Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Joy Behar Suggests Police Detained Suspect In Nancy Guthrie Case Because He’s Hispanic

[Screenshot/The View]

“The View” co-host Joy Behar insinuated on Wednesday that police detained a reported person of interest for questioning in the search for Nancy Guthrie because he is Hispanic.

Authorities reportedly detained 36-year-old delivery driver Carlos Palazuelos for questioning on Monday in Rio Rico, Arizona, because he allegedly resembled the man caught in security footage and admitted to having possibly delivered items to Guthrie’s house. Without evidence, Behar suggested that racism played a role in the temporary detainment.

“They stopped a man, a 36-year-old guy, that had been in his car in Rio Rico, Arizona, about an hour’s drive from Tucson when police officers asked him his name and then detained him. I think he’s Hispanic, just saying,” Behar said.

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The Pima County Sheriff’s Department did not confirm whether they arrested Palazuelos in connection to Guthrie’s disappearance.

Palazuelos said police arrested him during a traffic stop and thoroughly searched his car, according to ABC 6 Action News. Authorities reportedly had a warrant to search his residence and his vehicle.

“They didn’t even tell me what’s going on until the detectives got here … They told me I was being detained for kidnapping, and I asked them, ‘Kidnapping of who?'” Palazuelos said, according to ABC15.

Palazuelos said he was detained for several hours and answered questions pertaining to the search for Guthrie. He told authorities he may have delivered a package to Guthrie’s home at one point, but insisted he did not personally know Guthrie, who has been declared missing since Feb. 1.

Authorities later released Palazuelos, who told reporters that he is “innocent” and had no involvement whatsoever in Guthrie’s disappearance.

The FBI’s surveillance footage showed a masked man approaching the front door of Guthrie’s home and attempting to cover the security camera with branches from a nearby bush. The videos were released the day after an alleged ransom deadline passed.

Authorities found a trail of blood outside Guthrie’s home and media received purported ransom notes, one demanding $6 million in cryptocurrency. Guthrie’s daughter, “Today” host Savannah Guthrie, shared the surveillance images on Tuesday and said, “We believe she is still alive.”