The masked man who is suspected of the abduction of Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, appears to have visited her home before her kidnapping.

On Monday, February 23, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI reached their 23rd day searching for the mother of the Today Show host, 54. They have yet to provide any major leads on potential suspects, but have released the shocking footage of a masked intruder taken from Nancy’s front door Nest camera.

Now, sources say that the man seemingly appeared at her front door earlier than February 1, the day she was pronounced missing. It comes after an ex-FBI agent revealed the hidden codeword that Savannah used in her message to the kidnappers.

The FBI released several images of the suspect at Nancy’s front door, with and without a backpack. The snap that showed the man without the backpack was captured by Nancy’s Nest doorbell camera on the day before her apparent abduction, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

The FBI said the images of the suspect with the backpack on are from “the morning of her disappearance,” Sunday, February 1, when Nancy didn’t appear for a virtual church service.

The masked suspect in Nancy Guthrie’s case appeared to visit her house before kidnapping (Image: FBI)

The sources claim the suspect approached the door the first time but noticed the camera and was scared off.

His return later, captured in the photos and videos released by the FBI, saw him tampering with the camera and placing branches in front of the lens.

Jason Pack, a former FBI agent, told ABC News that if it is the same person, “it could indicate that the person was there surveilling the place before the abduction happened.”

“The fact that there was preparation and planning, which makes it more of a sophisticated type of criminal activity than someone just showing up,” he said.

However, the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department have declined to comment on the apparent gap in time between the photos.

The gap could be the reason why investigators have asked Nancy’s neighbors to check their home security footage for suspicious people and vehicles between January 1 and the kidnapping. The images are so far the most important pieces of evidence in the investigation into Nancy’s disappearance.

The photo that showed the suspect with the backpack was taken the night of Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapping (Image: AP)

Investigators have been working tirelessly on the case since Savannah’s mother vanished from her home on February 1.

However, the case could soon shift to a smaller, long-term task force team after key leads developed have still drawn a blank, ABC News reported, citing “sources with knowledge of the case.”

Although partial DNA was recovered from inside Nancy’s Tucson, Arizona, property, it has not been identified.

No vehicle has been linked to her abduction, and no further footage to aid the investigation has been recovered from her home security system, which had no active subscription at the time of her going missing.

Meanwhile, images of the subject of interest in the case have not helped investigators identify her abductor to date.

However, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has told the New York Post that it has between 300 and 400 personnel assigned to the case and that staffing levels have not changed since the investigation began.

They have also claimed that currently, no plans are in place to reduce the resources dedicated to the search for Nancy, and that should the situation change, the press will be notified. Sheriff Chris Nanos has also publicly vowed to find Nancy.

Meanwhile, Michael Ruiz, a reporter for Fox News Digital, joined the search over the weekend and chronicled his and others’ efforts on X.

Savannah Guthrie has pleaded with potential kidnappers for Nancy Guthrie’s return (Image: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
 

In his first post, Ruiz wrote, “Good morning. It’s now been more than three weeks since Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abduction in Tucson. DNA results remain pending.

“Investigators have received additional home surveillance video from the surrounding area, but no details about what it shows have been made public. There’s at least one suspect, described as a man of average height and build, carrying a black Ozark Trail backpack.

“A volunteer search team is expected to hit the ground this morning. The combined reward for information that cracks the case exceeds $200K. More as we get it.”

In one of his updates, Ruiz shared a snap of a searcher holding up a backpack and wrote, “They picked up a Swissgear brand backpack in a drainage ditch.”

Ruiz shared that the bag has been “reported to authorities,” and that the group found it “inside a drainage tunnel under Orange Grove Rd.”