Ashley Banfield (52:04)
Okay, so another Matt Finn story from today that I found very interesting. Matt, you're getting a huge shout out on Drop Dead Serious tonight. He's been doing some really good work by the way, Fox News has been doing just bananas work, just such good work on this story. But I also know that they've got about 35 people, maybe more at this time, you know, in the Tucson area helping them to cover this story. They've really descended upon the story. Hence, they're doing really good work. But Matt Finn, one of the correspondents for Fox News, said in one of his tweets today that catching a vehicle on camera. Well, there's a scenario in which the Guthrie getaway car may not have been clearly recorded on a traffic camera. And I know what you're saying, that's impossible, right? How is that possible? There's cameras everywhere. In this day and age, there's effing cameras everywhere, right? Like, there's like flock cameras everywhere. Flock cameras seem to get under people's skin. Other people hate them, love them. But flock license plate readers are kind of all over the place. How on earth could this guy have driven? Because you're not carrying, Nancy, on a bike or on your back out of this very, very dark you're driving. So how could that car not have been registered somewhere? Okay, well, here's what Matt Finn said. It's very smart reporting. By the way, city of Tucson tells Fox News that it doesn't use traffic cameras to record vehicles. Right. That's important because what they're trying to say here is that our traffic cameras measure dynamics of traffic so that maybe the signals can change quicker. Right. Have you ever noticed that sometimes your light's really long? Well, there's vehicle, you know, surveillance that can assess that. Hey, this traffic's very heavy going this way. So let's shorten up those red lights and get this traffic flowing faster. And that's effectively what Matt was saying the city of Tucson said about using traffic cameras to record vehicles, to assess the live patterns. Sure, Pima county says that it does have cameras that record, but that they're not perfect, that they are imperfect and may not catch the license plates. That's a piss off, because why bother? Why are you recording the vehicles? I mean, okay, maybe we'll have a, you know, remember the white elantra? We didn't have a plate on that either, but we had a white Elantra. So maybe it won't catch a plate, but it might catch a car nearby Oracle Road. A lot of people have made. Hey, about Oracle Road, which partially connects Nancy's neighborhood to Annie's neighborhood, her daughter. That is a state route, but Arizona dot. Arizona Department of Transportation says it has cameras, but they Also don't record again, I guess that is for traffic flow, for assessing the traffic flow. But there was this commenter on Twitter today that I found interesting. I can't back it up because I don't know this person. I looked at their bio and it didn't look like they had, you know, anything that indicated they would know a lot about this. But they did say that regarding flock license plate readers, Tucson has about 175 of them including several on North Oracle Road. I can't tell you that that's true, but I was interested just to hear that because another commenter said that local politics in Tucson has affected traffic cams, that traffic cams used to mail out tickets to people but that, you know, there was a lot of backlash and there was a local ballot measure that repealed that. So that's interesting. And then going a little further, one of the commenters said take a look at this website, deflock tucson.com so I went to the website dfloc tucson.com and it is an anti surveillance group that was started just this past September 2025 at the University of Arizona. They are just anti surveillance. They don't like the Big Brother. A lot of people don't like the Big Brother neighborhoods. They don't like to be under surveillance without people being able to be aware of that. They, they think if you're going to be under surveillance there should at least be signs saying you are under surveillance so you don't feel like you're again just under Big brother's watch. So DFLock Tucson.com suggests to me that there is a lot of flock activity in the Tucson area. Why you can't get a read on someone coming out of a neighborhood that's got like one in, one out, one ingress, one egress, I don't know. Okay, Sheriff Chris Knapps. I'm going, I'm jumping around a little bit because I collected a lot of information throughout the day and it may not be in perfect order, but Sheriff Nanos told News 4 Tucson that the Florida lab is analyzing samples that were given voluntarily and those from the crime scene pro bono. You know what that means? Free. But the Reuters report said that he spent $200,000 on the DNA tests. Now I can't make hay of that. All I can say is that News4 Tucson got the comment that there was pro bono work and Reuters got comment that both things can be true. Maybe there's some pro bono work going on and maybe there's also a $200,000 bill for additional work. I think there's a shit ton of testing that's going to go on with this case. A lot. So. And $200,000, by the way, is not a lot. DNA testing is not cheap, it's not quick, and there's a lot of it that's needed. And so if you have kind of like, if you want to get your order faster from Amazon, you pay a premium. It may be a lot of that as well. So interesting just to see that reporting. And thank you, News 4 Tucson, for getting that. Very interesting. Okay, so now let's go this. I feel like my chain gets yanked. And I think you do too, all day. One moment you're seeing something on Twitter and then it's making the cable news outlets and you're like, oh my God, this is related. And there's this guy six miles away from Nancy Guthrie's home, and he's seen on the front porch of someone else's home, again, six miles away. He's seen at 3:30 in the morning. And he's seen at 5 in the morning on January 23rd. This was posted on a neighborhood app. Okay. A lot of people were showing this guy his face. They weren't digitizing his face. They were spreading all over social media. And I'm digitizing it because there's resolution on this. First of all, I saw what he looked like, and it did look like he could be the guy in the mask. I mean, he's got a goatee, right? He's got that and he's got the build and he's got dark hair, you know, the eyebrows. But apart from that, anybody could be in that fucking mask. The mask covers everything. So there's like an artist who drew up a. This is what I think the guy looks like based on, you know, his eyes in his mouth. But I had to guess that everything else that was covered up. I'm like, really? Really? So the sheriff was asked about this video from January 23rd, six miles away, that it had everybody like freaking out today. And he said it's nothing more than a lead and they're taking it and they'll do everything they can to work with it and see does it tie in Right now the belief is not really. But we're not dismissing it. We're still looking into it. Right now. The belief is not really. That's really interesting. Okay, now to some of the TMZ reporting today, they have received this third note from scum of the Earth. Whether he's or she, whoever it is, is associated with this crime or not, whether they're just parasites trying to, you know, extort a family in the worst moment of their lives. So the third note is now a person who has said that they're upping their price. One bitcoin was what they said in the first note. Second note was, I'm not being taken seriously. And now the third note is I'm now upping my price to $100,000 instead of the one Bitcoin, which is $67,000. So this is the third note in a series of three. But don't forget, TMZ also received a free fourth communique, an alleged ransom note that asked for $4 million on a Thursday, and if that deadline wasn't met, $6 million on a Monday. TMZ has said that they check the bitcoin account on that, by the way, every day, and that there's been absolutely no movement, no money, nothing. But they received this series of three notes over the last couple days, and the third one came today from the same person. And they know it's the same person because they. They include the same details that TMZ has not released to the public. So they know it's the same person. They've used an email address and a name, and apparently the email address and name are different every time. And they've upped the price again to $100,000 for information. They said they know who has Nancy, and they know the condition of Nancy. That's something else that they said. And they said this quote, this is important. I was listening to Charles Adebodier on this. He said he's the second in command at tmz. He said when he gets the initial payment, he will give up the name of the main individual. It's interesting wording. When he gets the initial payment, he will give up the name of the main individual. Does that mean there's more than one individual and you're just going to give up the main one? So there's a conspiracy, or is this all bullshit? Anyway, the price has gone up to $100,000. And apparently this guy doesn't like police. Says he's too scared. He's got a whole litany of reasons why he won't go to the police with this and wants to go to TMZ with it. Okay. Another piece of information that came out today that was interesting. Brian Enten had an interview with a former Pima county undersheriff named Rick Castigar. He didn't have a lot of good things to say about Sheriff Chris Nanos. Here's the quote. Nanos has an exorbitant ego. In one case, he told the FBI that he's the better investigator and doesn't need their help. Take a look at this interview. And you know, I have heard there's a lot of politics that are playing out among the Pima County Sheriff's Office folks, prior and current. That's there's a lot of ugliness going on. So there you have it. There's a guy who's not fond of Sheriff Nanos. Something I saw on a Twitter account called Nerdy. I actually see him every day. It was a photo, but I haven't been able to find out where the photo comes from. And it's a photo of Nancy's front door since the white tent went up yesterday. And he pointed out that the nest bracket mount, you know, what was left behind after the camera was removed. The language has been different. Right. My source said it was smashed. The sheriff has said it was tampered with and disconnected. But in any case, that nest bracket mount is gone in this photo. So I'm trying to find some other reporting that shows that. That's the only photo I could see today of Nancy's door. But this was after the white tent was erected and then removed. And they've taken that bracket mount off of Nancy's front door. Okay, now to the moment you've been waiting for, I hope. Anyway, this guy, Derek Kalela Kaye. Yeah, I don't know how he pronounces it. 42 years old, makes a court appearance. I guess he had to come from California all the way to Tucson for a federal court appearance. But there's video of him leaving court and the reporting is as he was let out on a $20,000 bond with an ankle bracelet. I don't have that report on my own. I do have this, though, from the U.S. attorney's office at the District of Arizona, California. Man charged with transmitting a demand for ransom made an initial appearance today in federal court in Tucson. That is the U.S. attorney, Timothy Corshane. Derek, Kalea, Kaya Kalela, I don't know, of Hawthorne, California, is charged with transmitting a demand for ransom in interstate commerce and without disclosing his identity, utilizing a telecommunications device with intent to abuse, threaten or harass a person. According to the criminal complaint, Kalea Calla is alleged to have sent the demands via two text messages to a missing person's family on February 4, 2026. He's also alleged to have made a nine second phone call to a family member. Through the course of the investigation, it was found that Kalea Kaya Kalela was acting as an imposter, trying to take advantage of the ongoing situation. The U.S. attorney's office and the FBI will continue to hold this defendant accountable and any other individuals who seek to interfere with federal investigations or profit from the victim family's grief. A criminal complaint is simply a method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. Any individual is presumed innocent until evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Case number 260-4209. M.J. derek, if you did this, you're going to the pokey and you know, you'll have your day. Either you'll have a day before a jury or you will be making a deal, some kind of deal. I don't know what your background is like, but it better be squeaky clean if you want a good deal. I also just wanted to do something that Lindsey Haller, who's the producer of this podcast, looked at the different balaclavas and ski masks that were available at Walmart, because the backpack is available at Walmart. And I just wanted to show you some of the balaclavas that are for sale in, you know, through Walmart. Not a lot of them have the eye hole in the mouth hole, right. There's a lot of balaclavas that have just the eyes across. A lot of ski masks. And let me tell you, I live in the Northeast. These things are a dime a dozen. Especially in Vermont when I'm up there skiing. I mean, everybody's got one of those, right? I would say in Tucson, not many people have them. I don't know why more people aren't talking about this. Who buys a ski mask or a balaclava in Tucson? I get it. Some people ski. I get it. Not many. Not many people, right? Fewer people in Tucson than, say, Vermont. Yeah. So I kind of feel like the backpack, while it could be pretty popular, I don't think that that ski mask balaclava is so popular. And what if that balaclava was purchased alongside any of the other items that are seen on this video? Right. Cluster purchasing. I've seen it happen before. Idiots. You know, Brian Walsh bought all of his stuff together, you know, for chopping up and disposing of his wife, Anna Walsh. But people do that. They. They buy all of their preparatory material in one fell swoop or in one or two fell swoops. That Bella Clava, to me, is going to Be the end of this guy. And I just wanted you to see a couple of examples of the balaclavas that are for sale. And when you see it in night vision, you can see the texture of it, right. My feeling is that it's black because it shows up lighter. Black shows up lighter in the night vision. And you can really see the texture, and you can really see the seams around the eyes. It's just fascinating to get a look at them as potential purchases. And there's not that many of them, right? Yeah, they're kind of dime a dozen. But again, in Tucson, I don't know. So another thing I wanted to talk to you about tonight was the foliage. I have been going back and forth on this a lot, and if you go over the video with me, when this perpetrator puts his hand over the. The camera, I. I see him clench his hand slightly, and I'm wondering if he's trying to pull it off. But he realizes he cannot get his hand in between the bracket and the camera. There is just a couple millimeters between these NEST cameras. It's hard to get a key in between. That's how narrow it is. You're not going to get your fingers in between if you want to yank it off. So I'm sensing that he was maybe putting his hand on, seeing if he could pull it off, and realized, oh, I can't. And he turns around, looks down. I think he's got the mouth light because it seems to illuminate the ground in the vestibule area, Sees there's nothing there, goes out to the. To the foliage, and then he pulls up on that foliage. Right. A lot of people have said he was trying to cover up the camera, but I don't know that that's true because he holds the foliage in his fist quite tightly. One commenter said that it looked like he was testing the strength of it at the foliage. I'm not sure of that. But when he comes back to the camera, he still got it clenched in his fist. And so if you're trying to cover the camera, I'm not so sure that you'd have it clenched in your fist, as if you'd maybe try to manipulate it with both hands to cover the camera. But he's got it clenched in his fist. And I actually, as I look at it over and over, I feel like he may actually have it clenched in two hands. And he's like, wedging the, you know, this vine in between the camera and the mount. And maybe he's trying to pull it. And that's what's got the foliage mucking about on the front of the lens. But that he might actually be trying to use the vine to tug the camera off. It stops before we know if he was successful. And if my source, you know, who's been right on a lot of stuff is right about the cameras being smashed, maybe the vine and all the debris that's down below didn't do the trick. And eventually it was just smashed off the mound because Michael Ruiz of Fox News found glass fragments, little small glass fragments in Nancy's vestibule area below, below that camera. But it is interesting just that, the possibility that maybe that's what was happening, which leads me to one other thing, and my husband and I have disagreed about this a lot. How was Nancy's blood in that front area? It looks impossible to get in through that front door. And my source said that the back door was wide open. Is it possible that when your ring cam is disturbed by activity, some people have alerts that go off, right. And they're NOISY, and it's 1:47 in the morning, perhaps, or 2:12, whatever time it is. Is it possible that Nancy was asleep and the alert went off on her phone? Activity at your front door. There's motion at your front door and that she's rested out of a deep sleep and gets her phone to see what's going on and looks at it at the exact moment that that foliage is dangling in front of the camera and she's wondering, what is that? Is it an animal? What on earth is happening out there? And puts the phone down before you get a clear look at the man's face and that might have taken her to the front door to open the door and wonder if it's an animal or something on her camera. It's hard to imagine that you would do that, but is it a possibility? And of course, as you're opening the door, if the perp is there, might he have pasted himself up against the wall and waited for her to come out and then injured her as she came out to look at her, you know, to look at her camera, which is something I was noodling the other day as to. I'm still confounded by how there's blood inside the house and outside the house, the front door and down the pathway. And of course, we don't know what happened to Nancy. We don't know. We don't know if she was taken out on foot, if she was carried out. We don't know if she was injured. Well, we know she was bleeding. We don't know if she was incapacitated, we don't know if she was killed. But all of these scenarios, I'm sure sheriff's deputies, detectives, FBI, homicide division was there. I'm sure they are going over every scenario as well as you know FBI agents who've done this for a very long time and mark my words, they've got a lot more evidence to go on than we do. Are they getting there? Let's hope so. Thank you so much for being with me through this podcast. I so appreciate your. I so appreciate your dedication. I love that you're here and I love that we're in this community. Join as a member. Would love to have you as a member as well. And don't forget, subscribe. I always have to say that. Subscribe. Subscribe. It's just a button. It's free and nothing happens and it doesn't affect you in any other way other than you will get my updates. Thank you everyone. I so appreciate you watching and listening. And remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead serious.
