YouTuber Alexander Zabel Jr. was arrested outside the home of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of Today star Savannah Guthrie, after authorities received several complaints from neighbors. The 54-year-old was apprehended on Thursday just before 5:00 p.m. in Tucson, Arizona, with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) sharing further details in a 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 made contact with him and, during the arrest process, a PCSD sergeant was knocked to the ground. Mr Zabel was subsequently taken into custody without further incident and booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Complex. He is facing charges of resisting arrest and public nuisance.”
The arrest marks the second time in the same week that Alexander was taken into custody, following his arrest on Monday. Alexander, the creator of the CriminalNetwork YouTube channel, was arrested on two counts of obstructing a highway or thoroughfare and one count of public nuisance.
Streamers Troy Lewis Bradshaw and Damian Todd Enderle were also arrested on Monday near Nancy’s home, with both being cited for public nuisance.
“Deputies initially issued warnings, followed by the posting of no-trespassing signs and the issuance of citations for violations,” the PCSD said in a statement. “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.”
© Getty ImagesPima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told KVOA on Wednesday that they had tried to communicate with the onslaught of streamers and YouTubers that arrived after Nancy’s disappearance, with many ignoring their warnings.
Learn more about Nancy’s disappearance below…
“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.
Alexander’s arrest comes just a day after a major search party was launched in Mexico, near the border with Arizona, following an anonymous tip about Nancy’s possible whereabouts.
© Getty ImagesAccording to Mexican publication El Imparcial, a local collective received a tip-off on Wednesday about the alleged location of Nancy’s “grave”, prompting a major search in the area known as Mariposa, where 25 unmarked graves had previously been found.
© InstagramThe Buscando Corazones, the organization which aims to search for missing persons in Mexico, shared that they did not find any evidence that Nancy was buried there, but assured that the search would continue. The 84-year-old went missing on February 1 from her home in Tucson, Arizona, with authorities believing her to have been kidnapped.
No arrests have been made in connection with her disappearance, and the authorities have appeared to uncover little evidence as to her whereabouts – except for the haunting doorbell camera footage released by the FBI in February. The footage saw a masked individual approaching Nancy’s door in the night, wearing a balaclava, gloves and a holstered gun. The individual could be seen attempting to dismantle the camera in the clip.
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