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CNN Live Event/Special

The Search For Nancy Guthrie; Person Detained in Guthrie Case, FBI Searching Home in Rio Rico. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired February 11, 2026 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:47]

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to a special edition of LAURA COATES LIVE, "The Search for Nancy Guthrie."

It is midnight here on the East Coast. 10:00 p.m. in Rio Rico, Arizona, where the Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI are doing a court authorized search of a home in connection to Nancy Guthrie's appearance. And the sheriff says they have detained a subject in the case after a traffic stop just south of Tucson. And that person is being questioned right now.

These are two major developments 10 days after the mother of Savannah Guthrie vanished from her inside of her home. And hours after the FBI released these images of someone on the porch of Nancy's home the night she vanished. They're from the doorbell camera on her front porch. That person is armed while wearing a ski mask, gloves, and a full backpack, but we don't know if that is the person that sheriff deputies have detained tonight.

I want to get right to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who is outside the Guthrie home in Tucson.

Ed, what more do you know about not only the person detained but the home that's being searched?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have some new video that we can show you tonight from the scene that is unfolding there in Rio Rico. What you're about to see is video that has been confirmed to us that was involved in this traffic stop. It's a silver Nissan Rogue and our crew there in Rio Rico captured this video just a few hours ago.

You can see the car surrounded by a decent number of law enforcement vehicles there in Rio Rico. And this is happening not too far away from where that area and that street has been blocked off and cordoned off by law enforcement investigators tonight. This traffic stop happened along the service road of Interstate 19 there on the south of Tucson in the town of Rio Rico.

And then just a short distance from there is where you see the scene unfolding from what we understand are Pima County investigators as well as the FBI Evidence Response Team that is conducting a court authorized search of a home there. They have that street blocked off. And from what I could tell from satellite images, they're about close to 20 homes on that street. That entire street has been cordoned off, and it is filled with investigators here tonight.

We have spoken with a woman who says that she is the mother-in-law of the man who was detained tonight. Listen to a little bit from what she told us just a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know they came out telling us that they had somebody gave a tip that the lady was in my house. I don't know her name. The --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nancy Guthrie?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That we don't know. We don't know her at all. I don't know who she is. I don't know anything about her. They only said that they gave a tip that she was in my house. And I told them, you can go in and search my house. There's nobody there. I have nothing to hide. There's nobody in my house, and I don't know what's going on. I mean --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any family members that might know?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. They're investigating my son-in-law. He has -- had nothing to do with that either. I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's his name?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's Carlos Valenzuela. Have nothing to do with it either. I don't know what's going on. What else to say?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're just invading my property. I told them they're going in and out my house, taking a lot of pictures and everything. I mean, like I told them, we're not hiding anything. I give them permission to go and search. There's nothing in my house. You won't find anything because we don't have nothing to hide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: So, Laura, I think as you hear this, it's clear as we're gathering all of this as quickly as we can. And I think kind of the tone of the interview kind of captures the chaotic nature of what is unfolding here tonight. But what we know from authorities is that is a court authorized search of a property on that block where this woman lives. She, from the course of the interview, talked about allowing the investigators into her home.

So one of the questions I have, and we're still trying to figure out is, could this court order have been for another address on that street? And they wanted to check all of the houses in that neighborhood? I don't know yet. We're going to try to, like, get deeper into that and figure out exactly what is unfolding there.

[00:05:00]

But the woman also did go on to say, Laura, that her son works as a delivery driver in the Tucson area so, you know, another little key piece of detail that is, we've been able to gather there in what is clearly a very chaotic and quickly evolving situation down there in the town of Rio Rico.

COATES: Ed Lavandera, thank you. Stand by. There's so much information coming in.

I want to bring in former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe and retired FBI special agent Pete Lapp.

OK. I want to be clear, we have not heard from law enforcement that the person that they have detained for questioning is a suspect. We have not heard from law enforcement whether that person that they have detained for questioning is the person that is visible in the videos that we have all seen today released by the FBI. But what we do know is that somebody was detained for questioning, that a car has probably likely been impounded or searched in some way, and a search warrant has been issued on a home connected to the person whose car was searched.

Walk me through this dragnet. What is happening?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure. So you're absolutely right to be very careful about what we know and don't know about the person who's currently being questioned and who is in custody. But what I will say is that if you are being questioned in custody, you are by definition suspected of some involvement. Doesn't necessarily mean they think you're the mastermind or the ringleader, that you might be a bit player, but law enforcement has to have some reasonable suspicion to subject you to that sort of questioning.

COATES: And if you're in custody, that's the term to suggest you are not free to leave.

MCCABE: That's right.

COATES: Otherwise you could say, may I leave? Am I in custody? No. And you can walk out the door.

MCCABE: Walk out the door.. If you are someone who they want to talk to, but they are -- they don't suspect you of any involvement whatsoever, you are a witness. They would show up at your house. They'd knock on the door. They'd ask you to talk. If you didn't want to, you won't have to. So the simple fact that that person is in custody tells us that law enforcement has some degree of suspicion.

It might not be enough to keep them in custody. It might not ever get to probable cause. That person might never, ever be charged with anything. But right now, there is a serious interest in that person for some reason that we don't know.

COATES: It could also be that person is free to leave, but is cooperating in some way answering questions? And again, I go back to the idea that we can all recite, you know, you have the right to remain silent, et cetera. You know, you have that right, and you certainly can lawyer up instantly and the conversation has to stop, but one would suspect if you lawyered up right away, they would not have the probable cause basis to continue to try to get a search warrant.

PETE LAPP, RETIRED FBI AGENT: Yes. I go back to that interview and some of our previous guests where we talked about rapport. You know, you want to rush -- the $64,000 question is, do you know where she is? And is she alive? Racing to that and skipping over small talk rapport, how are you? Can I get you something? Can we order you some food?

That may seem insensitive, but that builds that, you're free to go anytime you want to. We appreciate you continuing to talk to us. That ability, especially if you're not arrested and you're not in custody and you're only being detained, you're voluntarily here, having that kind of rapport works wonders to keep someone talking and keep someone staying here voluntarily, if that's the case.

I mean, being detained sounds to me like they're not arrested yet, but they're still --

COATES: We don't know.

MCCABE: But they could still be talking. They should still be talking. They're hopefully still talking if it's done in a way where they're actually, you know focusing on rapport, getting to know them, doing the small things that actually add up to really big trust, frankly.

COATES: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

COATES: Go ahead.

MCCABE: That can be very hard to do.

COATES: Yes.

MCCABE: When in the back of your mind you're thinking about Nancy Guthrie. I got to ask this question. I got to find that woman. So whoever is in that room right now is under enormous pressure.

COATES: If this person, whoever has committed the crime, is in cahoots with somebody else and is not acting alone, what impact does that have on the investigators urgency to get information out of them? Because it you could conceivably think someone says, if I don't come back to this location within this hour, there might be a set of things that go off in motion to prepare for their ability to lead the police. Is there an added urgency?

MCCABE: I mean, there's already so much urgency. We're beyond the point of anything associated with this not being urgent. But there are a lot of different ways that you could play this. If this person is, if you've managed to kind of reduce their kind of defenses a bit and convince them to talk to you and they think they're, hey, I'm just going to play and I'm going to play along and see if I can find out what they know about me, or they know about my co-conspirators, there are ways that you can fold the existence, the potential existence of co-conspirators into the questioning and open up opportunities for this person like you're here.

[00:10:07]

You can help us now. Tell us about your co-conspirator and you go home tonight, right? Like, there's all kinds of different ways you can incentivize cooperation to get the incriminating statements that you need. And then once you have those incriminating statements, then you have a very different decision to make.

COATES: What about the ransom notes that we learned about? Obviously, they have not been fully verified, and there's still some looming questions over whether the person who has indeed abducted her actually wrote those notes, which one, et cetera. There had been some movement to the Bitcoin account $300 rather than the $6 million that had been requested. We're not sure what that's really about, but has this cast doubt on the validity of those ransom notes?

MCCABE: I think there's a lot, from my perspective, there's a lot that casts doubt on the validity of those notes. But I can tell you this, right now there are -- there is probably one or more analysts who have been assigned the task of monitoring this questioning specifically for that. They're looking for any clues to see that this person uses the same sort of words or the same sort of phrasing, or repeats the same sort of ideas in the course of talking to investigators assuming this person is talking to investigators.

COATES: Would they set traps?

MCCABE: That they saw in the -- in those notes? There are definitely going to ask questions that could prompt statements like that to see how they would phrase an answer along these lines, whether they'd make the same sort of reference as one that we saw in the notes. So they're looking for similarities to anything that they've clearly at this point analyzed deeply in those notes.

COATES: I want to bring back in John Miller to the conversation.

John, what more have you learned about the car, the home being searched?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, so looking at this home and it's hard to see because they've got us blocked off at the end of the street. It a one-story, ranch-style home with a short wall with a little fence in front. There's an outbuilding behind it which will ultimately probably become part of this search. And a few cars.

It's on an average looking home on an average looking street with homes across the street that don't look that far different from it. The car stop is of interest because one of the things and, you know, Andy and Pete would think about this, is if you were doing surveillance on that home because you had a lead and a car left from there. And remember, we're still close to the Mexican border, you might want to do a car stop on that car.

A, just to make sure that you have that person in pocket. On the other hand, if you were looking for that person, you spotted that car and it was coming towards the home, you might want to do that car stop just to make sure before you execute that search warrant, you're not adding additional people into the house. And you might be able to come up with other things like keys to the house and so on, or the individual you're looking for.

So there's a lot of questions about exactly what brought them there, exactly what caused them to focus on this individual other than he was in the car. Was he the individual that the lead was about? It appears so, because he's the one that they brought in for questioning. The search of the house with the evidence response team who will take a long time to go through that. But again, we circle back to once we know that they haven't found the victim, Nancy Guthrie, in that car or that house, the next layer is, what other -- remember we spoke to the mother-in-law who said, I don't know who this person is.

There was nobody like that in the house. They can look around all they want. We have nothing to hide. So that brokers the question, what other locations might this person have control over, whether that's a storage area, whether they live somewhere other than that house that could spin off into other potential searches or search warrants tonight.

COATES: John, I'm also curious, short of finding Nancy Guthrie in that home, it's not as if there are not other precious evidence based things they could find. For example, I would want laptops, I would want computers, I would want access to the things, search engines. I would want to see keys. I'd want to see receipts or contracts that might suggest that there is ownership or access to other things.

I'd want to be looking through documents of any kind, evidence of financial distress or otherwise. All those things could also be inside that home. Short of an actual victim.

[00:15:00]

MILLER: Well, that's right. And, you know, I'm sure as a federal prosecutor you've seen warrants like this which is, you know, given the circumstances in this case, you would write a search warrant looking for a broad outline of many things, including all of the things you listed including, you know, papers that might contain a bill or a rental location for another house, an Airbnb, that storage location or keys and so on. I'm sure that they wrote it as broadly as possible.

COATES: You know what, John, I'm also hearing that the person that was speaking, that mother-in-law said that all of the family members' cell phones were taken as well by police. So certainly they were looking for more information as well.

We have a lot more to cover. Stand by.

MILLER: It appears -- COATES: Go ahead.

MILLER: It appears, Laura, that it looks from the records and these are, you know, public record searches. So you don't know how up to date they are, but it looks from the records that there are about seven people who list that home as that address which could be the family, or it could be family members who lived there before who might not. But it sounds as if there's a number of people there. And that would be a logical step.

COATES: Our logical step is a quick break because we've got to unpack so much more. Stick with me. We've got a lot more to cover in the search for Nancy Guthrie. A lot of information coming in fast and furious. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:21:03]

COATES: I want to bring back to everyone's location here. Andrew McCabe and Pete Lapp are here with me as well. We've got a lot going on right now because we are waiting. We are waiting for more information as tonight. We're drinking out of a fire hose of information. We've got somebody who was detained after a car stop. We've got the released videos of somebody who appears to be the suspect in the abduction of Nancy Guthrie from outside the house, released earlier today after 10 days of an agonizing wait for her loved ones.

We also know there is now a court ordered search warrant that is now happening in an execution of that search warrant. We heard from the mother-in-law of the person who she says was detained by officers and questioned in this. There's a lot that's happening right now as we speak. We have more information coming in quickly. So stick with us right here.

We're following the breaking news and I want to bring into the conversation. Do we do we have Mike McCutcheon in the conversation? I want to bring him in. And also as well to break it down for us. The audio visual, video forensic analyst and the founder of principal forensic, Nick Barreiro, and also, as I mentioned, a veteran retired police detective with extensive forensic experience, Mike McCutcheon.

Glad to have both of you with me. There's a lot going on.

Mike, I want to begin with you because authorities, they've zeroed in on a vehicle. What evidence can investigators get?

MIKE MCCUTCHEON, FORMER POLICE DETECTIVE: This is a one -- if this is a suspect, a vehicle is fantastic because we live in our vehicles. We do everything in our vehicles, whether it's committing crimes or not. So they're going to look for, I would say the first thing is we know that Nancy, when she was abducted, she was bleeding. We have that blood evidence on the scene. So I'm sure if there was blood evidence in there, they're going to use a blue star or luminol to see if there's any blood that has been cleaned up. You mentioned earlier about receipts. Now gas receipts, not so much

because you use your card but if his wallet is in there, they're going to look at those bank cards, see where he has been with those, with his bank transactions. Receipts if he got fast food somewhere, and you take that receipt and you just crumple it and you throw it on the floor, that's going to start to give patterns. Because we do that.

We don't -- we do it instinctively. And you're like, just take it, I don't need it. So you're going to have receipts for that. Tire tread is amazing. Tire tread can be like a fingerprint, If they have any tire tread evidence at the crime scene, they're going to be able to look at the tires that are on this car and then compare it to the tire tread that is on the scene. Certainly they'll be able to look at the -- if the car has the telematics in there so they're able to track where that vehicle has been.

Doing a search warrant of the telematics of the vehicle, they'll be able to track where that vehicle has been. So a car is amazing because you have -- we live in it, and you can tell so much from a person.

One more quick thing is they may search the house. If she was never at the house, they may not get evidence. But if she was in that car it's such a small space. Particularly if she's moving or struggling she's going to leave some evidence behind in that car for sure.

COATES: A treasure trove of evidence is a vehicle.

MCCUTCHEON: Absolutely.

COATES: Nick, I want to bring you in because, Nick, a woman who says her son-in-law was detained by officers, revealed to reporters who were investigating -- investigators have actually taken the entire family's cell phones and devices. What are they looking for there? Is that the sort of tracking to figure out where things have been? Is it about text messaging or communications? Describe why the cell phones would be so important, even if it doesn't belong to the person who has been detained by officers?

NICK BARREIRO, CHIEF FORENSIC ANALYST, PRINCIPLE FORENSICS: Yes, absolutely. The cell phones, I mean, we live on our cell phones, right? I mean, every bit of information about your life is contained on your cell phone somewhere. And so obviously that's going to be invaluable.

[00:25:04]

But going back to this search of the vehicle, search of the car, when we when we saw the video from the porch earlier today, there's so many details about the clothing, about the backpack, about the holster for the -- that's on his waistband. All of those details, that's what investigators are going to be looking for now when they're searching, right? They're going to be looking for that backpack. They're going to be looking for that holster.

But they have to remember something that it's really easy to forget when you have footage like this. And that is, this is black and white, infrared, night vision footage, meaning what you see is not necessarily exactly what it looks like in real life. For example, the holster looks like it's a bright white holster with black trim, but it could certainly be 100 percent black. And it's just that that material reflects the infrared light differently than the trim.

And so investigators need to be very careful about just disregarding something because it's not the right color. Because remember, we don't have any color information from that video earlier. We only have the infrared spectrum and therefore a lot of that what you see there could be deceiving. So they got to be very careful with this search and what they're actually looking for.

COATES: A really important point. Let me stick with you on that, Nick, because obviously they have released images of the person who is at that door. There are questions about the height, about the physical stature, about the gait, about the eyes, about facial hair. Is there anything there? You can go down the list of things. Is there a way that investigators could be sort of trying to account for the discrepancies that infrared would actually reveal?

BARREIRO: So that's a very good point. The skin tone, if the hair to the extent that it's visible at all in the video, the eyes, you can't really trust this infrared video footage to give you accurate information about those things. And so, you know, just like with the clothing, the backpack, the holster, the shoes, all of that, investigators do have to keep that in mind that skin tone, eye color, hair color, all of that stuff, it's -- you're getting a distorted view of that in infrared.

COATES: All the more reason, Mike, that a conversation with the detained person, what might reveal some of those gaps or account for it. We'll see. This was a very fast moving night for investigators, Mike. It's all coming after the doorbell video we've been discussing was obtained and released. That was just earlier yesterday morning.

How could that have helped get to this moment?

MCCUTCHEON: Well, it sounds like a -- they clearly didn't just pull this car over by accident. And when they show a video like that, we look at body mechanics and that behavioral fingerprint if you saw me, if you know me well enough and you've known me for a long period of time, and you see me walking down the hallway and you don't know it's me, but you just see me walking, you know how I move, how I stand when you see somebody.

So just, even though, as we just discussed, the physical features may be skewed from the infrared, body mechanics would be the same. And so how I stand if I sit, you know, down or you're able to tell that and somebody could see those different body mechanics and then start to reporting that clue that the witness or the homeowner. That was one of the things that I pulled out where she said, they said there was a tip.

Now did they just tell her that or was there more? But that could very well be like, I know that guy. You talked about that. He was a driver for a delivery. They're going to look at that. And as we mentioned with the cell phone, he probably had his cell phone on him during that time. I'm sure they're going to track whether or not he had been to or from that house. Whether he had a delivery in the area or to her house.

They're going to be able to track that but I think that the body mechanics and the way that that person moves is going to be critical for someone to be able to pick out, I think I know who that is, and that's how I think they probably got some information once they released that video.

COATES: We have a sliver of information from that video. We don't know what happened in the driveway or the car or what's happening now, but they are searching one and searching a house, and somebody is detained for questioning.

Nick, Mike, thank you both so much.

[00:30:04]

We're going to get a live update out of Rio Rico, Arizona, next, about 51 miles South of Tucson, where the search for Nancy Guthrie appears to be intensifying. A search of a home appears to be intensifying. A search of a home and a car. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: Fast-moving developments in the case of Nancy Guthrie, authorities are questioning a person who was detained in a traffic stop in Rio Rico, just South of Tucson.

[00:35:12]

We want to go back to CNN's Ed Lavandera with more.

Ed, what are you learning about the questioning of this person?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have an update. My colleague Josh Campbell is learning from a source, saying that so far, as this questioning of this individual is continuing tonight and it is ongoing, that there is still not gleaned any information as to the whereabouts of Nancy Guthrie.

With all of the chaotic moments that we have been covering and watching unfold here tonight, we don't want to lose sight of what this is all about, that this is the search for an 84-year-old woman who has been missing for now almost going on 11 days.

Investigators, obviously, have said she -- they believe she was abducted from her home. And a great deal of focus now on the town about 50 miles South of Tucson in Rio Rico, where we have a crews there monitoring the situation.

FBI authorities carrying out this court-authorized search in this neighborhood just off of the interstate, after a traffic stop earlier this evening. And so, investigators say that they will continue to be there for

several more hours. This is a situation that will continue to unfold throughout the night.

And it's important to point out that, at this point, there is still no clear official indication -- and this is because investigators are still very much working this -- this scene -- is whether or not the person that has been detained is connected in any way to Guthrie's abduction.

That is the million-dollar question that we simply do not have an answer for at this moment. And it's a situation that continues to develop as scores of law enforcement officials have descended on this neighborhood in Rio Rico to continue the investigation tonight -- Laura.

COATES: Ed Lavandera, thank you so much.

Still don't know what happened to Nancy Guthrie, where she is. This is all unfolding just an hour South of Tucson. And we're told the search will be unfolding for hours.

I want to bring in criminologist and attorney Casey Jordan.

Casey, let's talk more about the video the FBI released of this armed person on Nancy's doorstep. We don't know if this is the person the sheriff detained. What do you notice about how that person is moving around the home?

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST AND ATTORNEY: I mean, this video was a game changer, and I think we've had a flurry of tips come in ever since then.

So, we've all been watching it frame by frame.

I mean, the demeanor. The person walks up. I have to tell you, I'm reading amateurville. They've got their head ducked down, as if they're, you know, afraid that the camera -- there might be a camera, and maybe it'll catch them.

And then they see the camera, and instead of going, Oh, no, there's a camera. I better turn around and leave, because it already caught me, this person goes and picks flowers and weeds and tries to, you know cover up the lens with them.

I mean, a real professional kidnapper or even a burglar would have a spray can of paint to hit all of the security cameras with instantaneously.

So, there's -- there's this vacillation, maybe. A certain amount of ease and confidence, but just not a typical what we see in kidnapping for ransom for profit.

They usually come. It's like a hit and run. They're in; they're out. They get what they want. They don't hang around for 43 minutes. And it just really begs the question: is the extortionist asking for the money completely unrelated to the person we see on the porch?

COATES: A really important point of how this unfolds. I want to remind our audience a second here and what we're learning about the amount of time that it took from the time that Nancy Guthrie returned to her home after visiting with her daughter for dinner and returning to the home later until her pacemaker stopped sinking with her cell phone that was left behind, presumably the time in which she was removed from the house.

And then hours later discovered to be missing, because she did not show up at her friend's house to watch a live stream of a church service, like she was scheduled to do.

But I wonder how this individual's behavior might change, now that these images have been released to the public?

JORDAN: Well, I think that, first of all, we need to understand that the FBI and the Guthries may have had these images for a while. A day, two days.

I have a hard time believing it took ten days to get these images, even with the intense, you know archiving they had to do to get them.

So, they may have been pursuing this all along. According to reports, the Guthrie family does not recognize this person at all. They are clueless as to who this could be.

But they've probably spent a few days, at least a day trying to figure out if they could figure out the identity of this person on their own.

[00:40:00]

And it kind of coincides with Nancy's -- sorry, excuse me -- with Savannah's video appeal yesterday afternoon for the return of her mother, Nancy. And really, the first strength I have seen in the -- in the week from her.

You know, she was a different person. She looked ready for -- ready for a solution. And she was begging for the help of the public.

I think she did this on the eve of knowing this video would come out, and knowing that those tips would come in during a personal appeal.

But we have to understand that a lot of these tips are not going to pan out. They may be well-intentioned, but wrong. They may be bad- intentioned, like, Hey, I think I'm going to get my cousin Carlos into trouble, because he kind of looks like this guy. They have to just take everything seriously.

And I think we're seeing that unfold in real time right now at this house with the search warrant. We don't know how many tips they have had. But they are looking for the person on the porch or anyone who knows anything about him. And I do think it's just a matter of time before we know that person's identity.

COATES: That is the utmost hope of the family and law enforcement, working tirelessly to try to bring Nancy Guthrie home.

Casey Jordan, thank you so much.

JORDAN: Always great (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COATES: Anguish and hope for the family of Nancy Guthrie, tormented now for ten days as they beg for their mom's return with the world really hanging on every move. You know, my next guest knows exactly what that is like. The father of JonBenet Ramsey is here next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:41:17]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, CO-HOST, NBC'S "TODAY SHOW": We believe our Mom is still out there. We need your help, no matter where you are, even if you're far from Tucson. If you see anything, you hear anything, there's anything at all that seems strange to you, that you report to law enforcement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: That was Savannah Guthrie on Monday, pleading for the public to help bring her mother, Nancy, home.

No video was released tonight as law enforcement closes in on Rio Rico, Arizona, where a home and a car is being searched as officials question someone in connection to the case.

The family has now been living a nightmare for the past ten days. You know, my next guest knows what that feels like.

JonBenet Ramsey's father, John Ramsey, joins me now.

John, thank you for being with us. I can't imagine what hearing about this must feel like for you who've experienced such loss. From your experience --

JOHN RAMSEY, JONBENET RAMSEY'S FATHER: Well, I certainly --

COATES: Yes, yes. Tell me, from your experience, what do you imagine they're going through?

RAMSEY: Well, you know, the horrible anxiety, worry, and a feeling of helplessness. You know, you want to do something, and it's very difficult to do as a bystander, basically, a family. And that's really hard.

So, it's -- it's really hard on them, physically and mentally. No question.

COATES: We know that there is a subject in police custody for questioning.

There were a lot of ups and downs. There were theories, and there were confessions in your daughter's case.

RAMSEY: Yes.

COATES: What would you advise the Guthrie tonight as they -- as they hope for a break in this case?

RAMSEY: Well, the key is, you know, police departments -- and we have 18,000 police departments in this country. And they're -- they're general-purpose agencies. They do anything from traffic tickets to -- to kidnappings, in this case.

And what's critical in what I watched in this case is that the police immediately get help. And for kidnapping, the FBI has -- really has authority to come in on their own. But usually, they are asked by the police.

But that had to happen immediately. And as far as I could tell, it was fairly quick. You need to bring a lot of manpower to bear. And the local police department doesn't have it. I don't care how big they are, and nor do they have the expertise.

You know, your family doctor could do lots of things, but he won't do heart surgery. He'll bring in a heart surgeon quickly, if that's necessary. And that's -- this is a heart surgeon issue. It's serious and requires a lot of manpower and a lot of resources. And the FBI can bring that to the table.

And that's what did not happen in our case, sadly. So, I really watched that to see if that's what's happening in cases like this. And it appears that --

COATES: You know, John? Yes.

Excuse me, I don't want to talk over you, sir. Go ahead.

RAMSEY: No, no. I say it appears that that's happening, that they have brought in lots of resources.

COATES: You know, one of the things that that amount of resource also invites is a lot of scrutiny. Unfair, high-profile. And also, people who have their opinions of what had happened and conspiracies that they are not shy about saying.

RAMSEY: Yes.

COATES: Can you just describe a little bit about what that spotlight feels like on a family who might be suffering in so many ways, the -- not the least of which are people somehow misrepresenting their own roles?

[00:50:13]

COATES: Well, you know, for us, it didn't matter. We had been hurt deeply by the loss of our child.

So, the chaos that was going around us, all the -- the theories that were putting out there in the media and on -- and not so much online, because the Internet wasn't that popular back 30 years ago.

But it didn't matter. It was -- it was noise-level stuff. We had lost our child.

And what we didn't know -- well, we learned it pretty quick -- was that the police didn't know what they were doing, and I never faulted them for that. A small town. But they did refuse help that was offered immediately.

And that was the second tragedy in our case, because it -- they couldn't do it. They didn't have the talent, the resources, and yet they thought they did.

And that's a very potential flaw for any police department, to not ask for help because they think they can take care of it on their own. Whether it's an ego issue or budget issue or who knows.

But that seems to have happened in this case, and that's good.

COATES: Even now, you hold on for hope that your daughter's murder can be solved. How do you hold onto the hope, sir?

RAMSEY: Well, you know, we really -- we pray, frankly, that this is -- we ask God to a miracle. And it's in his time. And -- and I think it'll be resolved.

You know, the technology has advanced so far in the DNA world. And Lou Smith, the detective that was brought in on our case early on, who was a retired legendary homicide detective, told me, really, three things.

He said, one, he'd say, I'm going to get this guy, John. And he would tell me that. And sadly, he passed away from cancer ten years ago.

Secondly, he said this case will be solved by DNA, period. And that's very prophetic, because DNA has advanced so far now with investigative genetic genealogy and what can be done with DNA. And that's what were really in our case strongly encouraging the police to do, because I think that will solve it.

COATES: I hope. John Ramsey, thank you.

RAMSEY: Well, you're welcome. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for your interest in our case.

But I really hope this resolves itself. It's -- it's -- we've prayed for the Guthries, and we'll continue to. And a lot of people are.

COATES: Very kind. We will never forget JonBenet Ramsey. Thank you so much.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

COATES: I want to bring back in Andrew McCabe and Pete Lapp, who are here with me, as well.

I was struck by the idea, the -- the idea of DNA evidence being something that not available in the extent that it is now and now certainly going to be a big factor here.

But we know from the videos we saw in that image, the images in that video, they seem to have gone to some great lengths to try to hide that material from being able to transfer to different surfaces.

Describe for me a little bit about the frustrations, from a law enforcement perspective, that you see in the clothing worn in that video. Will there be hindrances?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: You know, anytime someone is careful, as it appears that person in the video tried to be, they're reducing the likelihood of leaving a verifiable or usable sample, but they never eliminate it.

I think just as challenging in this case -- excuse me -- is the fact that the setting, the scene of this crime took place in a home that Nancy Guthrie has lived in for many decades, right, with -- she raised her family there.

She entertains friends and family over the years. So, homes are massive repositories of DNA. And many people come through our homes or friends, family, people who come in to provide services, to clean, to maybe health care attendants, whatever.

And so, it can -- just generally, that can be a very -- a very confusing place. A with numerous samples that you might have a hard time identifying as time goes by.

But nevertheless, that person entered that house and took her. There may have been a struggle. We know that Ms. Guthrie was bleeding when she left the residence. The scuffle raises the chances of leaving a verifiable sample.

COATES: Pete.

PETE LAPP: And time. It takes time. You know, John Miller talked about seven cell phones being taken from that home. That is not going to take forever.

We can prioritize which one we think is his and which one is more important.

But the going -- it's one thing to be able to collect evidence. To process that and to make sense of it, to connect it with DNA. That's going to take a lot of time.

[00:55:08]

We've been at a breakneck pace for the past four hours, with developments. Unfortunately, unless he makes some kind of confession, assuming he -- he is the person of interest and, you know, the person who did it, then it's going to take a lot of time to really put this together, Frankly.

COATES: Maybe -- may time be on the Guthries' side.

Andrew, Pete, thank you both so much.

There is a $50,000 reward for any information that leads to Nancy Guthrie's whereabouts, or who captured her. If you know anything that could help, please call the local sheriff's department at (520) 351- 4900, or contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

You can also visit Tips.FBI.com.

That's it for us. THE STORY IS with Elex Michaelson is next.

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