Nancy Guthrie’s neighbors reported that there was some mysterious activity on the day the 84-year-old vanished from her Tucson home. One person told NewsNation that his Ring camera surveillance footage, from January 31 to February 1, is not available. Questions also came up after a device was seen in the suspect’s pocket in the footage extracted from Nancy’s Nest camera. Was it a signal jammer? Was the Wi-Fi connection tampered with? Experts have answered all questions.
Experts weigh in on jammer theory
Legal and cybersecurity experts say the idea suggests significant planning but may not fully align with the evidence recovered so far. “It shows an astounding amount of planning if they were used,” Joshua Ritter, a Los Angeles defense attorney and Fox News contributor, said.
Other experts noted that investigators were able to retrieve footage from Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera, even though the device itself was missing and the home reportedly did not have a cloud storage subscription.
“If they were using Wi-Fi jammers, then I would expect that we would not be able to see any video from the front door cameras,” Morgan Wright, the CEO and founder of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, told Fox News. “I took a look at some of the videos with the other gangs that use Wi-Fi jammers, and had one been up and running and persistent, you wouldn’t have gotten the clear pictures that we did from the front.”
“The router won’t see the jammer as a device,” Wright added. “It’s not attempting to connect. … All an RF (radio frequency) jammer does is flood a frequency band with noise so legitimate signals cannot be decoded.”
Suspect captured on camera
The FBI previously released images recovered from Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera showing a masked individual standing on the victim’s porch carrying what appeared to be a backpack and a holster.
Authorities have not confirmed whether the images depict the same person in each frame, but investigators continue to analyze the footage and other evidence.