Nancy Guthrie’s neighbors reported mysterious activity the day the 84-year-old disappeared from her Tucson home. One person told NewsNation that surveillance footage from his Ring camera from January 31 to February 1 was unavailable. Questions arose after a device was found in the suspect’s pocket in video pulled from a Nancy’s Nest camera. Is it a signal jammer? Has the Wi-Fi connection been tampered with? Experts answered everyone’s questions one by one.
Experts weigh in on jammer theory
Legal and cybersecurity experts say the idea suggests significant planning but may not be entirely consistent with the evidence uncovered so far. “If they were used, it shows an alarming amount of planning,” said Joshua Ritter, a Los Angeles defense attorney and Fox News contributor.
Other experts noted that investigators were able to retrieve video from Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera, although the device itself was missing and the home reportedly did not have a cloud storage subscription.
“If they were using a Wi-Fi jammer, then I wouldn’t anticipate that we would be able to see any video from the front door camera,” Morgan Wright, CEO and founder of the National Cold Case Center, told Fox News. “I’ve seen some videos of other gangs using Wi-Fi jammers, and if one of them was functioning properly and persisted, you wouldn’t get a clear picture like we did from the front.”
“Routers don’t see jammers as devices,” Wright added. “It’s not trying to connect…all an RF (radio frequency) jammer does is fill the frequency band with noise, making it impossible to decode legitimate signals.”
Suspect caught on camera
The FBI previously released images recovered from Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera, showing a masked man standing on the victim’s porch holding a backpack and a holster.
Authorities have not confirmed whether the same person is depicted in each frame of the images, but investigators are still analyzing footage and other evidence.
