A man in Rio Rico, Arizona, says he wants to clear his name after he was detained Tuesday night for questioning in the investigation of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
Carlos Palazuelos, a delivery driver, was stopped by Pima County police roughly 60 miles south of Tucson.
“They told me I was being detained for kidnapping, and I asked them, ‘Kidnapping of who?’,” said Palazuelos. He added that he doesn’t know who Guthrie is.
“I told them I work in Tucson for GLS,” he said. “I might have delivered a package to her house, but I never kidnapped anybody.”
Palazuelos said after questioning him and searching his home and vehicle, the Pima County investigators gave no indication they planned to return. He said he was questioned from about 4 p.m. to midnight before he was eventually released.
According to an investigator, Palazuelos was detained as a result of an anonymous tip following the release of security camera video from Nancy Guthrie’s home.
“They said that my eyes and my eyelashes looked the same,” Palazuelos said.
The footage — released by the FBI Tuesday morning — showed a masked and armed individual with a backpack at Guthrie’s front door in Tucson, taken the night she disappeared. Arizona law enforcement officials say they’ve received more than 4,000 calls and counting since the video’s circulation.
“This video was a game changer,” said Casey Jordan, a criminologist and behavioral analyst. “We don’t know how many tips they have had, but they are looking for the person on the porch or anyone who knows anything about him. And I do think it’s just a matter of time before we know that person’s identity.”
