Luke Daley, Once Detained in the Guthrie Search, Now Faces Drug and Weapons Charges Officials Call Unrelated

TUCSON, Ariz. — Luke Daley, the man detained and released without charge in February during the search for Nancy Guthrie, was booked last week on drug and weapons counts that the Pima County sheriff's department says are unrelated to her disappearance.

An interim complaint says officers searched his home on Sept. 30 and found a baggy of white powder that tested positive as crack cocaine. He is charged with misconduct involving weapons and possession of a narcotic. KVOA, which rendered the surname Daly, reported the booking. The sheriff's department, speaking to Fox News Digital, used Daley. "Luke Daley was booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Complex on September 30, 2026," a spokesperson said. "This is unrelated to the Nancy Guthrie case."

Daley, 37, was stopped on Feb. 13 in a Culver's parking lot near Guthrie's home in the Catalina Foothills. Deputies also searched his mother's house, about two miles from the residence where the 84-year-old mother of NBC's Savannah Guthrie was taken on Feb. 1. He was released hours later. No suspect has been named in the abduction. Guthrie has not been found.

"Mr. Daley has no link whatsoever to Nancy Guthrie and has no information related to her kidnapping," his attorney, Chris Scileppi, said after the February release. "Like the entire Tucson community, both Mr. Daley and his mother are hopeful that Nancy will be returned to her family unharmed."

The new counts sit on a record that predates the search. Daley has prior felony convictions. He had pending drug and firearm charges and was on probation in another case involving drugs and weapons. Prosecutors have asked to revoke that probation. The Sept. 30 search is the event that turned those matters into a booking, not a development in the Guthrie file.

The abduction investigation has not produced a public suspect. A masked person appeared on Guthrie's Nest doorbell camera around the time she was taken, described as 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 10 inches, medium build, carrying a black Ozark Trail backpack. The FBI released images. It has not said they show the same person. Two notes sent to news outlets, one demanding a bitcoin ransom and a later one saying she had died, have not been authenticated. A text brought to the task force on Sept. 28 was ruled not credible. The family has offered $1 million. The FBI has offered $100,000. Tips go to 1-800-CALL-FBI or Tucson Crime Stoppers at 520-88-CRIME.

Daley's February stop made him the most visible person held in the case. The release, and his lawyer's denial, took him off the suspect list the sheriff has never actually published. The Sept. 30 charges put him back in the Pima County jail on cocaine and a weapons count. Those are allegations in a complaint. They are not a link to Feb. 1. Guthrie is still missing. The man once stopped near her house is in custody for something else.