TUCSON — An armed thug in a ski mask was seen tampering with Nancy Guthrie’s home security system on the morning she vanished, according to terrifying footage released by the FBI Tuesday — the first major break since the elderly grandmother vanished over a week ago.

The chilling black and white footage and stills were pulled from a Nest camera mounted by the front door of 84-year-old Nancy’s Tucson home — and showed the pistol-packing man staring straight into the lens while apparently breaking into the home.

He tried to cover the camera with a gloved fist, and then pulled a handful of flowers from Nancy’s garden in an attempt to blot out the lens.

The FBI released surveillance video from Nancy Guthrie’s front door on the night she was kidnapped showing a masked suspect.

The footage of the armed suspect was recovered from the “residual data located in backend systems” of Guthrie’s camera, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

The suspect seemed to have a flashlight in his mouth — and lumbered around Nancy’s patio in sneakers, a fleece and a backpack.

And all the while, a handgun was clearly seen holstered in the front of his pants.

The footage marks the first time law enforcement has released any clut about a possible suspect since the mother of “Today” show star Savannah Guthrie vanished 10 days ago.

The pics are also the first indication that police are zeroing in on any suspects at all after a grueling, fruitless investigation.

“Law enforcement has uncovered these previously inaccessible new images showing an armed individual appearing to have tampered with the camera at Nancy Guthrie’s front door the morning of her disappearance,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote while releasing the images on X.

The suspect was seen tampering with the security camera.
FBI
The images were obtained Tuesday morning with the help of Arizona law enforcement, FBI specialists and “private sector partners,” Patel said.

Nancy had numerous Nest cameras around her property, but had not paid her subscription, so feeds from the night she disappeared were never saved to an account — prompting law enforcement to fear they might be lost forever.

But FBI and Google specialists were able to pull them from “residual data located in backend systems,” Patel explained — resulting in the startling first images released.

Nancy Guthrie, mother of “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her Arizona home on Feb. 1, 2026.
Courtesy NBC Universal
“Over the last eight days, the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department have been working closely with our private sector partners to continue to recover any images or video footage from Nancy Guthrie’s home that may have been lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors — including the removal of recording devices.”

The footage also appeared to be from the camera that had been taken from Nancy’s home on the night she went missing.

It remains unclear exactly what time the clips were taken, but police previously disclosed that Nancy’s front door camera was disconnected at 1:47 a.m. Feb. 1.

Then at 2:12 a.m., the camera detected a person moving — with cops noting that footage had been lost because of Nancy’s non-subscription.

And finally, at 2:28 a.m., Nancy’s pacemaker disconnected from her phone — suggesting she had been taken from the home by then while her phone was left behind.

Nancy was last seen alive hours earlier, around 9:45 p.m. Jan. 31, when she was dropped at home after having dinner with her daughter Annie and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni.

Cioni was the last person to see Nancy, and she was reported missing the next day when she didn’t show up at a friend’s house to stream Sunday church together.

The search for her was declared a criminal investigation on Feb. 2, with a supposed ransom note demanding $6 million in bitcoin arriving at news outlets soon after.

But the note provided no proof of life, and a final ᴅᴇᴀᴅline for ransom — which said Nancy would be in danger if it wasn’t paid — came and went on Monday with no apparent change.

And all the while, cops have admitted they had no suspects and no clear leads, with the clock ticking and Nancy in dire need of daily medication for health troubles.

But DNA appeared to have been recovered from the home, and police have collected samples from several people like Nancy’s landscaper and pool cleaner, Fox News reported.

The results of those tests remain unclear, but police have confirmed one DNA hit from the home – Nancy’s own, pulled from a splatter of blood found on the same front steps where the masked invader was seen prowling.

The frightening new images were also the first definitive indication that Nancy really had been kidnapped — and Savannah turned to social media to spread them to her 1.7 million followers.

“We believe she is still alive. Bring her home,” Savannah wrote.

“Anyone with information, please contact 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or the Pima County Sheriff’s Department 520-351-4900.”

Arizona police tiplines have been flooded with calls ever since the images were released, CNN reported.

Savannah and her family, however, did not recognize the suspect, and neither did anybody in law enforcement – which is part of what prompted investigators to release the pH๏τo to the public, NBC News reported.

Guthrie was last seen at her Catalina Foothills home by her son-in-law after being dropped off on Jan. 31.
Andy Johnstone for CA Post
And the investigation seemed to ramp up within hours, with search and rescue units from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department seen racing to Annie’s street and going door to door, and checking through brush and neighbors’ yards Tuesday afternoon.

But the release of the footage left some experts baffled that Nancy’s kidnappers have been able to hold her so long – as the perp in the footage displayed obvious signs of being an amateur, and anything but a hardened criminal.

“That is a very non-conventional way to carry a firearm. Very non-conventional,” former agent Mark Harrigan told The Post, referring to how the suspect holstered their gun.

“He has it in the open, which is unusual, because normally you would want it concealed when you’re going to do a crime, so you’re not calling attention to yourself with an exposed firearm,” he said.

“That’s potentially somebody that’s not normally armed or carrying a firearm around in public. Normally, you’d have it on the hip,” said Harrigan, formerly the chief of the FBI’s Firearms Training Program.

“You don’t carry it on your hip bone because it’s uncomfortable. He may have had it concealed in his backpack and decided then to put it on his waist when he got close to the door,” he added.

The suspect’s actions on camera also point to a possibly unsophisticated operation, Harrigan explained.

“You see the suspect come up to the door and he uses his hand to cover the camera, but only sort of,” he said.

“He balls his fist up, and then you see him walk back out of the vestibule there. It appears he’s looking for something to conceal the camera. He reaches down and picks up some vegetation in an attempt to cover the camera,” he added.

“A sophisticated person would have brought something from the very beginning. Either a hammer or something to remove the camera, or spray paint,” Harrigan said.