A person has been detained for questioning in connection with the abduction of Nancy Guthrie, ABC News reported Tuesday night.
The individual was detained in a location south of Tucson, the source told ABC News, and law enforcement is preparing to search a location associated with the individual.
This is a developing story. Check back with wsoctv.com and watch Eyewitness News for updates.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department, with assistance from the FBI, detained the person.
Earlier in the day, the FBI released surveillance images of masked person on Nancy Guthrie’s porch.
[ Search for Nancy Guthrie: FBI releases surveillance photos, video ]
However, there’s no indication that the person who was detained is the figure seen in the newly released video footage.
The masked person who had a handgun holster was caught on camera outside Nancy Guthrie’s front door the night she disappeared. The FBI made the announcement Tuesday as it released the images in the first major break in a case that has gripped the nation for more than a week.
The person wearing a backpack and a ski mask can be seen in a video tilting their head down and away from a doorbell camera while nearing an archway at the home of the mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
The images did not show what happened to 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie or help determine whether she is still alive.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the “armed individual” appeared to “have tampered with the camera.” It was not entirely clear whether there was a gun in the holster.
The videos were pulled from data on “back-end systems” after investigators spent days trying to find lost, corrupted or inaccessible images, Patel said.
“This will get the phone ringing for lots of potential leads,” said former FBI agent Katherine Schweit. “Even when you have a person who appears to be completely covered, they’re really not. You can see their girth, the shape of their face, potentially their eyes or mouth.”
By Tuesday afternoon, authorities were back near Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood, using vehicles to block her driveway. A few miles away, law enforcement was going door-to-door in the area where daughter Annie Guthrie lives, talking with neighbors as well as walking through a drainage area and examining the inside of a culvert with a flashlight.
Investigators have said for more than a week that they believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will. She was last seen at home Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed blood on her porch was hers, authorities said.
She has high blood pressure and issues with mobility and her heart, and she needs daily medication, officials have said.
The latest developments in the case came a day after Savannah Guthrie made an impassioned plea to the public to help solve her mother’s disappearance.
“We are at an hour of desperation, and we need your help,” Savannah Guthrie said in an Instagram video, speaking directly to the camera. It was the fourth video that Guthrie and her two siblings had released on social media since their mother vanished.
The exact time of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is unclear. Her doorbell camera disconnected at 1:47 a.m., on Feb. 1, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. At 2:12 a.m., the camera software detected a person, and at 2:28 a.m., Nancy Guthrie’s pacemaker app disconnected from her phone, which was left behind at her house, Nanos said.
Over the weekend, the Guthrie family received a demand for a bitcoin ransom by a Monday deadline by a party claiming to be Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapper. Savannah Guthrie and her siblings said they’d pay for their mother’s return.
“We received your message and we understand,” Savannah Guthrie said in an Instagram video over the weekend. “We beg you now to return our mother to us so we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
After the ransom deadline passed Monday evening, the FBI released a statement, saying its agents continued to work around the clock on the case and that more were being sent to Arizona to assist in the investigation.
“The FBI is not aware of any continued communication between the Guthrie family and suspected kidnappers, nor have we identified a suspect or person of interest in this case at this time,” the FBI said in its statement.
The bureau added that additional personnel from FBI field offices nationwide would continue to be deployed to the Tucson area to work on the case
“We are currently operating a 24-hour command post that includes crisis management experts, analytic support, and investigative teams. But we still need the public’s help,” the FBI’s statement said. “Someone has that one piece of information that can help us bring Nancy home.”
Anyone with information is urged to call 911, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this article.