FIRST ON FOX: TUCSON, Ariz. — A neighbor of Nancy Guthrie said she saw a suspicious young man walking in her neighborhood about two weeks before the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie is believed to have been abducted from her Tucson home.
“He didn’t have your typical walking gear on, and he had his hat pulled really far over his eyes,” said Aldine Meister, who told Fox News Digital she’s lived in the Catalina Foothills for nearly 30 years.
The neighborhood is known to be relatively affluent and typically sees little crime.
She said she saw the man walking in the neighborhood, near an intersection leading to Guthrie’s home — and hadn’t encountered him before or after.
“He was kind of younger, and he just didn’t look like he was going out for a walk,” she added.
She mentioned it to her husband but did not report it at the time, she said.
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After the abduction, she said, she told authorities about the suspicious man.
“He just didn’t fit,” she said.
She didn’t have any video to give detectives, however.
Guthrie’s suspected kidnapping took place around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 1, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
The FBI and Google teamed up to recover doorbell camera footage even though her Nest device is physically unaccounted for, and she did not have a cloud subscription.
FBI Director Kash Patel released still images and video on Feb. 10.
SECURITY MEASURES MAKE CROSS-BORDER ABDUCTION OF NANCY GUTHRIE ‘LOW’ PROBABILITY, EXPERT SAYS
The video shows a masked man with gloves on, prowling on her front porch.
According to a source with knowledge of the investigation, one of the doorbell images was taken on a different date than the others. It shows a man who may be the same masked intruder at Guthrie’s doorstep, without his Ozark Trail backpack or holstered pistol.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has called the timeline surrounding the images speculation.
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However, neighbors have been asked to check their home security cameras for any video taken between Jan. 1 and Feb. 2 — as well as on Jan. 11, specifically.
Michele Young, another longtime resident of the Catalina Foothills area said investigators came to her house a total of five times.
“On that last visit, when I was talking to the FBI and the sheriff together, they did mention the 11th,” Young said. “I had mentioned that the sheriff’s department came back for additional footage, and they mentioned something about a different date.”
Neighbors mentioned a sense of unease in the community, awaiting answers from law enforcement officials.
“I think everyone’s anxious,” Young said. “We all watch out for one another here so it would be nice if something happened.”
The Jan. 11 date has come up repeatedly in the investigation, including in a Ring Neighbors app post asking for residents to turn over video taken between 9 p.m. and midnight on that day.
The sheriff’s department has downplayed the significance of the date, telling Fox News Digital that investigators are looking for a full month’s worth of video, in case anything suspicious shows up.
Nanos said previously that he did not want to focus on a specific time in case something of use to detectives took place outside that window.
And Meister said investigators had asked her about it, too. As for whether she saw the suspicious man on that day, she wasn’t sure.
“It could’ve been the 11th,” Meister said. She told Fox News Digital that she knew it was after Jan. 8, when she had visitors in town, and at least two weeks before Guthrie’s abduction.
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Next, she said she plans to increase security around her home, because her existing system didn’t record anything. She said she’d add more surveillance cameras around her house.
Guthrie’s adult children are offering a $1 million reward for information that leads to their mother’s recovery.
At least two men were detained and released without charges in the investigation. Police have not publicly named any suspects, persons of interest or vehicles connected to the case.
Anyone with information in the case is asked to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.
