A former FBI agent believes the person who was caught on video outside Nancy Guthrie’s home is “not a career criminal.”
“However, they have to have a criminal mindset in order to commit a heinous crime like this,” Lance Leising, a retired supervisory special agent with the FBI, told “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday.
Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing 10 days ago after she missed church, and officials believe she was abducted overnight from her Tucson home.
Leising has drawn clues from video and images that were released by authorities on Tuesday, showing a masked individual outside Nancy Guthrie’s home the night she disappeared. The person is wearing gloves, a backpack and what appears to be a weapon.
Leising called the person’s actions “extremely amateurish.”
“If you look at the two still photos and the videos that Kash Patel released, one of them, the subject is not even wearing the backpack or the weapon, potential weapon,” Leising said. “So what that says to me is he approached that door and turned around and got the backpack and got the weapon and then came back.”
He also said the apparent weapon was held in “an unusual way” and “it does not look very professional, it looks very amateur.”
Leising also analyzed how the person approached Nancy Guthrie’s door, noting that their head was down as if they expected a surveillance camera above them.
“They almost feel surprised that there is a doorbell camera there, which anyone who has done any reconnaissance would know that’s there,” he said.
“Then they take some irrational step to grab a bush or a weed from the front yard and then put that in front as they try to take it off,” he noted.
He also highlighted the gloves the person was wearing, describing them as “oversized, maybe multiple layers,” which would make it difficult to use the apparent weapon he was carrying.
“I do think that it gives investigators hope that if they’re amateur at the door, they’ve made other mistakes, and they’re looking for that break,” Leising added.
Jason Pack, a retired FBI special agent, also noted that the video shows where an apparent weapon is located and the person’s gait, adding “he doesn’t appear to be moving very quickly.”
“All of those things will tell profilers certain things that they’re gonna look for and kind of narrow that timeline down,” he said.
Authorities said they detained a person in connection with the Guthrie case on Tuesday during a traffic stop. A man, who only wanted to be identified as Carlos, later told reporters that he had been detained and released, and that “I didn’t do anything. … I’m innocent.” Law enforcement has not confirmed if Carlos was the person they said they had detained.
Leising said “a lot of times you’re going to detain people, bring them in for questioning and they may not be the suspect but they might have a piece, and hopefully the investigators got that piece.”
