Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapper is likely on a downward spiral after the FBI shared video and photos of the suspect breaking into her home in Tucson, Arizona, on February 1st.
As the frantic search for Today host Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother approaches its two-week mark, Page Six spoke with former FBI hostage negotiator and special agent Chip Massey, who called the release of the suspect’s video and photos a “pivotal moment” in the case.
“The kidnappers wanted this family’s money, but they got it from America, which was looking for them,” Massey said, adding that up until that point, the kidnappers had been in complete control of the situation.
“Now that your face is everywhere, you have to be very in control of your environment, and that’s very difficult.”
Not only must perpetrators now ensure that their “comings and goings” are not monitored, they must also take care of their victims. Nancy was “medically frail”, “elderly” and “injured” when she was taken to the hospital. Nancy requires daily medication and blood stains were found right outside her front door.
“So you’re definitely dealing with someone who needs medical care,” Massey said. “And what we’re concerned about is, is this prisoner prepared to deal with this? Is he mentally and emotionally prepared to handle this? Because the longer this goes on, there’s going to be so many emotional ups and downs even for the prisoner.”
Massey pointed to the release of the videos and photos, which “caused a great deal of anxiety and stress and anxiety” for the kidnappers, theorizing that it could be a double-edged sword.
“On the other hand, it could lead to some mistakes, and we want them to make mistakes. We want them to make mistakes,” he told us, noting that a suspect’s heightened emotions can also be “bad” because “we don’t want them to do anything rash or anything that won’t be beneficial to Nancy’s well-being.”
He acknowledged that Nancy’s period of absence was “unbearable”, but explained why it was not necessarily “a bad thing in the negotiation process”.
“We want to do our best to establish that connection. We want to humanize Nancy as much as possible,” he said, praising Savannah, 54, who posted a home video of her “lovely mother” amid various public pleas for her safe return.
Massey went on to tell how he was trained to figuratively disarm kidnappers in order to physically disarm them.
“We are realizing that we have to meet people where they are. This is a person who is not afraid of violence. … But what we have to focus on, and this is strange, is the stress that they are currently facing,” he noted.
Massey praised Savannah and her siblings – sister Annie Guthrie, 56, and brother Camron Guthrie, 61 – for speaking directly to the suspect in an Instagram video, telling him they “want to communicate” and “will pay.”
“So they’re telling that person, ‘Hey, I’m connected to you,'” he said. “You definitely want to keep in mind the fact that the perpetrator is dealing with the stress and strain of this event. It’s also strange, but you’re dealing with someone who has a mother’s life in her hands.”
Massey stressed that despite these acts, perpetrators still have “basic, universal human emotions and needs, so if you can put out something that is universally connected – and you don’t agree with their lifestyle or the decisions they make in any way, shape or form – you will start to see closure.”
Massey added that the negotiation process is the same whether the victim is alive or dead.
However, like the Guthrie family, he acts on the belief that Nancy is alive.
Although the suspect in the recently recovered Google Nest camera footage was fully disguised at the time of the break-in, investigators were able to determine his gender and general body proportions, and he was estimated to be 5’9″ or 5’10” tall.
Since Nancy’s abduction, multiple ransom notes have been sent to media outlets demanding large sums of Bitcoin payments by specific deadlines.
On Tuesday, a small deposit was made to a Bitcoin wallet in connection with the incident, but cryptocurrency experts told Page Six that this was also the moment the perpetrator lost “control” of the situation. “Once a transaction is made, it will be monitored.”
Nancy was last seen on the night of January 31st and was declared missing the next day.
The FBI, which works closely with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, has increased the reward for information in this case to $100,000.
