Nancy Guthrie case: Person released as search for ‘armed individual’ continues

A man was briefly detained and then released Tuesday evening in connection with the Nancy Guthrie disappearance case, according to an ABC News’ affiliate KNXV and a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

In a day filled with a number of developments in the case of the suspected abduction of the mom of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, with assistance from the FBI, detained the individual in a location south of Tucson, the source said, and law enforcement searched a location associated with the individual.

In a statement on social media, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said deputies “detained a subject during a traffic stop.”

A court-authorized search related to the investigation was carried out by the sheriff’s department, with assistance of the FBI’s Evidence Response Team, at a location in Rio Rico, Arizona, about 60 miles south of Tucson, the department said. The operation lasted several hours, according to the department.

The developments, more than a week into the disappearance case, came on the heels of a series of eerie images being released by law enforcement of a masked man approaching Nancy Guthrie’s front door and as investigators continued to search in her neighborhood.

Earlier Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel released images and video of an “armed individual” in connection with the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie.

The images showed someone wearing a mask, gloves, a backpack, armed with a holstered handgun, at the front door of Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson-area home around the time investigators suspect she was abducted on Feb. 1.

“[L]aw enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance,” Patel said in his post.

The Guthrie family was shown the images before their public release, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Savannah Guthrie posted the images to her Instagram account, with the message, “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home.”

Anyone with information is urged to call 911, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.