Ring founder and CEO Jamie Siminoff believes police would have “solved” the Nancy Guthrie case if people had more cameras on their doors—including Guthrie’s.
“I do believe if they had more of it, if there was more cameras on the house, I think we might, you know, have solved,” the case, Siminoff told Fortune in an interview.
“The video that they have,” he added, “appears to be the best evidence they have of what happened.”
Siminoff’s comments come as footage from Guthrie’s Google Nest camera have blown up on the internet, showing the final few moments that occurred before the mother of theToday Show host Savannah Guthrie was kidnapped from her Arizona home over a month ago.
“The Nancy Guthrie thing has shown just how important video and more video would be in a case like this,” Siminoff said. “I think it’s been clear, but I think this is just another example of, like, how important it is to have have video at your house.”
Guthrie last seen on Jan. 31, when son-in-law Tommaso Cioni dropped off the 84-year-old at her Catalina Foothills home. What started as a missing persons case quickly escalated when police found bloodstains at the residence. Forensic testing later confirmed the blood belonged to Guthrie.
In what has since dominated national news as her journalist daughter and her family pleaded with the alleged abductors to return their mother, Nest footage featuring a masked person attempting to shield their face from the doorbell camera has surfaced the internet, prompting many, including Siminoff, to note how pragmatic it was to have video surveillance at all.
“I think definitely the importance of video has been clear,” Siminoff said. “But I think this is just another example of how important it is to have video at your house, to be able to have systems like Ring. I think it did show the importance of that.”
The case goes digital
On Feb. 10, the FBI released images and video taken from the Nest camera of a masked, armed individual on the property at the time of the disappearance. This individual was seen attempting to tamper with the camera by tapping it and eventually covering the lens with foliage. Despite these attempts at concealment, Google, which owns Nest, was able to successfully recover the footage from the device’s backend systems.
Samantha Guthrie and her siblings then made a public appeal, offering a $1 million reward for any information on their mother’s disappearance. In one video, Savannah directly addressed the potential kidnappers, stating: “We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us”.
The investigation is further complicated by a series of ransom demands delivered via cryptocurrency. While some notes were deemed hoaxes—including one that led to the arrest of an “imposter” in California—other communications have been treated with significant gravity. Reports indicate one demand reached $6 million in bitcoin, prompting a GoFundMe to raise the funds.
As the case enters its second month, Siminoff emphasized the company’s active cooperation with local authorities, adding that a video was recently found of a suspicious car two and a half miles away, which was reported through Amazon’s Ring network.
“We’ve been very involved from neighbor alerts, community alerts that go through our network,” he said.
