Nancy Guthrie: Why Was Carlos Detained & Then Released?

The Nancy Guthrie abduction case surged forward and true crime followers saw that footage showed an intruder at her home. Plus, the news arrived that a person of interest ended up detained in Rio Rico. Well, since then, the news also arrived that Carlos was released with no charges. Why was he arrested in the first place? Read on to find out.

The Tip-Off

The tip arrived on Tuesday, and Brian Entin raced off to Rio Rico, south of Tucson. His coverage came via News Nation and later, he followed up on his Brian Entin Investigates podcast on YouTube. Obviously, true crime followers wanted to know more about the arrest and the release of Carlos, a family man.

In his updates, Entin recapped how he interviewed the arrested man’s mother-in-law, who explained that the cops broke down the door after Carlos was picked up at a traffic stop. Also, folks already knew that SWAT deployed to the area. So, it was a heavy scene.

“His family members were like, ‘There’s no way he’s involved in Nancy Guthrie,'” Entin said. “He wasn’t out of town last weekend. He doesn’t know anything about Bitcoin.” Plus, he talked about the fact that Carlos worked as a delivery driver in the Tucson area which might have meant he was spotted in the area of Nancy Guthrie’s home.

An Expert Weighs In

Kurt Dab, a longtime homicide detective, joined Entin to explain what probably happened. “He was a delivery driver,” Dab said. “He may or may not have delivered a package in that area. I’m assuming he probably was.”

Next, he emphasized that law enforcement doesn’t detain people randomly: “I used to tell bad guys this all the time. Look, I didn’t just pick your name out of a phone book randomly.”

Why Was He Released?

As for the fact that Carlos ended up released, Dab mentioned that that sort of thing often happens in serious cases. “Leads are going to pan out and they’re not going to pan out. You have to sus everyone out.”

In this instance, it seems that the FBI didn’t detain the wrong man, but they just checked out a lead on a potential suspect who turned out uninvolved in the case.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t an update by the FBI or the Pima Sheriff’s office after the release of Carlos. However, earlier Entin spotted two law enforcement agents return to Nancy Guthrie’s house.

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Still Working The Case

Brian explained that they arrived in a gray SUV. He noticed that they wore gloves and entered the home. He said, “They went inside the house….They came out with a brown bag. [and] were not in the house for long. Then, they also went and got mail out of the mailbox.”

Additionally, there are still things going on, and it seems that searches continue. Entin said that officials carry out searches along roadways in the Catalina Foothills. Plus, a source told him that they asked folks living in the area near Nancy Guthrie’s home about “something that may have been dropped.”

Entin connected that to the surveillance footage released this week. He wondered, “When you look back at those pictures of the suspect, what he was wearing, then the mask, the backpack, the gloves, all that. Are they looking to see if something was maybe thrown out of a car window?”

The FBI Need Help

Regarding the images from the video, it indicated that the FBI really do need help from the public. Brian noted, “One of my buddies in the FBI was saying we don’t ever like to release photos.” So, the suggestion is that “If the FBI is releasing photos, it means that they actually need help.”

Dab agreed about the release of the images, saying, “A lot of times they’ll release something in the media to [trigger] action by the individual that they’re looking for.”

Whether that applied to Carlos remains unclear. He’s home now, and hopefully his mother-in-law got her phone back from the feds.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below, and come back here for all your true crime news and updates. Plus, we do have a crime channel on TikTok which you can follow on this link.