking about this and saying, on the one hand, you obviously want the person who has taken Nancy Guthrie. On the other hand, a good break in the case could be from the person who might know who has taken Nancy Guthrie, and they might be even more forthcoming because of the pressure that has been put on the public and, of course, the case.
If your law enforcement prioritizing, of course, Nancy Guthrie's safe return, what questions would you have tonight for this person aside from what Andrew has identified? What would be your big next steps? Is it trying to go to that person's home, get a search warrant? What's next?
PETE LAPP, RETIRED FBI AGENT: Well, time is of the essence, obviously, and we're racing against time here. I doubt there's enough probable cause to get into a search warrant into his home. They're in the process of interviewing him and talking to him, and perhaps he's giving them little details that could corroborate other pieces of the investigation that could lead to that probable cause.
COATES: Oh, wait. Hold on. That's important. I wanted to stop for a second. What you've said, up to this point, we have, as a public, been watching a kind of tight-lipped caginess by law enforcement. We have not seen the ransom notes. We have not actually seen and heard the full text of it, right? There have been details that they have wanted to keep close to the vest. Is this the moment they then bring those in to figure out what you might know that's not public?
LAPP: I mean the photos being released, I think, are highly significant. To me, it showed the FBI didn't know who it was and needed the public to help out. We don't release information like that without a need to get some kind of information. And the hope ideally was, does someone know this individual? Can they recognize that individual? I can't say that that led to the car stop, but the timing is just too coincidental. I think that we're going down this road.
[23:09:58]
If this individual, the person who's being detained, is talking, he may be providing information that could lead investigators to have that probable cause for a search warrant. But if not, you know, they're going to have to come to a point sometime in the near future that they have to release him unless they get enough information to hold him even longer.
COATES: You know, I want to go to CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller. You've got some new reporting. John, what's happening?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: So, what we're getting from Ed Lavandera in the field is that authorities in Pima County say they are at a stage in the investigation where they are executing a court- authorized search warrant.
What that suggests is, and I'm keying off of Andy McCabe's tutorial, you know, you have a person, you're interviewing that person, you're taking that further, trying to develop probable cause. At some point, you have enough to tell a court, these are the circumstances that led us to this individual.
And they were stopped in this vehicle. Logically, you would want to get a search warrant to examine that vehicle. Now, exigent circumstances, as you know, as a former prosecutor in the case of kidnapping, you can pretty much go into any vehicle, in fact, any home, if you have reason to believe that the victim may be there.
But to go beyond that to look for evidence, you would need to get that search warrant. So, we are told from law enforcement officials who are briefed on the case that they are in the process of executing a search warrant. It could be on the vehicle. It could be on a home associated with the same individual. You will see those search warrants as this develops, if it goes in the right direction, spin out into other places, perhaps a storage area or any other place that this person might have had access to that is searchable.
COATES: Andy, I want go back to you on this point because that probable cause requirement is not beyond a reasonable doubt. It's nowhere near a trial. It's about I believe that the fruits of the crime or evidence of a crime is located in a particular area. For you to get to that particular point and suggest that the person that you have in detainment could actually lead you there, a judge has to be convinced in some way that there's enough there there. If they've got a search warrant on the way, there was enough to get that probable cause.
MCCABE: Yes. So, that's exactly right. So, you have got to have an agent who's willing to sign an affidavit that lays out the facts upon which you are basing your request for probable cause. I pulled this guy over, and we believe he has committed the kidnapping for the following reasons. We found this in his car. When we talked to him in the precinct, he told us these three things, which are consistent with, you know, what -- how we think the economics of place, whatever. And you present that to the judge and the judge makes the determination of probable cause. Do you actually have it or not?
This is, as we've all said, unbelievably exigent circumstances. The life of an elderly woman hangs in the balance here. So, that works on the mind of not just the agents, but also that judge.
You know, we've all heard stories and been involved in situations where the warrant was literally called in from the car on the way to the location that you want to search because you think that there may be evidence or a human being in there in danger and that you've got to get in there right away.
In a normal circumstance, if you were looking at this person who's currently in custody because you thought that they had been involved in a bank robbery, you wouldn't be doing the things that you saw here tonight. You'd spend a few days surveilling them, you'd see where they went, you'd see who they met with during the day, you'd identify those people, you try to build the case out quietly. But you cannot do that when you have a human being who has been taken from their bed in the middle of the night, who's 84 years old, who has a weak heart, and may be in great danger.
COATES: And Pete, to build on that, the idea that the police and law enforcement had been waiting for some break in the case, something that could give them an identifiable person to even question, let alone these videos, could also put the pressure on the law enforcement to get Nancy Guthrie because her life could be endangered if that person believes they are hot on their trail.
LAPP: Well, you know, law enforcement is always generally very good. We also get lucky every once in a while.
(LAUGHTER)
Lucky breaks -- lucky breaks are nice. We'll take a lucky break here and there probably while they release the photo. You get lucky by someone recognizing the outfit, the gait, the face, what could be seen. That just opens up opportunities to have someone say, I recognize him, that's my neighbor, that's the person -- whatever. I think we're starting to see the cascading effect of that.
COATES: Yes.
LAPP: It's progress and positive progress that we've got a search warrant that's being executed. Hopefully, that leads to her recovery and her coming home.
[23:15:01]
You know, we'll see.
COATES: Do I have John Miller still? Because I have a couple questions. One is I want to know what -- on what object, place or, you know, personal property was the search warrant. Is it going to be -- you mentioned possibly a storage area. You mentioned maybe a home, perhaps a car. They know they pulled this person over already in a vehicle. Presumably, they were able to search that car as well. But there's a lot of outstanding questions here.
But one of the things I want to talk to you about is the tone of the questioning that takes place. What is the tone, do you think, of an interview of somebody who has now been detained that has been able to at least accelerate the process of getting a probable cause-based warrant? Because if someone's life is hanging in the balance, you have got to dance that dance so carefully, on the one hand, to encourage to elicit information, on the other hand, to not do anything to scare that person off. MILLER: Right. And, I mean, the first thing you're going to do, and Andy McCabe knows this best of all, is you're going to try to develop a rapport with that person. You're going to select the investigators who go into that room very carefully based on a couple of qualities. One, their knowledge of the case and the details so that their questions are informed but, as active listeners, they're able to dissect those answers against those facts. But also, and just as important, perhaps more, is the kind of people who can develop a rapport with someone like the particular suspect they're going to be in that room with to get that conversation going.
Now, you can get multiple things out of that. You can get somebody who starts to tell you a little bit and maybe you can get a little bit more or a little bit more. But they may go the opposite direction, which is to move into deny, deny, deny, and go into detail there, making false exculpatory statements, telling things that the investigators already may know to be untrue.
Either way, you want to draw that conversation out and see if you can get towards that breaking point, that ultimate moment where -- because, as you pointed out a moment ago, it is great in a case of this magnitude to get that first person in custody, maybe to move that towards an arrest, definitely to move it towards a search warrant.
But the object of the game here, the case is going to be second, is, where is this victim? What is the condition of this victim? And can we get to that answer first? Even so, they're going to have to go through that process of developing that rapport to get to that answer.
Now, the legal process, search warrant on the vehicle, search warrant on the residence, those are the two first logical steps. But then you want to get through this person's background and find out what other locations did they have custody or control over where this victim could be now or could have been placed or could have once been. You're going to want to search everything you can that may have been something that touched this case. But, ultimately, job number one is to find that victim.
COATES: Really important point because, and you said if this person was detained, I'll turn back to the people at my desk, including Andrew McCabe and Pete as well, is that if this person was detained, we know that Nancy Guthrie was not with that person. Otherwise, we would be talking about a very different scenario right now, which leads me to believe that the statement made by the FBI director, Kash Patel, just earlier today about persons of interest particularly might have some weight to it, because if she's not with this person who is watching or maintaining custody and control over her -- let's listen for a second to see what he had to say about that.
Oh, we don't have the sound. Hold on a second. This is -- well, he said, looking at persons of interest. So, I want to know, based on that point, Andrew, and I don't want to read too much into one plural word that's used, right? It could be an off the cuff statement or not. But we also think about knowing where this person is presently. They're going to be expanding their investigation, trying to figure out where else she might be, who might have her. But they do have this person's cellphone now, possibly, right? They may have that. They may be able to then do a little bit of geo- locating of where this person has been and then using that to corroborate more, right?
MCCABE: We know that the FBI Cellular Analysis Team is on the ground in Arizona. So, that is a -- that's an incredibly effective tool that they are ready to use and they might be using right now as we speak if that device has been identified or recovered in a search or in an inventory search of the vehicle when they took this individual from it.
COATES: So, do they have to now go get warrants from, say, the cellphone company to try to even open that? Unless the person obviously volunteered to say, here's my password. What could be happening, too, is they could have lawyered up.
[23:20:01]
MCCABE: That's absolutely possible. So, you might not be cooperating in any way. They will have -- they typically have to get court orders to pursue that sort of cellular analysis when you want to -- when you want to take this device and you want to look and see what the cell towers it has been pinging on.
COATES: Wait. We have some news coming in. Hold on. The sheriff has just confirmed -- we had that right. The sheriff has just confirmed that the search warrant is being executed on a home, executing on a home in Rio Rico which, of course, is the area, 51 miles south of Tucson, where this person was detained in a traffic stop. This is just, you know, a few miles above the Mexico border.
MCCABE: Yes.
COATES: Go on.
MCCABE: Yes. So, my point is they -- all of these assets are in place to do this work. Yes, they're going to need some court orders to hit those cellphone towers to figure out what devices we're pinging at what times. That is all part of the process. The FBI is very good at getting that legal process in place and serving our folks who can provide instant answers.
You can also bet that there's a team of analysts that are sitting by now, waiting for every fact that comes out of each one of these searches to develop an understanding of who this person is, who has been taken out of the car, who they are, who's in their network, who do they speak to, who do they text with, to look at devices that may have been recovered in the residence. That could show you internet search history, online activity, all of that stuff.
As those things are seized, additional legal process may be needed, that is obtained very quickly, and all of that stuff gets parsed through to do exactly what you suggested, to find out who was this person, who we have in custody, actually working with. COATES: Who do you live with? Who's at the house right now? Who might be the neighbors? Have they seen anything? This is going to be a very wide net once they identified a house to actually search.
Pete, talk to me about the house search. Describe to me what that scene would be like in terms of those who would come and essentially try to search the facility. Are we talking about people who are prepared and armed in some way? Are we talking about a team that would be looking, as you indicate, maybe, you know, a property-based crime? Describe what that approach would have to look like in a case involving a possible abduction.
LAPP: Well, let's go back really quick because that car is still important.
COATES: Yes.
LAPP: There potentially is evidence in that car. So, that car is probably, I'm assuming, maybe being towed, secured because, possibly, if that car was used to move her, there's a lot of really good evidence in there that the FBI and the law enforcement are going to want to be taking advantage of. Every search warrant, especially in a case like this, they're going to be -- it's a high-risk execution of a search warrant.
Law enforcement is going to be prepared in the event that there's someone else, you know, to Director Patel's point, persons of interest. They're going to be anticipating that there could be somebody in that home and treating it as if there will be -- expeditiously but carefully, safely executing that search warrant quickly. And then once it's secure, working methodically through that as quickly as possible. Obviously, looking for her first, indications that she was there, quick indications. Is there blood in the area? Is there any indication of a struggle? Anyone that was secured here for a long period of time? And then they can take their time and go through methodically.
A house takes a long time to search. Even when you have control of the home and with a lot of resources, it's not something that can happen within, you know, a 30-minute show. It will take a long time to process that scene and execute that search warrant and pull the evidence out that's there if there is evidence to be secured.
COATES: John Miller, I want to bring you back into this because, you know, it has been 10 days, excruciatingly so, for the loved ones of Nancy Guthrie. We have watched the videos that had been sent out by her family. We have been seeing the whole of government approach. Even the president of United States talking about using law enforcement and the FBI at their disposal to try to solve this crime and get Nancy Guthrie return to her family.
And all of a sudden, today, it has been almost a neck break pace of lead after lead. And now, a search warrant of a home 50 miles south. What can we glean from the fact that this has happened just within hours now of somebody being pulled over in a traffic stop? Now, you've got a search warrant of the home and possibly a break in this case? MILLER: Well, I'll go back to what my colleague said, which is the traffic stop was likely not a coincidence. And we'll go back to your reference to Kash Patel who said, we have made substantial progress in the last 36 to 48 hours. I do believe we are looking at people who, as we say, are persons of interest.
[23:24:58]
So, a focus was developed on this person within the last couple of days based on other indicators. And as this video was released, that lead, that thread continued to be pulled. They got closer to where they wanted to be to say, is this -- is this going to rise to the top of the leads here as a priority? Clearly, it did. When they did that car stop, it is likely that they were already in the process of trying to obtain a search warrant for that residence.
And when you consider this town and its proximity to the Mexican border, which is literally -- it's nearly right on the border, the risk of looking for that suspect in a vehicle on the idea that if he was on to the idea that they were on to him, he could have easily crossed that border, probably made that a very high priority to find that vehicle, stop that vehicle, get this individual into custody, in a place where we can talk to him.
At the same time, let's hit that house. That's going to be exigent circumstances with or without a search warrant, as my colleagues pointed out. That's highly likely to be a Pima County or FBI or combination of SWAT elements that are going to take that door, do a rapid search looking for a victim, and then -- and then slow that down, and then execute a court order, search warrant, once that's green lighted to look for evidence, and that's things that we believe have already happened now.
COATES: Everyone, stand by because we're working right now to get our first pictures of the scene where this potential search is actually taking place. I'm going to have that for you shortly. And ahead, famed FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole, who helped track down the Unabomber, is live with us tonight for her assessment of who we just might be dealing with here.
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[23:30:00]
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COATES: Right now, law enforcement is searching a home in Rio Rico, Arizona. The sheriff says this is a court-authorized search that is now taking place. And it's happening as officials question a person who has now been detained. And then, we'll take you live to where that scene is unfolding just south of Tucson, just right above the Mexico border.
This, of course, is all coming after the FBI released those new video and new images captured the night Nancy Guthrie was taken from her home in Tucson 10 days ago. They're from the doorbell camera on her front porch. And we see a person wearing a kind of ski mask and gloves and a backpack and a holstered firearm strapped at the front of their waist. They're completely covered from head to toe except, of course, for their eyes and the mouth.
Now, the first video, that's short. You get the best view of the way this person walks. It shows them walking up to the front porch with their head down, with a clear view of the holstered handgun.
Now, the second video is the longest and appears to pick up from where the first ended. It shows the person walk up to the front door camera and cover it with their gloved hand. They turn away, looking for something on the ground. We see a stuffed backpack. The person pulls out part of a plant by the porch, and then starts walking back over to the camera.
Now, here's a third video. It begins with what looks like that same plant from before. It's being used to cover or tamper with the camera. You can see what appears to be a flashlight in the person's mouth.
Now, the images released by the FBI appear to be still frames from the videos except for one. This one. It appears to show the person without the backpack or the firearm holster. We don't know when this image was captured in relation to the others.
But I want to bring in someone who knows exactly what the FBI is up against in finding a suspect, former FBI senior profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole. Mary Ellen, a lot has happened. You have inspected the videos like this in the past to find any clue that might lead to a breakthrough. What do you see in those frames?
MARY ELLEN O'TOOLE, FORMER SENIOR PROFILER AND SPECIAL AGENT, FBI: Well, one aspect of the videos that I find particularly impressive, several things. But as he's on the porch, the subject is on the porch and he's walking around, he does not seem to really manifest really strong signs of being nervous, even though he supposedly is about ready to enter a home where he's going to carry off a kidnapping. So, he moves slowly, he walks slowly, he looks around, he makes an adjustment when he has to smudge up the camera, he comes back.
But he just is not racing around and appear -- and nor does he appear jittery. And that's impressive to me that he's like that. You can only get that kind of calmness from two things, your personality and your experience being in situations like this before. And in this case, it could be a combination of both.
COATES: Really fascinating to think about that impression that he has laid on you on that point.
[23:35:03]
I want to tell -- we have some images for a second, Mary Ellen, that I want to show everyone. This is live pictures right now in Rio Rico, Arizona. You see people who are outside. Obviously, this is the home that is being searched by the FBI. Remember, a person has been detained for questioning in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, who the world has been searching for the past 10 days. Do we have audio of what's happening right now? We don't have the audio right now, but we are seeing what appears to be, I'm guessing, neighbors and others who are about to have, you know, quite the reality check of the FBI going to home in their area, knowing the scope of this investigation.
But talk to me, Mary Ellen, about that sort of calm demeanor of the person you saw, not particularly excitable, and also the idea that they didn't seem to have a plan for how to handle that camera. I don't know why you're grabbing a plant. Was it to clean it off, to try to conceal something? There wasn't even an urgency in trying to remove it. What does that suggest to you about the level of planning in this case?
O'TOOLE: Well, I still think that there was planning involved. But when you talk about planning, it doesn't have to be perfect. And if you, for example, you take a look at the gloves that this person was wearing, they were so thick that it was very difficult -- it looks like it was very difficult for him to even move his hands.
And so, to be able to do something to that camera lens, it may not have been possible to pull out something from the backpack and use that to put up against the lens. It may have been too difficult to rip some tape and put that up against the camera as well. So, he was able to come up with something that allowed him to at least probably smudge the front of that lens. He didn't have to roam around the yard, he found it pretty quickly, and he came back and he used it. So, it's not perfect, but he was able to adjust pretty quickly.
So, where does he get that ability to do that, really, when he's under pressure to just about initiate a very serious crime? So, I thought that that was really interesting as well.
Then you combine it with the clothing and the type of clothing that he was wearing and the type of backpack that he was wearing. That, to me, shows certainly a certain amount of planning, to put that outfit together and to have it serve a purpose, which seems to be to minimize the amount of physical evidence he might leave at that scene.
COATES: Really important point, about the thickness of it. I remember watching this video the first time and wondering about the sort of awkward, unnatural hand moment motions of trying to almost claw your hand in a position to block the camera. I thought that was odd. And look at the thickness of those gloves.
But I want to get inside your brain for a second. Take me into the room where the police would be interviewing the person they had detained. Bring with us your experience as a profiler and help me understand what questions you would want them to be asking in order to move the needle towards finding Nancy Guthrie. Is there a tone or a cadence? Is there an approach that you would have taken and recommend in dealing with someone who would be capable of this?
O'TOOLE: Yes. That's a great question. So, just based on what I saw there at the front door, this is someone that's probably not flappable, someone that would come into the interview and maybe be more relaxed and calmer than a lot of people would be.
And what's important as an interviewer is that you match their emotion. So, if they're not getting really upset and angry, you can't do that either. And, as a matter of fact, what you have to do is you have to come in and realize they don't have to talk to you. They can shut it down as quick as they walked in that room. So, you want to be very careful about coming in and being too strong with them and being starting to show, look, I'm with the FBI, I need information, and you're not leaving here until you give me the information I need.
I doubt that that would work under this circumstance unless this person shows a totally different side to them that we haven't seen at the porch. So, I would be -- I would tend to be listening. I would want to hear what they had to say. I'd be very careful about not bringing up Nancy right away.
[23:39:55]
I'd want to find out what the attitude is towards the victim because if Nancy does not matter, if Nancy was collateral damage in this case, and I hate to use that phrase, but if that's how he viewed it, to bring her up right away, it's probably not going to work. Instead, you have to focus the interview on the person sitting in front of you. If you don't, you'll lose them. So, when you get in there, you've got a couple of minutes just to read the room and to read the suspect. If you read it wrong from the beginning, they will shut down on you.
COATES: Well, imagine if you will, Mary Ellen -- this is so illuminating to pick your brain on this, especially the aspect of when you might bring up Nancy Guthrie. But imagine if this is not the person that we are seeing in front of that door camera and instead the person detained, which we don't know, we still have a lot of unanswered questions, but what if it's a person who has information about that other person? What if it's somebody who might have sympathy towards Nancy Guthrie or frustration about the actions taken by the person they do know? Would your approach change in that respect?
O'TOOLE: Yes, my approach would change if this was a totally separate person and this was someone that maybe had less involvement in the case. But, again, hopefully, I would have at least a little bit of information before I went into the room. If this was someone that was related to the person that we saw on the porch, had a close relationship with them, that also would change my approach.
So, I would want to find out where can I really push their buttons in terms of how they feel about the victim and how they feel about the second person in the case. If they feel very committed to the second person in the case, whether it's a relative or because they were both involved in it equally, then, again, I would probably use the same approach.
But if there is any evidence of empathy for Nancy, I would really play on that and I would really compliment the person for, despite the attention on this case, it's pretty clear that you are feeling a sense of concern and worry for this woman and what might have happened to her. And I would say, you know, many people in your circumstance would not do that. They would think of themselves. But you're thinking of Nancy, and that tells me a lot about you. That would be one possible approach.
COATES: The psychology of this is absolutely fascinating. But it's also extremely important because this person --
O'TOOLE: It is.
COATES: -- whoever has been detained, might be the only key to Nancy Guthrie's safe return or even knowledge about her whereabouts. We're going to go to a quick break. Mary Ellen O'Toole, thank you for lending us your brain and expertise.
We have so much more ahead. Andrew McCabe, Pete Lapp are here. Our law enforcement experts are as well. We are waiting for the conclusion or really the full performance of the execution of a search warrant on a home in Rio Rico, Arizona. There has already been a person detained, a search warrant. We'll be right back.
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[23:45:00]
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COATES: We're looking at live pictures from Rio Rico, Arizona where a home is being searched in connection to the Nancy Guthrie case. We know one person has been detained for questioning near there. And now, this is a court-ordered search that is underway. And just moments ago, our team on the ground heard from a woman who claims her home is the one being searched there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNKNOWN: I don't know. They came out telling us that they had somebody give a tip that the lady was in the house. I don't know her name.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Nany Guthrie.
UNKNOWN: We don't know. We don't know. I don't know who she is. I don't know anything about her. They only said that they gave a tip that she was in my house. And I told them, you can go in and search the house. There's nobody there. I have nothing to hide. There's nobody in my house. And I don't know what's going on.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Do you have family members that might know?
UNKNOWN: No. They're investigating my son. He does not have nothing to do with that either. I don't know --
UNKNOWN (voice-over): What's the name?
UNKNOWN: I don't have nothing to do with it either. I don't know what's going -- what else to say.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Yes. UNKNOWN: They're just invading my property. I told them -- they're going in and out my house, taking a lot of pictures and everything. I mean, like I told them, we're not hiding anything. I give them permission to go and search. There's nothing in my house. You won't find anything because we have nothing to hide.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Is this your son's vehicle?
UNKNOWN: The one that was on (INAUDIBLE), that's my daughter's vehicle.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): So, what is your -- what is your son's name?
UNKNOWN: My daughter.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Your daughter?
UNKNOWN: Yes. That's --
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Do you live in -- it's her husband. It's your son-in-law who they took away.
UNKNOWN: Yes.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Carlos.
UNKNOWN: He has nothing to do with it either.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Did he ever say anything about Nancy Guthrie?
UNKNOWN: Nothing. Nothing. We never -- like I told the FBI, the investigator, if I knew anything about her, I said I saw her on Facebook, but I didn't read what was going on with her because I don't know her and I don't have the right tools. I mean, if I don't know anybody, I won't read the story, just go over -- keep on going on the phone because I don't know her.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): So, how did this all happen?
UNKNOWN: I don't know somebody --
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Were you home when --
UNKNOWN: No.
[23:50:00]
I was coming from Tucson when they had my son outside their house. They broke in my house without a warrant, nothing. They broke my door. They went inside my house. My son was playing Nintendo. He had his headphones on. They got him, put him in handcuff, and took him outside. And then they asked him, what's going on? He didn't say anything. Do you have a search warrant? They said they don't have a search warrant by then. And they still ask him. Do you still have a search warrant? And they don't give me an answer.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Does your son-in-law ever go to Tucson?
UNKNOWN: He works in Tucson.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): What does he do?
UNKNOWN: He's a delivery guy. He does like FedEx or something like that.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): OK.
UNKNOWN: That's what he works on.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): And so, you're not allowed to go home right now?
UNKNOWN: No. They want us in. They keep going in and out of my house, taking pictures. And I don't know why. I mean --
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Your son was the one that was detained?
UNKNOWN: Yes. He was detained for -- they showed me a video to see if it was him. To see if he --
UNKNOWN (voice-over): He's your son-in-law?
UNKNOWN: Yes, he's my son-in-law. I recognized the thing he was wearing. He doesn't have any of the -- he doesn't have anything that comes in the video.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Is this a surveillance footage?
UNKNOWN: From the house?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Yes.
UNKNOWN: Yes. They showed me the picture.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COATES: We have gotten a lot of information just now. I want to bring back in Andrew McCabe and Pete Lapp, who are with me right now. First of all, couple things, just so the audience understand, there is a search warrant being executed. Of course, if you are inviting law enforcement into your home, they can search the home.
MCCABE: You can consent.
COATES: You can consent to all of that. If she's the homeowner, they both have her consent to do so and a search warrant. She says that her son-in-law, a man by the name of Carlos, works in Tucson as a delivery person. She names a company, wasn't quite sure about that, does not know who Nancy Guthrie was, had seen her picture on Facebook but continued to scroll because she didn't have a personal connection to her.
MCCABE: That's right. COATES: I do think it's interesting that in Arizona -- I mean, the whole nation is looking, but in Arizona, I would think, 15 miles south, it's probably very big news, but it's not unheard of, that somebody would not know all the intricate details.
MCCABE: Sure.
COATES: But we thought there was a traffic stop that happened. She's saying they came into the home, he was playing Nintendo, and they pulled him outside and put him into the car. What's happening?
MCCABE: I think when she was telling us that, she was referring to her son --
COATES: As opposed to her son-in-law.
MCCABE: -- who was a younger person, who was playing Nintendo, and got taken out of the house. Her son-in-law is the person who was taken into custody, probably from his vehicle. Fascinating that she was willing to say all these things. She also said that he doesn't have any of the clothing that was in the video.
COATES: So, they showed -- right. They showed her the surveillance footage that we all saw today on the news, and she said that.
MCCABE: She said he doesn't have any of those clothes.
COATES: But it was her daughter's car that was pulled over.
MCCABE: That's correct. And he is her daughter's husband. She also said she came home while they were searching the house. She wasn't there when they apparently entered the residence, which she's not required to be there. If you have a search warrant, you can go in. And so, she came home and that was happening. And, of course, they're keeping her out of the house now. That's standard procedure for law enforcement. The occupants have to leave the residence while you search it.
COATES: Talk to me about what this search is like now, knowing that they showed her surveillance footage. She's saying she has no idea what's happening, does not think there's any, you know, evidence of any crime whatsoever inside of her home, saying nothing to hide. What do you take from this?
LAPP: A lot to unpack in that interview, frankly. I'd rather that interview be given to an investigator or a police officer because there's a lot of very important information that she's revealing, even, you know, lack of admissions of things.
I don't -- I take with a grain of salt the fact that my son-in-law doesn't have this outfit. You've never seen your son-in-law with that outfit. If he doesn't live in the home, you probably don't have a lot of -- I won't say credibility, but probably a lot of real knowledge about that.
I think that law enforcement is going through that home very carefully, very quickly. Obviously, they're looking for Ms. Guthrie, any indication that she's been there. Again, that car is very critical. I think it was interesting that the reporter you had showed a picture, assumingly, of that car. She recognized it as her son-in- law's car. There's a whole lot going on there, frankly, in real time. I'm curious to see what happens. Does the son-in-law actually live in the home? If he doesn't live in the home, then this search may be over pretty quickly.
COATES: I do have questions about a number of this that you identified, in terms of who are the occupants of that house, what is the problem cause information that led to a search warrant being able to be issued by a judge to then go to. Remember, the probable cause requires that the judge have some basis for believing that there is evidence of a crime that's going to be found in --
MCCABE: In that house.
COATES: -- not somewhere, but in that particular place.
MCCABE: Right.
COATES: They don't encourage fishing expedition saying give carte blanche.
[23:54:58]
But they're not -- it's not law enforcement interviewing that person who's the owner of the home. Does that surprise you, that she's not being questioned someplace else?
MCCABE: Yes, absolutely. I mean, even if -- if you -- if you think that as the owner of the home, you have no reason to believe that she's connected with the kidnapping in any way, but she happens to own the place and live there, and this person, her son-in-law, either lives there as well or is there on some regular basis, you want to pull her aside and sit her down with experienced investigators and have her interviewed about what she has seen, what she has heard, when did she last see her son-in-law, how often does he come in the house, has he been acting differently.
There are all kinds of information that she might have that's relevant. That doesn't put her under any sort of suspicion, but that might be good for the investigation. So, it's a little odd to me that she's just kind of sharing what she knows with the media out in the front yard.
LAPP: Yes.
MCCABE: She's very revealing. But, again, there may, in fact, be evidence of a crime in her house that she's not aware of.
COATES: We have so much more ahead. We're going to keep unpacking. We've got a second hour of this program. We're going to dive deep. There have been so many developments. We've got more information on the car that was detained as well. Stick with us. We've got so much more ahead in the search for Nancy Guthrie. I'll be closer to knowing where is Nancy.
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