A source with knowledge of the investigation into the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie confirmed to Fox News Digital that one of the Nest doorbell camera images released by the FBI was taken on a different date than the others.
The detail, if verified, would suggest the masked suspect captured in the images scouted Guthrie's Tucson, Arizona, home before returning to abduct her on Feb. 1.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department fired back almost immediately. After the report was published, the PCSD issued a statement pushing back on the claim:
"There is no date or time stamp associated with these images. Therefore, any suggestion that the photographs were taken on different days is purely speculative."
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos echoed that position in a phone interview with NBC News, though his language left more room than his department's written statement did.
"We cannot tell you it's a different day. We don't know that. It's under the, it's still under investigation."
The source who spoke to Fox News Digital declined to specify what day the earlier image was taken, citing the active investigation. Nanos told Fox News the information did not come from him.
The known facts paint a narrow, disturbing window. On the night Nancy Guthrie was taken, her doorbell camera disconnected at 1:47 a.m. At 2:12 a.m., one of her cameras registered a person but did not record the event. That 25-minute gap between a camera going dark and a figure appearing is itself significant. Someone understood, at least in part, how the system worked.
Experts had previously questioned whether the masked figure seen in the FBI-released images was even the same person throughout, noting differences in attire, including the presence and absence of a backpack. The PCSD acknowledged the discrepancy but framed it as a matter of changing gear, not changing dates.
"We are aware that doorbell images released earlier in the investigation depict a suspect in different stages of attire, including with and without a backpack."
The suspected scouting visit was first reported by ABC News, citing unnamed sources. Fox News Digital's source added independent confirmation.
Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jason Pack told Fox News Digital that if the suspect did visit the property on a separate occasion before the abduction, the implications are serious, both investigatively and legally.
"That's sophistication. That's the hallmark of someone who thought about this before they acted. And it matters significantly from a legal standpoint, because premeditation and planning elevate the severity of what investigators are looking at."
Pack also noted that the suspect's caution may have ultimately worked against them. Visiting the property twice means twice the exposure, twice the forensic opportunity.
"The suspect in this case may have thought they were being careful. But appearing twice on camera while trying to avoid identification isn't careful. That's exposure. And right now, investigators are working very hard to close that gap."
That assessment tracks with the broader pattern of requests authorities have made to the public. Investigators have asked Guthrie's neighbors to check their home security systems across a strikingly wide range of dates: the entire month of January, the night of Jan. 11 specifically, and the hours surrounding the disappearance between Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. That's not the behavior of a team looking at a single night.
Nancy Guthrie is the mother of "Today" host Savannah Guthrie. The case has drawn intense national attention, and the tension between investigative sources and the sheriff's public statements only deepens the uncertainty surrounding it.
There is a meaningful difference between "that didn't happen" and "we can't confirm that happened." Sheriff Nanos landed closer to the second. His department's written statement landed closer to the first. Both can't be the whole truth.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The tip line remains open at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
An 84-year-old woman is still missing. Somewhere in those doorbell images, in the gap between 1:47 and 2:12, in the sprawl of January dates investigators keep circling back to, there are answers. The public is watching to see who finds them first.