Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

FBI Releases New Details About Suspect In Guthrie Disappearance; Top Goldman Sachs Lawyer Resigning Amid Epstein Fallout; Consumer Prices Eased To Start 2026 Soon: Sentencing Day For Au Pair Banfield Murder Case; Olympic Ice Dance Judging Discrepancies Spark Calls For Investigation. Aired 8:30- 9a ET

Aired February 13, 2026 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:55]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: In Tucson, the sheriff there says that they have good leads and the FBI has released the first official description of the suspect in the Nancy Guthrie abduction.

It says the description that the person seen on the doorbell cam at Guthrie's Arizona home is a male, 5'9 to 5'10 inches tall with an average build. They say that he was wearing an Ozark trail hiker backpack, a brand sold by Walmart, also putting out images of a backpack similar to it to try to show people what they could be looking for or if they've seen it on someone before.

Investigators returned to the home on Thursday. And in doing so, they set up this white tent at the doorway. A source says it was part of a testing procedure to recreate the nighttime conditions similar to when Guthrie disappeared.

Let's talk about where things are right now in this desperate search. Joining us is former FBI special agent Kyle Volwinkel and Joshua Skule, the former FBI executive assistant director for intelligence. Thank you both so much for being here.

Kyle, this tent I wanted to ask you about first, put up outside of Nancy Guthrie's home. It's since been taken down. What all can they gather from that? I'm going to call it that recreation.

KYLE VOWINKEL, RET. FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, what they're trying to do is simulate the exact conditions, right, and the exact time, if they can, of night when the other video was captured to elicit or draw out some specific detail, right, will help corroborate or identify the suspect. So the FBI will often do this in cases, you know, also conceal any of their sensitive evidence collection techniques going on behind the white tent as well.

BOLDUAN: Josh, the FBI, they raised the reward for information in this case from $50,000 to $100,000. Does that generally have an impact? JOSHUA SKULE, FMR FBI EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR INTELLIGENCE: Well, it's significant when they raise the reward like this. And so, they are looking for additional details. We don't know what leads they're following, what are hot and what are routine.

Certainly, they've gleaned a lot of information from the recent forensics they've conducted, as Kyle stated. They're probably putting up the white tent not just to simulate but to also conceal any sensitive techniques they might be using.

Some of your audience might be wondering how accurate is that. It is very accurate. Having used it before in cases, they are generally within that actual parameter and are very specific.

BOLDUAN: So when they say 5'9 to 5'10, you think it's not going to be six feet?

SKULE: I would say it's not going to be six feet. I think it is going to be right in that parameter. And if you think about it, what the FBI and the sheriff's department is doing right now I, you know, investigating its building blocks. They have a description of the backpack. They are canvassing and looking at all those sales in Arizona, starting in the Tucson area and branching out. They will likely have some evidence from the gloves. The lab is probably determining what type of glove it is. They now have a physical description. You can see this starting to come together.

[08:35:06]

And now they want to increase the reward to entice someone that may have some details that they didn't come forward with before to reveal a potential subject.

BOLDUAN: And Kyle, they say they have received more than 13,000 tips. And when I heard that, I mean, this is just from my obviously outsider viewpoint. I was wondering, is there a point when the number of tips coming in becomes unwieldy even for the FBI?

VOWINKEL: Well, what it shows to me that the case is still information hungry. Like they have massive amounts, you know, tens of thousands of leads, as you mentioned, but they're trying to separate the signal from the noise. And it reminds me of post 9/11, the Bureau received a massive volume of leads and we had to follow up on each and every one of them.

I had one, we had a neighbor who saw spools of wire in another neighbor's garage. We had to go out there and clear it and make sure there was nothing to it. So unfortunately, these massive leads coming in have to be tracked down each and every one of them to make sure they're benign because buried in that volume could be the one credible lead which cracks this case wide open.

BOLDUAN: Yes, there can't be a lead too small, right? There can't be a tip too small. You have to chase them all down when you're in this space Josh, they've now expanded the radius for video that they're looking for from neighbors, a two mile radius and also video dating back to January 1st. Does that indicate that authorities are narrowing or expanding their search for potential suspects?

SKULE: Frankly, I think it could be both. They could have some leads off of a close in video or video in close proximity to the crime scene. And now they're looking to string together additional video that may have captured the subject or subjects travel where they could potentially get facial recognition. They could have a partial plate.

So, it's really tough to determine. I think going back to when you look at what is the totality of going on, the expanded dollar amount for the reward, the additional evidence going out to the public, the expanded search, both physical and asking for video. There are clues and leads in there that they are in theories that they are following right now.

BOLDUAN: Kyle, finally, the backpack. There's been a lot of focus on first, the type of backpack, right? It's a common backpack sold at Walmart.

How important do you think this could be? Also, John Miller had pointed out, seen John Miller in a conversation yesterday, that the backpack, as you can see on the right side of the picture for everyone at home, that the backpack is full. It's not empty. And his thought was a burglar going in would have an empty backpack in order to fill it with valuables. That's full. What does that say?

VOWINKEL: I 100 percent concur with that assessment. As you look at the video on the porch, that backpack is clearly full. And it looks like it has a little bit of weight to it, meaning it's sitting down on his shoulders. It's not empty weight, like say a sleeping bag has no weight and it would kind of float almost as the person hunches over.

So yes, there's definitely something in that backpack, but to fill it out so squarely is very interesting to me, almost as if it's like a materials possibly right to aid in the, you know, kidnapping of a victim, but maybe it's a change of clothes. Maybe it's other items that are kind of loose, but it is 100 percent full.

And interestingly enough, right, that is one of the details that the FBI put out in the subject description. Not only is height of 5'9", 5'10", that very specific backpack.

So what they're hoping for is someone can place in their mental memory, hey, I know a friend that had a backpack like this and I haven't heard from him in a couple of weeks. And you know what? He looks a tiny bit like that person on the doorbell porch. So, I'm hopeful that that could be a linkage to the captor.

BOLDUAN: Quite something. Kyle, Josh, thanks so much for coming in and bringing your expertise.

John. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So new this morning, a major shakeup right at the very top of Goldman Sachs. Kathy Ruemmler, the bank's chief legal officer, says she is resigning. This comes after documents released by the Justice Department revealed the extent of her ties with Jeffrey Epstein.

Ruemmler and those around her have insisted she had a professional relationship with Epstein and has done nothing wrong.

With us now is Congressman Stephen Lynch, a Democrat from Massachusetts, a senior member of the House Oversight Committee.

And Congressman, I do understand now you have had a chance to view the unredacted Epstein files. What surprised you most?

REP. STEPHEN LYNCH (D-MA): Well, good morning, John. I think the level of detail in the original indictment that was not processed. Remember, Alex Acosta, there was an investigation and then Alex Acosta refused to bring that forward in federal court and instead gave what was a sweetheart deal to Epstein in a state court with a separate proceeding and he pled guilty to lesser charges.

[08:40:21]

At some points, he has said there wasn't enough evidence to go forward, but what I saw in the last couple of days in the unredacted documents was names of survivors, victims, names of co-conspirators, phone numbers, addresses, statements, and a lot of rich evidence that should have allowed, you know, a competent district attorney or U.S. attorney to go forward with a case.

So I was surprised at that, but there are three million documents and we've only just begun to go through all those documents.

BERMAN: Congressman Massie and Khanna, who really pushed the measure that forced the release of this, have both viewed the documents along with you and they keep insisting there are names of people they say connected to some of the malfeasance that were redacted and should be released. What did you see on that front?

LYNCH: Yes, Mr. Massie and Mr. Khanna are correct. There are, you know, names that repeatedly come up in the documents and in some of the charging documents connected to the indictment and in detail their connection with Epstein and in some cases with -- with Ghislaine Maxwell.

BERMAN: And you think those names should be released?

LYNCH: Yes, there was one point of caution. When I was going through the documents, in some of the cases people are named as a co- conspirator and a defendant, but also as a victim, you know, as a survivor, as someone who was abused.

So, it might have been a young person who was charged. I know in some states they allow people who are, you know, engaged in prostitution to be charged as well. So, I'm a little bit more cautious about going forward. I know some people have named names already, but with that situation you might be naming, you know, one of the victims here who was improperly charged. I'm not quite sure of that.

BERMAN: Obviously, the nuance here is very important.

Congressman, a little bit of breaking news. We just got new numbers on CPI inflation. Inflation came in cooler than expected. We're going to actually have a report on this in just a minute, but just the headline is the inflation situation improved a little bit in January. And this comes on the heels of unemployment numbers, jobs numbers that were better than expected. The job situation improved a little bit.

What do you think is behind these improvements, this positive direction on a few measurements in the economy?

LYNCH: I'm not quite sure. You know, I know my constituents are continually complaining about energy costs and we're in the Northeast here, so that's a sensitive point. You know, food, groceries, we're still seeing that highly elevated. So, housing costs right through the roof.

So I'm not quite sure about the accuracy or, you know, this is a periodic snapshot. So, we might see higher numbers in the next reporting period. I'm not quite sure.

BERMAN: All right, Congressman Stephen --

LYNCH: But it is surprising that we're not seeing elevated inflation numbers.

BERMAN: You're surprised?

LYNCH: Yes.

BERMAN: All right, Congressman Stephen Lynch --

LYNCH: I know that in the past, the president --

BERMAN: Sorry, I'll let you finish.

LYNCH: I know the president has complained in the past about the way those numbers have been gathered, but, you know, I would need further evidence of, you know, any inaccuracies on those numbers.

BERMAN: Got it. Congressman Stephen Lynch from Massachusetts. We do appreciate your time this morning. Have a good weekend. Happy Valentine's Day.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: Let's talk more about just that. There's new data coming in showing that consumer prices eased to start the year.

Matt Egan joining us now with a deeper look at what the numbers are showing. What are you learning? MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER (on-camera): Well, Kate, look, this is some encouraging news on the cost of living, right? Inflation took a big step in the right direction to start the year off.

So, consumer prices up by 2.4 percent year over year. That is an improvement from 2.7 percent in December that beat expectations, which were for 2.5 percent. In fact, this is a new eight month low for annual inflation month over month. Prices up by 0.2 percent, also a step in the right direction, also beating expectation.

[08:45:18]

Now, economists look really closely at core inflation --

BOLDUAN: Right.

EGAN (on-camera): -- which excludes food and energy. Core inflation came in at 2.5 percent. That's notable because that's the lowest annual inflation rate for core since March of 2021, before the inflation crisis.

Now, while we can't exclude food and energy from our family budgets, that's important because economists say that's a better indicator for where inflation is going. And when you look at the trend for inflation over the last few years, you can see there's been some improvement, right? It's been a little bit bumpy on this chart. It's been bumpy, but it has improved.

There was this uptick in inflation starting last spring after the president slapped massive tariffs on imports. Inflation started to go heat back up, up to 3 percent, but thankfully, it's trending back down.

Now, when we look at some of the notable categories, as far as what people are seeing at the store, especially the grocery store, a couple of things stand out, and not all of it's good. Bad news, uncooked ground beef. Look at this, 17 percent more expensive year over year.

Kate, that's the biggest increase since the middle of 2020 during COVID. Also, piped gas, that's natural gas, up by 10 percent. We know that's been a problem. Electricity, that continues to be another source of frustration, up by 6 percent.

However, also some good news. Look at this, egg prices plunging by 34 percent. That's the biggest decline for eggs since 2016, back when Obama was in the White House. And gasoline prices, which of course, was such a major problem for so long, they were down by 8 percent.

Now, all of this is notable, especially the food prices, because Americans in polling continue to say that they're really frustrated by prices.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN (on-camera): This was an AP poll that came out just yesterday, and it found that more than half of Americans, 53 percent, say that they find the cost of groceries is a major source of stress in their life, 31 percent say minor, no real improvement there from the last time they took this poll back in October. Also, cost of housing, almost half of Americans say that's a major source of stress in their lives, and cost of healthcare as well.

But look, bottom line here, Kate, I think we did get some encouraging news this morning on inflation, and now we have to wait and see if the trend continues.

BOLDUAN: And that also sends some interesting information, looking at futures here, it sends some interesting additional detail to the Fed.

EGAN (on-camera): Yes.

BOLDUAN: You had the latest read on the labor market coming in, was that just yesterday? It feels like --

EGAN (on-camera): Wednesday.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. They all fold together for me.

EGAN (on-camera): It does.

BOLDUAN: And then this, this is an interesting picture that's being painted.

EGAN (on-camera): Yes, and economists say that in order to get the Fed to continue to lower interest rates, which is something that a lot of consumers and of course investors want, we're probably going to need to see more improvement on inflation.

And so hopefully this trend continues.

BOLDUAN: Interesting. All right. Thanks, Matt.

EGAN (on-camera): Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Really appreciate it.

So, there's new video in this morning showing the aftermath of a highway collapse in Portugal. Just look at this, caused by days of storms and relentless rain.

And also, we now apparently have a cow on the lam. There's animals on the lam all over the place, people. A man, a cow and a horse, they walk into a neighborhood, also known as just another day in Florida.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:52:58]

BOLDUAN: So it is sentencing day for the au pair who admitted to plotting to kill the wife of her former boss, Brendan Banfield, and another man.

The au pair, Juliana, pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges. She also testified, you'll remember, against Brendan Banfield during his trial. A jury ultimately found him guilty on all counts in those murders.

Let me bring back in Jean Casarez, who's been following this from the very beginning.

And your reporting on this has been so important. What is expected now when it comes to this girl?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): We could have a surprise today. This is a huge day for Juliana Peres Magalhaes. Because she was the au pair. She was brought in by Christine and Brendan Banfield to help with their little four-year-old girl. Because both of them had professions that were very time-consuming.

Christine, now murdered, was a pediatric intensive care nurse. But it was Juliana and Brendan Banfield that began an affair shortly after she had arrived as the au pair. And then Brendan Banfield told her, I've got to get rid of my wife. And she helped him in every way to figure out, conspire, plan, plot how to murder Christine Banfield. And it was by luring an innocent man by the name of Joseph Ryan to the home.

And she, Juliana, delivered the kill shot to Joseph Ryan. So, she was initially charged with second-degree murder. Pleaded it down to manslaughter. But a sweetheart plea deal. Saying, the Commonwealth will recommend the defendant be sentenced to a period of active incarceration, capped at time served.

So, in other words --

BOLDUAN: Really?

CASAREZ (on-camera): -- when the sentencing is finished today, Juliana is hoping that she can walk out the courthouse door and be a free woman.

However, one problem. It's all up to the judge. And it's up to 10 years in prison. And she killed a man. She helped to kill the mother of a little four-year-old girl. So we've got to watch, because the judge may not deal and accept that recommendation. The judge may want upwards toward 10 years in prison.

[08:55:04]

She'll be shocked, because in her testimony, she wants to go back to Brazil. She felt she deserved it, she felt she'd been through so much and that was her testimony. And then victim impact statements because two lives were lost. And we -- they can be read in court, they can be present in court and speak to the judge in regard to what life is like now and it'll be something watchmen have live trial access for this hearing on -- on CNN's live pop-up channel, so you can watch the whole thing (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Jean, thank you so much.

She said this is going to be a huge day and all of us will be starting at 11:00 a.m. on CNN.com/watch. John.

BERMAN: Right, new this morning. Ukrainian skeleton racer who was disqualified for wearing a helmet, picturing 24 Ukrainian athletes who have been killed since the start of Russia's war is waiting for a ruling from the court of arbitration for sport. He asked to be reinstated immediately pending the court's final decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADYSLAV HERASKEVYCH, UKRANIAN SKELETON RACE, DISQUALIFIED OVER HELMET: I believe still that I'm right, and it's not my job to decide how to do it. I believe that I see what's wrong with this decision and it's work of IC (ph) to decide how to make the situation fair to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He -- he is the first Ukrainian skeleton racer to qualify for the Winter Olympics. The timeline for the court's decision is unclear.

A highway in central Portugal partially collapsed after flooding a levee breached. About 3,000 residents were evacuated.

A Portuguese official says the highway cannot be repaired until the floodwaters subside. Restoration is expected to take weeks.

New video from Colorado, a DoorDash driver was arrested. So, the police officer finished the delivery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your DoorDash driver got arrested, so --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- we want to make sure you got the food still.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Police say they had pulled over the driver for expired tags and discovered he had an outstanding warrant. No word if the police officers took any kind of tip on the delivery.

Cow on the lam in Florida and the traffic jam that ensued in and a man with the lasso because that's the kind of thing that can happen in Florida. A person called our local affiliate and said the cow had a problem to a grocery store. Since being lassoed the cow is now waiting for its owner to pick it up.

All right, this is something. A new Olympic figure skating scandal, possibly. There are now calls for an investigation into the judging in the ice dancing final did the French judge whose scores were way out of line with the other judges, cost the Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates the gold. The couple is now considering an appeal.

Our friend Christine Brennan is there joins us from Italy. Christine, I know you've got some other issues with the ice dancing final which we'll get to in just a minute. But I missed this when it happened. The numbers from this French judge, they were way different.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST (on-camera): Yes, welcome to ice dance. You know, there's always something going on a nice dance that is completely nefarious and ridiculous and we all talk about it for three days afterwards, John. So, as you know, from your Olympic experience.

It's -- but it's not a laughing matter to Madison Chock and Evan Bates and a lot of their fans millions of people around the country in the world frankly.

Yes, the French judge, always the French judge 2002, French judge with the pair scandal in Salt Lake City. The French judge was 7.5 points -- had a 7.5 points almost eight point difference between the U.S. and of course the French team that did win the gold medal. And normally they throw out the -- the short -- the -- the highest score in the lowest score. In the case of her judging actually, the Czech judge was higher than she on the French, but she was the lowest with the Americans. So, we are presuming that was thrown out high and low. Well, you know well, we may never find out the answer to that for sure because of the secrecy that still is inherent in figure skating.

But it is a big question, that said dance is there's no jumping, you know, as we know it's not like the men, the women, the pairs where you can quantify it in a sports term. He fell, she fell, she landed a jump. So, it is a bit of a, you know, an artistic decision, you know you like the Godfather, I like the Sound of Music.

I know that again sounds like I'm making fun of it, I'm not. It is just -- it is so artistic. They're doing amazing things. But that's where some of this controversy comes into play.

BERMAN: Absolutely. You know, it's subjective to an extent, but when you see numbers that appear to differ as much as these do, you do begin to wonder.

And then Christine, you know, you wrote a compelling column really questioning whether the French team should have been on the ice at all. Explain what's going on there.

BRENNAN (on-camera): Yes, the French team is new, they were put together a year ago and they exist only because of an investigation and then suspension of Laurence Fournier-Beaudry, the -- the female skater only because of a suspension of her ex-partner and current boyfriend Nikolaj Sorensen over sexual assault allegations. He was banned for six years.