FBI releases chilling footage of masked intruder at Nancy Guthrie's door

The FBI has released images of a masked intruder appearing to tamper with a surveillance camera at Nancy Guthrie's home.

FBI director Kash Patel posted four images from a video taken on the missing woman's front doorstep early on the morning of her disappearance on 1 February.

He explained that the footage had been recovered from "residual data located in backend systems", after an eight-day data recovery process.

"As of this morning, 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."

The black-and-white images show the person wearing a mask, dark gloves, a sweater, pants and a backpack.

Patel subsequently posted a 27-second video that showed the person loitering outside the front door, and a 14-second video of the person appearing to cover the door camera with foliage.

It was previously reported that a security camera at Guthrie's home detected a "person on camera" at 2.12am on 1 February, but there was no video to show what triggered that alert.

Guthrie is the mother of US Today show host Savannah Guthrie. The television anchor has posted numerous videos since her mother's disappearance, including one that acknowledged a "message" from the purported kidnapper.