EXCLUSIVE: The delay in allowing the FBI to assist in the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's suspected abduction may have cost crucial video evidence due to the elaborate process involved in recovering Nest doorbell footage from the crime scene when the victim did not have a cloud subscription and her physical camera was missing as well, according to the FBI director.Guthrie, the mother of "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie, was taken from her Tucson, Arizona, home in the early hours of Feb.1, according to authorities.The FBI worked with Google to recover cached video from Guthrie's Nest camera that was not intended for long-term storage and was on the verge of deletion, Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital.If there was more, it was lost before the FBI became involved, and its evidentiary value remains unknown.NANCY GUTHRIE SHERIFF SCOLDED COUNTY OFFICIAL FOR SHARING TIP WITH FBI, SHE CLAIMS IN INTERVIEWNancy Guthrie was abducted from her Tucson home on Feb.
1.(Getty Images)"We were looking for the needle of all needles in all haystacks, because since she didn't pay for it, they didn't record that data," he said.
"But there was a chance that it was located in their cache just before it was being deleted."That's where investigators found the video and still images that Patel made public on Feb.10, in the hope that someone would recognize the suspect and turn him in.A short time later, FBI experts had generated a rough physical description.
The masked suspect is described as between 5 feet, 9 inches and 5 feet, 10 inches tall with a medium build.He was wearing a black Ozark Trail backpack.NANCY GUTHRIE CASE: FORMER COP SHOWS HOW MISSING MOM COULD VANISH JUST YARDS FROM HOMESThis image released by the FBI shows an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie's front door the morning of her disappearance in Tucson, Arizona, Sunday, Feb.
1, 2026.(L) An undated photo of Nancy Guthrie provided by NBC in response to the disappearance ...