Tag: kidnappings

Neighbor Says One Dead and Three Detained After SWAT Team Raids Home as Part of Nancy Guthrie Investigation

A dramatic Friday night SWAT raid tied to the kidnapping of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie ended with one person shooting himself in the head as law enforcement closed in, a neighbor claimed to local media.

According to a Shadow Hills resident who spoke directly to KVOA News 4 Tucson, she witnessed three people being detained during the operation, and says another individual turned a gun on himself.

The statement had not been confirmed or denied by any law enforcement agency as of early Saturday morning.

KVOA reports:

A Shadow Hills resident tells News 4 Tucson that she witnessed three people being detained during a SWAT operation on Friday night. According to an unconfirmed report by a neighbor, another person shot himself in the head.

This comes after a SWAT situation occurred in the Shadow Hills neighborhood on Feb. 13. A man and a woman were detained at the house, and a third person was detained in a traffic stop, according to sources close to the investigation.

A neighbor also spoke to Kevin Posobiec of Human Events, making the same claim.

It is unclear if he spoke to the same neighbor or an additional one.

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Democrat Pima County Sheriff is Blocking FBI Access to Key Evidence After DNA and Glove Found Inside Nancy Guthrie Home

The FBI says the Democrat Pima County Sheriff is blocking evidence in the Nancy Guthrie disappearance case, according to Reuters and Fox News.

The Pima County Sheriff is blocking FBI access to key evidence in the investigation into Nancy Guthrie, according to Reuters.

— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) February 13, 2026

According to reporting from Fox News, DNA and a glove were found inside of Nancy Guthrie’s home and Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is blocking the feds from examining the new evidence.

“The FBI wanted to send DNA and a glove found inside the house to their lab at Quantico Virginia for testing. The sheriff here, the Pima County Sheriff, insisted instead on sending it to a private lab that is based in Florida!” – Fox News reported.

“Now obviously you would think that there is nowhere better in the country, never even in the world, than the FBI’s lab in Quantico for that kind of testing.”

“The Guthrie family hoping tonight that the infighting stops and finding Nancy Guthrie really gets underway here, because that is what the Guthrie family wants to hear. Not the people are fighting about who has jurisdiction, but what they’re doing to find Nancy Guthrie.”

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REVEALED: Here is the Pivotal Error the Democrat Pima County Sheriff Made that Hampered the Investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s Alleged Abduction for Several Hours

The Democrat sheriff running the investigation into the disappearance of NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, made a critical error due to his own ego, which has hampered the investigation.

The Daily Mail reported on Friday that the Pima County Sheriff’s Office failed to launch its Cessna aircraft, equipped with high-resolution thermal-imaging cameras, for several hours.

This was reportedly due to a staffing shortage and lack of pilots, thanks to Sheriff Chris Nanos.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Deputies Association president, Sgt. Aaron Crossm, told The Daily Mail that possible pilots for the aircraft were moved to another unit before Nancy’s disappearance.

Fox News secured a statement that the pilot of Pima County’s high-tech search aircraft had been disciplined following an argument with Nanos. He was reassigned to street patrol as a punishment despite appealing the decision to the sheriff.

As a result, the aircraft’s takeoff was delayed by several hours after Guthrie was reported missing around noon Sunday.

“Three hours in a search for a vulnerable adult is an eternity,” a law enforcement source told Fox News.

The aircraft was eventually launched at 5 pm.

The Pima County Deputies Organization criticized the decision to reassign the pilot and noted that it was part of a pattern of failed leadership decisions by Nanos.

While failing to launch the aircraft on time was the biggest error Nanos was responsible for, there was another inexcusable one during the search for Nancy Guthrie.

According to the Arizona Republic, Nanos admitted that his department released Guthrie’s home as a crime scene too quickly, then returned days later to recover additional evidence.

Nanos said that the scene should have remained secured longer, and other agencies should have been called in earlier.

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Utah father rescues his four kids from Croatian orphanage after mom took them out of US over doomsday fears

Four children finally returned home to Utah after they were allegedly kidnapped by their mother, who feared an impending apocalypse. 

Elleshia Anne Seymour, 35, sparked an international manhunt in December when her ex-husband, Kendall Seymour, realized she had taken Landon, 11, Levi, eight, Hazel, seven, and Jacob, three, to Europe to escape the ‘end times.’

The mom reportedly brought the youngsters to live with another woman, Lovie McVeigh, and her 13-year-old son, who later realized the family was the subject of an international manhunt. 

She was then arrested in Croatia, where she is now being held on suspicion of violating children’s rights. The four youngsters were temporarily left in legal limbo in an orphanage in the city of Dubrovnik.

They have since been released into Kendall’s custody, he shared in an update to an online fundraiser he had set up to help with his and his fiancée’s trip to Europe on January 29.

Finally, on Sunday, he shared that ‘WE ARE TAKING THE KIDS HOME!’

Kendall explained that Social Services in the country informed him and his fiancée, Heather, that they had concluded their investigation into the kidnapping, returned the youngsters’ passports and ‘gave us the go-ahead to pick up the kids from the children’s group home in the morning.’

That included Kendall’s children, the three eldest, and Jacob, Seymour’s child from another marriage, over whom Kendall received power of attorney.

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From Noriega to Maduro: The Long US History of Kidnapping Foreign Leaders

While it has undoubtedly shocked the world, the Trump administration’s abduction of President Nicolás Maduro fits into a long history of United States kidnapping of foreign leaders.

On January 3, U.S. Special Forces entered Venezuela by air, captured Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, killing around 80 people in the process. They were flown to the United States, where Maduro was put on trial on spurious drug trafficking and possession of firearms charges.

Despite President Trump himself declaring that “kidnapping” was an appropriate term for what happened, corporate media around the world have refrained from using the obvious word for what transpired, preferring to use “capturing” or “seizing.” These terms reframe the incident and cast doubt on its illegality, helping to manufacture public consent for a grave breach of international law. Indeed, managers at the BBC sent out a memo to its staff, instructing them in no uncertain terms to “avoid using ‘kidnapped’” when reporting on the news.

Targeting Venezuela

Maduro is not the first Venezuelan official Washington has helped kidnap. In 2002, the Bush administration planned and executed a coup d’état that briefly ousted Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, from power.

The U.S. government had been organizing and financing the ringleaders of the coup for months, flying the key players back and forth to Washington, D.C. for meetings with top officials. On the day of the coup, American Ambassador Charles Shapiro was at the mansion of local media magnate, Gustavo Cisneros, the headquarters of the coup.

Two U.S. warships entered Venezuelan waters, moving towards the remote island of La Orchila, where Chavez was helicoptered to. Chavez himself stated that senior American personnel were present with him during his abduction. Unsurprisingly, the Bush administration immediately endorsed the proceedings, describing them as a return to democracy.

Chavez was only saved the same fate as Maduro after millions of Venezuelans flocked into the streets, demanding a return of their president. Their actions spurred loyal military units who retook the presidential palace, and the project fell apart. After the coup, the United States quadrupled its funding to the coup leaders (including Maria Corina Machado) through vehicles such as USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy.

A further kidnapping of a Venezuelan official occurred in June 2020, when the United States downed the plane of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab. Saab was in Cabo Verde at the time, traveling back from a diplomatic mission to Iran, where he has been helping break American sanctions. He was only released in 2023, after Venezuela negotiated a prisoner swap which included a number of CIA agents captured in Venezuela in the act of carrying out terror attacks against the country’s infrastructure.

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37-second phone signal, Mount Hermon route: Lebanese reports detail ex-officer ‘abduction’

Saudi and Lebanese media outlets reported Tuesday that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency carried out a special operation on Lebanese soil, allegedly abducting a former senior Lebanese security official with possible ties to the long-unsolved disappearance of Israeli airman Ron Arad.

According to the reports, the target of the operation was Ahmad Shukr, described as a former senior officer in Lebanon’s General Security services and a relative of Fouad Shukr, Hezbollah’s chief of staff who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern Dahieh district last year. Israel has not commented on the reports, which also claimed that Swedish citizens were involved in the operation.

The Lebanese television channel Al Jadeed reported Thursday that Shukr went missing a day earlier in the Bekaa Valley in northeastern Lebanon, a predominantly Shiite region considered a Hezbollah stronghold. The channel said Shukr’s family issued an urgent appeal demanding clarification of his fate and called for intervention by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and other officials.

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FBI Warns About Ransom Scams Involving Fake ‘Proof of Life’ Photos

Criminals are altering images of people obtained from social media or other public sites to create fake “proof of life” photos as part of virtual kidnapping for ransom scams, the FBI said in a public service announcement on Dec. 5.

According to the agency, criminal actors typically get in touch with their targets via text messages, claiming to have kidnapped a person close to them and demanding a ransom. The demands would often be accompanied by threats of violence.

The photo or video will, upon close inspection, reveal inaccuracies, with examples including “missing tattoos or scars and inaccurate body proportions,” the FBI said. The messages will have a sense of urgency—sent out using timed message features so family members do not have sufficient time to analyze the details.

Instead of reacting hastily, people who receive such communication should stop and think whether the kidnapper’s claims “make sense,” the notice said.

The agency advised people to always attempt to contact their loved ones before considering paying the ransom. A code word, known only within their close circle, will be crucial here.

Moreover, this type of fake image ransom scammer will use missing person information found online. The agency advised people to immediately take a screenshot or record any “proof of life” photos they receive.

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Update on the Whitmer FBI Scam…

In October 2020, just weeks before the U.S. presidential election, headlines exploded with the claim that a group of Trump supporting conservative men had been arrested for plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The timing was a little too perfect.

Revolver has covered the Whitmer fednapping plot in great detail.

In an exclusive interview with Revolver, documentary filmmaker Christina Urso recaps out how the case unfolded, how the FBI ran the operation from start to finish, and how the justice system turned a blind eye to serious constitutional violations.

The First Red Flag

“I first heard about the case in October 2020,” Christina recalls. “Whitmer came out smirking — not the reaction of someone just informed of a violent plot against her. It felt off, especially with Michigan being a swing state right before the election.”

It reminded her of PATCON, a past FBI operation targeting right-wing groups. “It felt like the same playbook — FBI-engineered entrapment dressed up as domestic terror prevention.”

Entrapment or Full Fabrication?

The FBI deployed at least 12 informants, 2 undercover agents, and multiple online covert employees to create fake militia groups on platforms like Facebook.

“They paid informants, created training events, and even gave these working-class men drugs and alcohol — then used their intoxicated words as evidence,” Christina explains.

None of the 14 men had committed violence. Most had no criminal history and were represented by underpaid or negligent public defenders. Only two out of the 14 could afford private counsel.

Legal Railroading and Sabotaged Appeals

The first federal trial resulted in two acquittals and two mistrials. But the retrial was plagued by procedural irregularities:

  • Time limits were imposed on the defense — but not the prosecution
  • A juror accused of misconduct was made foreman
  • Both Adam Fox and Barry Croft were convicted and sent to Florence ADX Supermax Prison, despite having no prior records

Fox’s court-appointed attorney, Stephen Nolder, submitted a weak 75-page appeal brief lacking exhibits, omitted one of the charges, and failed to consult his client. As a result, Fox missed his Supreme Court filing deadline and now has no legal representation.

In contrast, Croft’s lawyer, Tim Sweeney, submitted a 300-page brief with 150 pages of exhibits and worked closely with Croft.

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Dem-Appointed Judge Lets Convict Walk — He’s Now Accused of Kidnapping a Mom and Her Kids

A Kentucky man who was sentenced to 14 years in prison last year but was put back on the street five months after his sentencing has been arrested after a Louisville woman and her children were kidnapped at knifepoint.

Armond Langford. 32, was arrested Friday after a six-hour manhunt, according to WHAS-TV.

Before his arrest, a woman and her two children were kidnapped. The woman said she was forced to drive to a bank as Langford demanded $20,000.

“He opened our back door and told them to get in the car…. They got in the car. They drove to the bank. He held a knife at her the whole time, he was telling her to drive faster,” Brandon Strong, husband and father of the victims, told the TV station.

He said his wife was stabbed during the ordeal and was treated for a non-life-threatening stab wound.

Langford had been sentenced to 14 years in prison in February 2024 after being convicted on charges of robbing multiple people who were withdrawing cash from ATMs from August 2021 to November 2021.

However, in July 2024, Judge Jessica Green granted a request for what’s called “shock probation,” in which the surprise of being set free is allegedly what keeps a criminal from reoffending.

Green was named to the bench in 2022 by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

Louisville council member Anthony Piagentini vented his anger.

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Three Sisters Who Vanished Visiting Homeless Father Found Dead, Manhunt Underway

The three young sisters who vanished near Wenatchee, Washington, while visiting their homeless father have been found dead and police have launched a massive manhunt for the missing father.

The Decker sisters – Paityn, age 9, Evelyn, age 8, and Olivia, age 5 – were all found dead near their father’s truck at a campground in Wenatchee after an intensive search by SWAT and a Homeland Security helicopter.

Per the New York Post:

The girls’ AMBER alerts were canceled late Monday without explanation, before police confirmed the deaths Tuesday with “sincere and deep heartfelt condolences to the family.”

The search continued for their 32-year-old dad, Travis Decker, who had collected them from their mother’s house for a planned visitation on Friday — then went missing with them in his white 2017 GMC Sierra truck.

Hours before the bodies were found, a warrant was issued for Decker’s arrest on three counts of first-degree custodial interference.

Upon discovery of the bodies, the charges against Decker were upped to three counts of kidnapping and first-degree murder. He was divorced from his ex-wife, the mother of his children, and had been staying at campgrounds and hotels with his dog. Whitney Decker, the girls’ mother, said in a statement prior to their bodies being discovered that Travis struggled with mental health issues, but that she never thought he would become violent.

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