Nancy Guthrie missing case: Who is Carlos Palazuelos? Rio Rico man released after being detained for questioning

Rio Rico resident Carlos Palazuelos, who said he was detained for questioning in the Nancy Guthrie missing case, was later released, according to ABC15. He said he was kept at the scene of the initial traffic stop for several hours.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), police said the individual was detained at a location south of Tucson, Arizona, where Savannah Guthrie's mother lived. Multiple media reports also said a home in Rio Rico was searched, and a woman Josefina Maddox, identifying herself as the detained man’s mother-in-law claimed he was picked up by the officials while making a DoorDash delivery.

Josefina called Carlos as a “good guy” and maintained that he has no criminal record or history of violence, according to News Nation. After being shown surveillance images of the person captured on Nancy’s Ring camera, she refuted that the individual bore any resemblance to Carlos.

Josefina said she was “positive” that her son-in-law was at home at the time Guthrie went missing. She explained that he stays at her house on weekends and does not go anywhere.

When asked whether he could have left during the night, she responded, “Oh, no, no,” adding that his van is currently not working.

Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings have issued multiple video appeals asking for their mother’s safe return and signaling a willingness to pay a ransom. Officials have described Nancy Guthrie as mentally alert but with limited mobility. She relies on several medications, and Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has repeatedly expressed concern that she could face life-threatening consequences without them.

Rio Rico, a community of about 20,000 residents, is located roughly an hour from Guthrie’s home and about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The footage released earlier Tuesday shows an individual wearing a ski mask and carrying a backpack. At one moment, the person lowers their head and turns away from the doorbell camera while approaching Guthrie’s front door. The video also captures the individual holding a flashlight in their mouth and attempting to block the camera with a gloved hand and a piece of a plant pulled from the yard.

The clips, totaling less than a minute, offered investigators and the public their first view of someone outside Guthrie’s home in the foothills near Tucson. However, the footage did not reveal what happened to her or clarify whether she remains alive.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the “armed individual” appeared to "have tampered with the camera," though it was not known whether there was actually a gun in the holster.

Patel said the videos were recovered from data on "back-end systems” after investigators spent numerous days attempting to locate footage that had been lost, corrupted, or otherwise inaccessible.

(With inputs from AP)