Ex-FBI director flags 'odd' details as first images emerge of Nancy Guthrie's kidnapper
A former top FBI official flagged unusual details in images and video released Tuesday in the disappearance of "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie's 84-year-old mother.
Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director, told CNN that the way the armed suspect moved in the footage captured on a home security device outside Nancy Guthrie's Arizona home appears to show him "not moving with purpose" and handling a handgun in an unusual way.
"Yeah, it's a remarkable series of images. The still images are much better than I expected," McCabe said. "There's a lot of detail in the images of the clothing and the gloves and all this stuff that by themselves would not mean much. But when you put them all together might very well inspire someone who actually knows this person to say 'hey, I know who that is.' This is not, in my opinion, this is not someone, first of all who was ever trained to carry a gun."
McCabe described why the suspect's behavior appeared to be bizarre.
"No person with law enforcement or military training would ever carry a firearm in a holster like that, right? Where that is at the almost the center of his body hanging off of his belt there, it's like, not very tactically sound for a lot of reasons," McCabe said. "His approach to the house, it's not particularly furtive or concerned. He just kind of walks up with his house, with his head bent towards the ground obviously to avoid being seen. You then see him use his his hand like he is in that video right there to kind of cup over the lens of the camera to keep it from getting the close up of his, of his face, which we all which we get eventually, anyway."
The investigation has been ongoing for 10 days, and these images were the first released of a potential suspect by the FBI.
"So even here, where he turns around, he's looking for something on the floor that he can use. He doesn't seem to be in a rush. He never never looks out towards the street; he doesn't seem to be concerned that anyone sees him or what he's doing. It's really remarkable," McCabe said.
"It's kind of not what you think about when you think about an executed kidnapping, you know, usually it's more than one person that's engaged in trying to take someone out of a residence," McCabe said. "Here you have, you know, this image anyway, it's just one person. Maybe there are others we don't know, but yeah, it's just it's very odd. This person does not look like they are, you know, they're not moving with a purpose, as we say in law enforcement."
McCabe also pointed out the suspect's knit ski mask, backpack, and dark jacket with reflective material, which could help someone who knows the suspect help identify who they are to law enforcement.
"You don't even see those things out skiing anymore," he added.