A convicted felon has confirmed being briefly detained with his mother in a SWAT raid over Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance — while denying any connection to the suspected abduction.
Luke Daley, 37, and his 77-year-old mom were whisked away on Feb. 13 when FBI agents and a local SWAT team swarmed their home just two miles from where Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mom is believed to have been kidnapped from her bed in Tucson, Arizona.
Daley was subject to two warrants, one on his mother’s house and another on his Range Rover, according to his attorney, Chris Scileppi, who insisted the pair had “no link” to Guthrie’s disappearance.
“Mr. Daley and his mother were both detained by law enforcement while the search warrants were being executed. Neither Mr. Daley nor his mother were arrested in connection to this case or any other,” Scileppi told 12 News.
“Mr. Daley has no link whatsoever to Nancy Guthrie and has no information related to her kidnapping.
“Like the entire Tucson community, both Mr. Daley and his mother are hopeful that Nancy will be returned to her family unharmed,” the attorney added.
Daley was likely known to law enforcement in the area, having served 18 months in prison between 2019 and 2020 after he was convicted of solicitation of drugs, criminal damage and flight from law enforcement convictions, 12 News reported.
He was arrested again in 2022 and later convicted for selling drugs and sentenced to four years of probation.
Daley was also arrested again early last year in Marana, a city northwest of Tucson, for possession of fentanyl and a gun. The state moved to revoke his probation, but a judge allowed him to remain in public, according to the outlet.
The frantic search for Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie, is in its third week after the grandmother is believed to have been kidnapped during the early hours of Feb. 1 from her home.
Despite thousands of tips from the public and video footage of a masked, armed suspect at her front door the night she disappeared, investigators have yet to identify any suspects in the case.
DNA evidence collected from Guthrie’s home, as well as a black glove found two miles away, have been entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, which would match with anyone convicted of a crime or whose DNA has been previously collected at a crime scene.
Daley’s DNA would be in CODIS because of his prior criminal history, but to date there have been zero confirmed matches from any of the evidence collected.
However, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department revealed Wednesday that it had uncovered new “biological evidence” that does not belong to Guthrie during a search of the Catalina Foothills house, and DNA profiles are under lab analysis.
