FBI Director Kash Patel said a four-day delay before federal investigators joined the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie may have resulted in the loss of potentially valuable video evidence from her home security system.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Patel said the FBI assisted in recovering cached footage from Guthrie’s doorbell camera after local authorities requested federal assistance. Because the camera did not have a cloud storage subscription, video was stored only temporarily before being automatically deleted.
Patel said investigators were able to recover footage showing a masked individual approaching Guthrie’s home, covering the camera lens and damaging the device. According to Fox News Digital, the recovered footage was close to being permanently erased when FBI personnel retrieved it.
Guthrie was reported missing from Tucson, Arizona, on Feb. 1. Authorities have not announced any arrests in connection with the case, which remains under investigation.
According to the report, investigators also recovered a still image of a masked individual who appeared on Guthrie’s Nest camera roughly three weeks before her disappearance. Patel said it remains unclear whether additional video from that earlier encounter once existed but was lost before the FBI became involved.
“We were looking for the needle of all needles in all haystacks because since she didn’t pay for [a cloud subscription], they didn’t record that data,” Patel told Fox News Digital.
“But there was a chance that it was located in their cache just before it was being deleted,” he added.
The recovered footage showing the masked suspect was released publicly on Feb. 10, nine days after Guthrie was reported missing. Authorities hoped someone would recognize the individual, but no arrests have been announced.
Morgan Wright, chief executive officer and founder of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, said time is a critical factor when investigators attempt to recover cached video that is not backed up to cloud storage.
“What we do know is that the longer you wait, there’s no chance of recovering the video,” Wright told Fox News Digital. “The earlier you get started, the better your chances. Waiting four days may have been fatal to the recovery of some video that could have been more illuminating.”
Patel said the FBI was prepared to assist the investigation immediately, but alleged local authorities did not request federal assistance until four days after Guthrie’s disappearance was reported, per TV Insider.
According to Patel, the timing may have affected investigators’ ability to recover additional cached footage from the security camera system before it was automatically overwritten.
Authorities have not publicly identified the masked individual seen in the recovered footage, and investigators have not said whether the person is considered a suspect in Guthrie’s disappearance.
