The FBI finally released the first images of Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abductor 10 days after she vanished from her Arizona home — a delay caused by two major obstacles — her security camera was missing and the 84-year-old grandmother didn’t subscribe to the camera’s back-up storage plan.
The long-awaited release of the horrifying break-in footage recorded by the missing Nest camera shows just what parent company Google is capable of, one expert said.
Guthrie wasn’t paying for a Google Home subscription which would have stored her Nest feed, even if the physical camera was removed. It costs $10 a month — or $100 a year — for the base service that saves video triggered by movements or “events” for 30 days.
“It gives us some insight to what Google is capable of,” former prosecutor and current criminal defense lawyer John W. Day told The Post.
“Even without paid subscription, there is a way to go to some data center and spend a lot of time and effort to try to find that particular camera, at that particular time without a subscription,” Day said. “You can only imagine how difficult that was if it took 10 days to get there.”
He explained that investigators could have gotten the video from Google in one of three main ways: the feds could have gotten a search warrant from a judge to issue to Google; the family could have authorized the tech giant to conduct the search; or Google could have voluntarily opted to track it down.
“Everyone has the same incentive, which is to find this sweet woman before too long,” Day said. “Google had every reason to cooperate. The family has got to be grateful, law enforcement has to be grateful.”
“It’s a miraculous turn of events because this could be the thing that leads to a break in the case,” the attorney added.
Guthrie hasn’t been seen since her son-in-law dropped her off at her home at 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 31. The investigation into her disappearance was deemed criminal on Feb. 2, after a supposed $6 ransom note was sent to news outlets. The note’s deadline lapsed without any known change to Guthrie’s status.
The footage of a masked person tinkering with the Nest camera outside her Tucson home appeared to confirm the theory that the mom of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie was kidnapped.
“We believe she is still alive. Bring her home,” Savannah wrote in a social media post Tuesday.
Maria Shriver, journalist and ex-wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger, had questioned in a social media post why it took so long for the video to come out.
“How did they only find it now? What does Nest have to say about this?” Shriver wrote.