Real Cost of Chaos dives into the FBI’s surveillance breakthrough in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance—gloved, masked suspect tampering with a doorbell camera near her Tucson home on January 31st. Advanced tech like reverse lighting refinement and pacemaker data analysis may pinpoint clues, while ransom emails remain unconfirmed as genuine. Callers debate medical incidents, media bias, and conspiracy theories, but hostage negotiator Jason Pack insists the family’s proactive approach and law enforcement’s digital focus could lead to an arrest soon. The episode ties Guthrie’s case to broader political tensions, culminating in Congressman Matt Van Epps’ testimony on U.S. Customs and Border Control’s role. [Automatically generated summary]
Hour two, Sean Hannity Show, 800-941, Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
If you're just joining us, the FBI released surveillance photos, videos of a potential suspect in the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of the co-anchor of the Today Show, Savannah Guthrie.
Four images depicting a person wearing gloves, mask, backpack, appearing to tamper with the camera and cover up the recording that obviously they figured was going on.
The FBI director Kash Patel said the potential suspect is armed.
The FBI said yesterday it had not identified any suspects or persons of interest.
Same with local law enforcement.
Now she's been missing since she was dropped off outside of her home at her home outside of Tucson on the night of January 31st, reported missing on February 1st.
Today, it is February 10th.
We're in day 10.
Now, the FBI has launched a webpage with details about the disappearance.
By the way, if you're in Tucson and listening to this program, though, the Sheriff's Department is asking Tucson residents to keep the 911 line open in case people have real emergencies.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, visited the Tucson Command Center in this case yesterday.
The Guthrie family does not recognize the person in the surveillance images.
They are asking the public for help.
If anybody can maybe have suspects that they might know who this person is, the president has weighed in on this.
He saw the images, the videos.
His reaction was pure disgust, according to Caroline Levitt.
And also that the president, again, pledging his support for the family and offering all federal assistance.
And, you know, this is really the first break in the case.
Savannah Guthrie posts the video, said, someone out there recognizes this person.
And again, everybody, if you have any information, you know, call it in.
What the videos show of the potential suspect, images, you know, person wearing gloves, mask, khaki, sneakers, backpack, appearing to tamper with the camera at the front door of the morning on the morning of the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.
The person's eyes are visible through the holes in the mask.
The images and videos don't show a vehicle nearby, though it may be elsewhere on the street.
And, you know, that's where we are at this particular time, but it's certainly the biggest break we've had in 10 days.
Here to break it all down and unpack all of this.
Jason Pack, retired FBI supervisory special agent and hostage negotiator.
Nicole Parker is with us, author of the bestseller, The Two FBIs, also a Fox News contributor.
Nicole, start with you.
What do you glean from all of this today?
I think the first breakthrough we've had, I think this may be what ultimately cracks the case, and I'm certainly hopeful that it does.
I agree with you, Sean.
This is monumental for this investigation, and this is what the Guthrie family has been waiting for.
You know, up until today, it seemed like things were kind of stalling out with the ransom deadlines yesterday.
Nothing really seemed to be happening.
But rest assured that behind the scenes, there's a lot more going on than we're aware of.
And the FBI is going full force.
And this video and these images, there will be someone who will watch this and say, look, I recognize that person.
I have to turn them in.
And you do have to turn them in.
And the tip line is 800 C A L L F B I.
So right now, the FBI is gathering, obviously, all of the tips coming in.
But one thing that I think is very interesting is that there are people that the FBI has been looking at, I believe, as potential persons of interest, although they have not named a suspect.
They have not named a person of interest.
Obviously, right now, I'm watching live coverage.
There are agents and investigators that are at Annie Guthrie's neighbor's home.
Okay.
I don't know that that's a coincidence, but what this does is now whoever did this and their image has been seen by millions of people, and it will be seen by millions more.
They're on notice.
The gig is up.
Do you think Celebrite is what actually this technology that we've been discussing since this happened?
Do you think that played a part in them able to being able to retrieve this video?
So the private sector company, I'm not sure which one it was, that they worked with the FBI because originally they said, you know, we're not, the FBI didn't think that they were going to be able to get these images, but that's not going to work in this investigation.
They're going to keep digging in deep.
Celebrite is actually used to image cellular telephones, tablets, computers, things of that sort.
So I think the actual image from this, it may have been used because, again, it can be used to image doorbell cameras and things of that sort.
But it really was the private corporation that worked with the FBI because originally they didn't think that they'd be able to obtain this.
They didn't accept no as an answer and they continued to get it.
Because remember, they said that she didn't have a paid subscription.
Well, depending on the type of camera that she had, potentially, I'm not sure in this instance, but you can get potentially three hours of feed without a subscription.
Let's say if it was a Nest Aware Plus camera.
But we don't know the exact detail of what it was.
But let me tell you, though, Celebrite, that's extremely crucial right now because remember, they've imaged the devices likely of the surrounding family members, those in her immediate contact.
They're going to be going in and looking at communications.
And I just look at these images, Sean.
I don't know about you, but those eyes, those are very telling.
The eyebrows, those.
I totally agree with you.
You know, I have my own theories.
I'm going to keep them to myself for now.
But I would not be surprised if we have an arrest tonight or within the next 24 hours.
I would not be surprised at all.
And hopefully the recovery of Nancy Guthrie.
I'm hoping.
And I'm not going to give up on that hope.
Let me ask you, as a retired supervisory special agent and hostage negotiator, Jason, there was one FBI special agent, Lance Lessing, I think is his name, based in Arizona, said in legitimate ransom case, kidnappers usually move fast.
They establish leverage quickly.
Communication begins within hours, not days, of abduction.
Proof of life is produced early and often.
The opposite happened here.
As a professional hostage negotiator, what is the best way to handle this?
Well, Sean, I think the family handled it exactly correctly.
You have to treat it like it's real, even though it doesn't fit any statistical patterns that may pop up.
So the family did exactly the right thing.
They worked with the FBI's crisis negotiation unit and the negotiators there from the Tucson RA to craft these messages to see if anybody would come back.
And so when that didn't happen, as Nicole mentioned earlier, I've been on the work.
I've been in these command posts where I've been the one working on these alternative theories and working on not the shiny object that everybody else is pursuing, but these other alternative theories.
And you've seen the results of that today.
So just think if they would have waited to start doing that now.
They haven't been.
They've been working on it hard.
And it sounds like that this has gone all the way to the FBI's computer scientists.
And it sounds like, I don't know if they're on the same workbench.
They're at Google and Denesse company and trying to work with them to make sure to get this data out.
But whatever they did, they found the proverbial needle in the haystack.
It's actually remarkable work by the agents.
I don't know.
Nicole, have you been able to see what people have been doing online?
And I can't affirm it 100%, but they do reverse lighting and you get a much clearer image.
Is that real?
I believe that they'll be able to refine these images even more.
And I think that there's actually going to be even more evidence coming out.
Remember that they took that camera off of the roof a few days after the fact.
And so I do think that they'll be able to get it even more refined.
But talking about the ransom emails, and I agree, I think that these ransoms are usually, the more and more as time's passing, I'm beginning to think it was a false flag.
I'm beginning to think that the offender actually used that to distract law enforcement resources because the ransoms are usually very succinct.
They're usually straightforward and the directions are minimal.
And those are the typical three key elements of a ransom.
And we didn't see that in this.
We saw the two-tier deadline between a Thursday and a Monday.
And usually the ransom, you know, sometimes the grievance can be surmised from the ransom, not always.
But the ransom states what the offender wants, how they want it, and the timeframe which they have to act, and they want it to move quickly.
In this instance, they didn't want it to move quickly.
It's as if the offender wanted more time to do what they needed to do.
And if this was a false flag, meaning that the offender was involved in the ransom email, it's starting to make sense now, or if it was just a full-on hoax.
But what we do know is that based on our understanding, there was no ransom paid.
And so it leads investigations.
Do we know that for sure?
We know it wasn't paid to the original letters wallet, their crypto wallet.
Again, we don't know for certain because, again, TMZ received the first ransom email.
They didn't receive the second.
They had the wallet address for the first email.
Potentially the second one may have had different instructions, but let's say that it was the first, hypothetically speaking.
Those are public.
The blockchain is public.
Like those transactions, that ledger is public to the person that knows the wallet address.
And so to our knowledge.
If they do transfer it within minutes, they could be transferring it and buying other crypto and selling it.
And, you know, they could be doing a million different things that would not be traceable at that point.
Am I right?
Well, no, it would always have to hit the ledger, though.
That initial transaction to get to the $6 million that they required in Bitcoin, that would show up on the ledger.
Yeah.
Let me go back to this issue of hostage negotiation.
I mean, give us examples of what usually happens in a hostage negotiation.
There are some people that called me and said, under no circumstances do they think anybody should ever pay.
And I just flat out disagree.
I think that's got to be an individualized decision.
And I mean, how would you live with yourself if you can afford to pay or raise the money to pay?
And it ends up because you didn't pay, they end up killing somebody.
I don't know if I could live with myself.
Jason.
You're right, Sean.
Yeah, you're right, Sean.
It's absolutely correct.
And these are transactional things.
People plan, people who do kidnappings for ransom want the money.
They want to make it easy to communicate.
They certainly do not go on national television or local TV stations with a ransom demand.
They want to stay in control of that.
They want to have a private line to the family so they can go back and forth and give that proof of life and get the ball rolling as far as making that transaction.
We didn't see that here.
I do want to point out, Sean, I was on the stage at the Boston Marathon bombing press conference.
I flipped one of those posters over revealing black hat and white hat.
And that next 24 to 48 hours after that photograph was out there was super chaotic.
And this is going to be the best chance that law enforcement has, that the FBI has, now that that subject's photo is out there to capture him, he's likely, like Nicole said, has seen himself on this, on the news worldwide, on every phone, on every billboard.
And now, what does he do?
He's got some decisions to make.
If he knows where Miss Nancy is, does he move her?
Does he flee?
What does he do?
This puts a tremendous amount of pressure, and that's what law enforcement is counting on to make a mistake to find this person.
That's what everybody's hope is.
Nicole, what do you want to add?
You know, I kind of, in law enforcement, we talk a lot about tickling the wire, and that's what you kind of, this is almost a form of tickling the wire.
Like, we want the suspect to know, hey, we're on you, and we want to see how certain people respond.
So, again, law enforcement is going to be looking closely at the people in the Guthries Direct, because I think everyone at this point, we're not certain, but a lot of people agree that it's probably someone that knew Nancy that was either close to her and her circle of close friends or contacts or even family members.
So, right now, law enforcement is going to be seeing how certain people react.
The other thing that they or maybe people that worked on the property at some point.
Exactly.
A home care nurse, a pool cleaner, any of those things that were home care workers.
But again, John, it may not be the individual who potentially had a grievance.
It could be that they paid someone to do it.
I've worked murder for hire cases.
The actual person who orchestrates it may never have entered the crime scene.
It could be the person with the issue.
The offender could be on the scene, or it could be the offender with the grievance behind the scenes conspiring and sending someone else in to do the dirty work.
And so there's many layers of complex, you know, complexities here, but it's important to note that taking these images and the tips, and now they're going to comb it together, and they're going to piece it with the technological artifacts and the evidence.
They're going to look to see what cell phones were trying to connect to that router, that Wi-Fi router.
Were there any people that were trying to connect their phone?
You know, like when you go into a phone, it says, would you like to connect to the Wi-Fi?
Was that happening between the hours that this individual was in the home?
How savvy were they?
And these are types of things that law enforcement isn't giving to the public, but I guarantee you that's what's happening.
And the pacemaker.
The pacemaker is huge.
That pacemaker, a suspect cannot take that outside of, you know, it would take a lot of work for them to, you know, disconnect the pacemaker inside of her body.
Whether the app was continuing to function or not, that pacemaker continues to work.
And there's an app and there's a cloud and there's a company that has all of that data.
And I guarantee you the FBI is going through that very, very closely.
Would it give them a location?
I think I'm not, I can't speak certain of that, but I believe if someone is alive, that pacemaker is going to continue to work.
And if someone is not, that pacemaker is likely not going to continue to work.
Okay.
Thank You, Nicole Parker00:10:02
We appreciate both of you.
Jason Pack, thank you.
Nicole Parker.
We'll see you on TV tonight.
We appreciate you both.
All right, let's get to our busy phones.
Let's say hi to Michael.
He's in St. Louis.
Michael, hi, how are you?
Glad you called.
Hey, just wanted to say, number one, thank you for all that you do.
Love listening.
Thank you for letting me do it.
I love doing what I do, and I'm blessed to do what I do.
Yeah.
Well, anyway, I just wanted to say quickly, because I know I'm on the radio, despite any political, you know, Savannah and this or that, I think we're blessed to live in a country that this rarely happens.
And I think that even if she wasn't related to Savannah, that this would be a big deal.
And it's got me feeling like Denzel Washington in Man on Fire.
You know, I'm...
Denzel Washington is one of my favorite actors.
I think he's great.
I think he's amazing.
He's so good.
He's so diverse in the roles that he can play.
He's really good.
And his personal life, too, which I appreciate.
Absolutely.
No, I agree.
Look, you know, for whatever reason, and I guess Linda could weigh in more than me on this because she reads a lot more social media than I do.
But I got word from Blair, who does our social media, that I was getting hammered because one night I said, I don't want this to be interpreted as being political.
But if you want to know when I say every life matters, that's why this story matters.
That's why we talk about how many people are shot and shot and killed in Chicago every weekend.
And it's mind-numbing to me that if you can't politicize it and weaponize it or use it against Donald Trump, you don't know the names of the people shot and shot and killed every weekend, and nobody lifts a finger to help these people.
That's why when ICE is risking their lives to rescue people and to arrest child molesters and murderers and rapists, other violent criminals and terrorists, I'm like, wow.
I mean, they get no credit for what they've been doing.
And they've done a tremendous job to make us more safe and secure.
I'm not saying they're perfect.
I'm just saying, you know, give them credit where credit's due.
But, you know, every life really does matter.
And I think maybe people will think differently about it after this.
I hope so.
Me too.
Me too.
All right, my friend.
God bless you.
Let's stay with another Mike.
This one in Ohio.
Mike, how are you?
Glad you called.
Thanks, Sean.
Thanks for taking my call.
Thank you for calling.
What's on your mind?
You're welcome.
I love it.
So I just want to say this, and I haven't heard it said, and I almost feel bad saying it, but I think Mrs. Guthrie died somehow shortly after.
I mean, within a day or two.
She's no longer with us is my gut feeling.
I hate to even say that.
And I feel like it was just an amateurish thing that happened.
Somebody screwed up.
She passed out, maybe had a stroke, whatever.
She's an older gal.
And I don't think they're ever, it's going to be a long time before they find out whatever happened to her.
That's just how I feel.
I'm just not willing to go where you're going here.
The family believes she's alive.
I'm looking at how premeditated in these videos and pictures we now have, this all seems to be, how sophisticated the Bitcoin ploy was.
And I'm going with she's alive.
And unless I hear otherwise, I'm not willing to think about a worst case scenario.
Well, I hope she's alive.
I mean, everybody does, but it just seems weird to me.
I don't know.
I just think something went wrong, and that's what happened.
But what do I know?
I appreciate the call, my friend.
Thank you.
800-941-Sean is on number if you want to be a part of the program.
Joe, South Carolina.
What's up, Joe?
How are you?
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you on this, Sean.
I'm just talking about the Don Lennon situation.
I've got to say, I don't think that he deserves to be really recognized as a journalist.
I've spent 50 years in broadcasting, going back to the late 1960s and traveled through all of that.
And if he had been working for me, the first thing I would have done since he had already spoken to the agitators was actually edging them on to come in, he wouldn't have been working for me that long.
Oh, I mean, I thought Pam Bondi described it perfectly when we interviewed her about this case and the arrests that have taken place.
Is anybody that is a participant, remember, he was clearly in support of this group, what they were doing, and giving them donuts and coffee.
He seemed like an active participant in the whole thing.
And very different than just going in there and covering it.
And the FACE Act is very, very clear.
And he's on tape saying he doesn't care what the FACE Act says, this is your constitutional right to protest, and this is what America is all about.
Unfortunately, that's not accurate with what the and it's interesting.
The left loved the FACE Act because it protects women's rights to go into an abortion clinic.
And that's very clear, too.
So, you know, the idea that anybody can say, well, I've got an iPhone and a camera, and I'm acting as a journalist, and therefore I'm not in trouble here.
I don't think it's going to fly, but let's see how it plays out.
He'll make his case, and they'll see what happens.
Yeah, I don't think he should be protected in any way.
I go back to the days of Walter Cronkite and the like when we were actually licensed in the public interest.
And to have a journalist, quote unquote, come out and really side one way or the other, that's not the public interest.
Yeah, well said.
Anyway, I appreciate the call.
Thank you, Joe, South Carolina.
Good analysis.
800-941-Sean is our number if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, let's get back to our busy telephones.
In the meantime, let us say hi to George, my free state of Florida.
What's up, George?
How are you?
Glad you called.
Hey, Sean, how are you doing?
Hey, I watched the Super Bowl with my 81-year-old mom and my wife.
And we had a choice of our halftime, and we quickly changed the channel and put on the turning point, Sean.
And we just are, it was just awesome to know that we have choices now.
This is like another turning point moment where we had 6.2 million people turn on the YouTube just live.
And probably by the end of the day, when everything's totaled up, it's going to be 40 to 50 million people choosing other alternatives of media.
And that's going to be so powerful that I'm just so excited that we were able to have that opportunity because we're able to talk over the heads of the legacy media who's controlled by the Democratic Party.
And this is this one showing that we have alternatives that it's going to awaken the American people who realize, hey, we don't want to be fed a group of twerking or watch something where we mostly can't.
But I've given up hope on these halftime shows a long time ago, to be very honest with you.
There's not that many that I want to see.
And I kind of use it as my time to get food.
So it didn't matter.
But I did watch this year because I knew many of you would want to talk about it.
And I was watching both the turning point event and, you know, Bad Bunny, or we affectionately refer to him as Bugs Bunny because I grew up watching Bugs Bunny.
What's up, Doc?
You know, it just is what it is.
I mean, I just kind of accept that they just make a decision seemingly every year to play into this woke DEI mindset mentality.
They think it's beneficial to them.
I guess I don't know.
Don't really care.
I was hoping more for a good game.
It wasn't a good game.
And I often say that the Super Bowl is very often anticlimactic, especially when you consider the level of play in the games and how close they were and the comebacks leading up to.
I just thought the game was itself kind of boring, to be blunt.
Yeah, but they also, I said, it was a learning for us to say, not only get some food, but also realize, hey, what's going on here?
This is the first year they had some alternative and just continue to build.
So it's just, it's another point, media, another point in our political process that as long as we talk over the heads of the mainstream media directly to people, people are looking to say, hey, I'm not the only one who has these thoughts and it gives us the power.
So I'm actually glad that that turning point did that, but also it was a learning process.
And we can continue to show the power of the American people.
We can always change the channel, Sean.
And glad we have alternatives.
You know, that is the reason all these years, I've never called for people to be canceled.
I've never part of a boycott.
I've never have been.
I don't call for people to get fired.
I don't.
Just the opposite.
I've actually advocated for people I disagree with to remain on the air.
And sometimes I get criticized for it because I know ultimately they're going to want to cancel conservative voices like yours truly.
But it's bigger than that.
I mean, the beauty is in this day and age, you have more choices, more options, and nobody's forcing you to watch or listen to anything.
Glad We Have Alternatives00:03:27
The only way I can get people to listen to this radio show is to do a good show every day and make it that you don't want to miss it.
And the same with television.
I mean, I have to do a good show every night.
I feel that pressure to be competitive and put on the best show I can.
I've got a great show tonight.
I think you're going to like it.
So that's just one way I handle it.
Appreciate the call, my friend.
All right, we'll have more on these developments from all throughout the day today coming up in mere moments.
Some more of your calls coming up also.
800-941-Sean is on number if you want to be a part of the program.
Back to our busy phones.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
Doug and Maryland, Doug, how are you?
Glad you called, sir.
Hi, Sean.
I got a question for you.
How many times have you and Mark Levin told us don't take anything at face value with the Democratic Party?
A bunch, right?
A million, right?
Mike, what I'm looking at for this, Savannah's mother, if you look at the timeline, the Friday before she went missing, the Clintons came out and said they're going to talk to Congress.
Two days later, she shows up missing.
Now, you know, everything's not adding up, but if you look at Savannah's husband, Michael Feldman, who was in the administration for the Clintons and was called the scrubber for all that bleach bit stuff, don't you find that a little odd?
I don't see any grand conspiracy here.
What I see and what I suspect is this is a kidnapping, ransom, you know, 101.
What's frustrating to me is the level of sophistication that whoever's involved in this has shown up to now.
Whether that stays that way, I don't know.
Usually these people think they're clever.
They're not so clever.
They'll make a mistake.
And that's when law enforcement will pounce, especially with their new advanced technologies that they can use, their ability to go into our house and recover even erased encrypted messages.
I mean, that's something most people don't know a whole lot about.
So I'm just hopeful that there, my hope is, is that there is good news at the end of this story.
And we may know by tonight by the time we get on TV.
That's actually my hope.
But I don't see any nefarious connections on this.
There may be in the end.
And if it is, you know, I'll tip my hat to you and say you are right.
I was wrong.
I see a lot of connections, for example, with the chaos that is organized and well-funded as it relates to this anti-ICE mentality and attitude out there, but that's separate and apart.
Anyway, my friend, I do appreciate you being with us.
800-941-Sean, if you want to be a part of the program.
All right, when we come back, we're going to check in with Mike Van Epps.
He sits on the Homeland Security Committee joining us.
When we come back, we'll continue with Congressman Matt Van Epps of Tennessee.
He's on the Homeland Security Committee following the hearing this morning to discuss the testimony of the U.S. Customs and Border Control Commissioner and so on and so forth.
And we're also obviously following the new developments in the case of Savannah Guthrie's mom, Nancy, and the new developments, video pictures that we now have of the perpetrator.
And hopefully this is the break that everybody's been looking for.