Police officers in Arizona have released the man they detained in connection with the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie's mother Nancy.
On Tuesday, investigators with the Pima County Sheriff's Department, with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), detained a person of interest during a traffic stop and searched his home.
This was part of the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Nancy, 84, who authorities believe was taken "against her will" from her house in the middle of the night over a week ago.
However, on Tuesday night, a man was released after hours in police custody, and he spoke to several reporters near his home in Rio Rico.
In an interview with local station ABC15, the man, who identified himself as Carlos, insisted he was innocent. He also claimed that he was held at the scene of the initial traffic stop by local authorities for two hours before the detectives arrived.
"They told me I was being detained for kidnapping, and I asked them, 'Kidnapping of who?'" Carlos said, insisting he'd never heard of Nancy Guthrie and didn't know about her disappearance.
"I'm innocent, I'll tell you that. I didn't do anything," he claimed. "I didn't even know what was going on until the FBI and the Pima County detectives arrived and they told me you're being detained for kidnapping and all of a sudden, they're reading me my Miranda rights."
Carlos added that after several hours of questioning, he was told he was "free to go".
In a separate interview with CBS News outside the front door of his home, Carlos alleged that he noticed he was being followed by police while working as a delivery driver on Tuesday.
He declared, "I hope they get the suspect because I'm not it."
The news of the detention came several hours after the FBI released images and videos showing an armed, masked person at Nancy's doorstep on the night of her disappearance.
Today show host Savannah shared them on Instagram and wrote, "Someone out there recognizes this person. We believe she is still out there. Bring her home," urging anyone with information to contact the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her home in Catalina Foothills on the night of 31 January.
