Expert: 'Rookie' suspect made grave error in Nancy Guthrie case

An expert said the suspect made a grave error when breaking into Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson home on Feb. 1. A Nest camera mounted beside her front door was tampered with and disconnected, but the last image sent to the company’s servers remained recoverable. Andy Kay, a longtime private investigator, explained that Nest cameras record to servers while connected to the internet.

Without a subscription the images are usually overwritten, but if the camera is disconnected there is nothing to overwrite, making the final frames retrievable. Authorities released the newly recovered images and video showing a masked, armed individual carrying a backpack approaching the front door, fidgeting with the camera and using foliage to try to cover it.

Kay called the suspect a “rookie” and noted the weapon appeared to be holstered incorrectly. Investigators said the footage was recovered from residual data in backend systems after working with private-sector partners.

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