YouTuber Alexander Zabel Jr. was taken into custody outside the residence of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of missing Today star Savannah Guthrie, following multiple complaints from local residents. The 54-year-old was arrested on Thursday shortly before 5:00 p.m. in Tucson, Arizona, with additional information provided by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) in an official statement.
“PCSD had received several complaints regarding Mr Zabel’s behavior. At the time of the incident, Mr Zabel was live-streaming from outside the residence,” the statement read.
Deputies approached him, and during the arrest, a PCSD sergeant was knocked to the ground, the statement continued. Zabel was then taken into custody without any further issues and was booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Complex. He faces charges of resisting arrest and public nuisance.
The arrest signifies the second occasion within the same week that Alexander has been detained. He was earlier arrested on Monday.
Also Read: Nancy Guthrie update: Police make 3 arrests amid missing probe; who are they? Know about charges
Who is Alexander Zabel Jr and what charges he faces?
Alexander, known for establishing the CriminalNetwork YouTube channel, faces two charges of obstructing a highway or thoroughfare and one charge of public nuisance.
On the same Monday, streamers Troy Lewis Bradshaw and Damian Todd Enderle were also taken into custody near Nancy’s residence, where both received citations for public nuisance.
At first, deputies provided warnings, subsequently posting no-trespassing signs and issuing citations for violations, stated the PCSD in a press release
“Despite those efforts, some individuals continued to disregard the law…Sheriff Nanos will no longer tolerate behavior that disrupts the community or violates the law.”
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos informed KVOA on Wednesday that they attempted to engage with the influx of streamers and YouTubers who came following Nancy’s disappearance, but many disregarded their cautions.
“We started getting calls from the neighbors about a certain group of these, I’ll use the word, YouTubers, but the complaints got to be pretty egregious in that the behavior of those individuals was becoming pretty scary, pretty frightful to the neighborhood,” he said.
Nancy Guthrie search operation in Mexico
Alexander’s arrest occurred merely a day after a significant search operation was initiated in Mexico, close to the Arizona border, following an anonymous tip regarding Nancy’s potential location.
As reported by the Mexican publication El Imparcial, a local group received a tip on Wednesday concerning the supposed site of Nancy’s “grave,” which led to an extensive search in the Mariposa area, where 25 unmarked graves had been previously discovered.
The organization Buscando Corazones, dedicated to locating missing individuals in Mexico, stated that they found no evidence indicating that Nancy was buried in that location, but they confirmed that the search efforts would persist. The 84-year-old was reported missing on February 1 from her residence in Tucson, Arizona, with authorities suspecting that she may have been kidnapped.
To date, no arrests have been made related to her disappearance, and law enforcement has seemingly uncovered minimal evidence regarding her location—aside from the chilling doorbell camera footage released by the FBI in February.
