A delivery driver briefly detained in Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapping insisted early Wednesday that he’s innocent – and believes he was only questioned because a relative told cops his eyes looked like those of the masked suspect spotted in chilling surveillance video.
Carlos Palazuelos, a local delivery driver in the Tucson area, was released from custody after being questioned for several hours late Tuesday over the presumed abduction of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mom.
“They told me I was being detained for kidnapping, and I asked them, ‘Kidnapping of who?’” he said, claiming that he’d never heard of the TV personality or her missing mom despite the intense spotlight on the case.
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“They held me against my will,” the 36-year-old driver complained to reporters as he returned home after being freed without charge. “They didn’t even read me my rights until two hours later.”
Palazuelos was questioned just hours after the FBI released the disturbing surveillance clip of the suspected abductor lurking outside Nancy’s home.
“Until right now, all I know is that they showed my in-law a picture of somebody wearing a mask, or something, and they supposedly looked like my eyes,” he told Fox News after he was released.
“What the f–k am I doing here? I didn’t do anything to be honest, I’m innocent,” he added.
WARNING GRAPHIC LANGUAGE:
Palazuelos said he works in Tucson for a parcel delivery service, but stressed he doesn’t recall encountering Guthrie, who has reported missing on Feb. 1.
“I told them, I work in Tucson for GLS, I might have delivered a package to her house but I never kidnapped anybody,” he told ABC15.
“They hold me from 4:00 p.m. till now.”’
Palazuelos said law enforcement confronted him after he pulled over when he spotted cops trailing him and his wife.
He claims he wasn’t given a reason for why officials sought him out in the investigation.
Investigators peppered him with questions on where he worked and his whereabouts the night Nancy vanished, he said.
“I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it. And they better do their job and find the suspect that did it so they can clear my name, I’m done,” the driver said.
While he was in police custody, authorities began searching Palazuelos’ home, which he shares with his wife, children, and in-laws.
It wasn’t known what officials were looking for, but Palazuelos claimed police broke down the front and garage doors.
“Look what they put my family through,” he said, pointing to the front door.
His mother-in-law says all their cell phones were confiscated, as was the car Palazuelos was riding in.
“They showed me a video to see if it was him, to see … if I recognize the things he was wearing, he doesn’t have any of that. He doesn’t have anything that comes in the video,” Palazuelos’ mother-in-law told ABC15.
“They went inside, busted the doors from my house, they went inside and took my son to the living room,” she said.
Like her son-in-law, the woman said she was not familiar with the Nancy Guthrie case. She said she had only seen the news on Facebook, but hadn’t closely followed the story.
“They already asked us a lot of questions about it, like I said, I have nothing to hide, you can go in my house, you can search anything you want, there’s nothing to hide. I don’t know the lady, I don’t know about the lady,” she told NewsNation.
The car was later returned to the family’s home.
The turn of events came just hours after the FBI released photos of a masked and “armed individual” caught on video tampering with a doorbell camera outside the elder Guthrie’s home on the morning of her disappearance.
The suspect seemed to have a flashlight in his mouth — and lumbered around Nancy’s patio in sneakers, a fleece and a backpack as he fumbled with the camera, one point grabbing nearby flowers and placing them in front of the lens.
A handgun was clearly seen holstered in the front of his pants.
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