A 54-year-old YouTuber who set up what authorities called a "pee tent" in the Tucson neighborhood where Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped has been arrested for the second time in four days, this time on a felony charge after a Pima County sheriff's sergeant was knocked to the ground during the encounter.
Alexander Zabel Jr., who runs a channel called Criminal NetworkX, was taken into custody around 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 11, outside Guthrie's home while live-streaming, KOLD News 13 reported. Deputies responded after receiving several complaints about his behavior. By Friday evening, Zabel had been released and no longer appeared on the Pima County Adult Detention Complex's inmate roster.
The arrest marks the latest collision between self-appointed online investigators and a community that has begged them to leave. Guthrie, the mother of former "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie, vanished from her Tucson home on February 1. Authorities say she was taken against her will. Nearly five months later, no suspect has been identified, and the neighborhood has become a magnet for crime streamers whose presence residents say has turned a tragedy into a circus.
The interim complaint filed after Thursday's arrest states that deputies responded to reports of an unwanted person in the area. A separate caller claimed Zabel was again urinating in public, this time in front of a camera while live-streaming. When deputies told him he was under arrest, the document says, he actively resisted.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department said a sergeant was knocked to the ground during the arrest process. Zabel now faces a felony charge of resisting arrest and a misdemeanor charge of public nuisance.
Zabel's own stream captured the final moments before the arrest. A little more than an hour earlier, he had started broadcasting from an Uber, claiming he was on his way to see his attorney. During that stream, he received a call from Troy Lewis "DAA Juice" Bradshaw, one of two other men arrested alongside Zabel on Monday. Deputies can be heard arriving on the stream. Zabel then appeared combative, demanding to know why he was being detained, and could be heard swearing and using homophobic slurs directed at the deputies.
While talking to his stationary camera during the arrest, he asked several times for someone to come collect his equipment.
Thursday's incident followed a round of arrests on Monday, June 8, when Zabel, Bradshaw, and a third man, 46-year-old Damian Todd Enderle, were all taken into custody in Guthrie's neighborhood. Zabel and Bradshaw were held in the Pima County Adult Detention Complex for several hours. Enderle was cited and released at the scene.
Traffic ticket and complaint forms obtained by KOLD revealed the specific allegations. Zabel was accused of urinating in public and placing traffic cones on the roadway while sitting in a lawn chair during a livestream on May 26. He also allegedly set up his "pee tent" on a road in the neighborhood on June 6.
The PCSD document described the scene bluntly: "Due to the sensitivity and proximity to the high-profile address, Alexander made an offensive setting in the middle of the neighborhood, causing an obstruction to the free use of property that interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life of property by the entire community."
For Monday's incident, Zabel was charged with two counts of obstructing a highway or thoroughfare and one count of public nuisance. He posted a $453 bond. Bradshaw, 34, was charged with one count of public nuisance and posted a $255 bond. Enderle, who helps manage the local crime blog 857 Tucson, was charged with one count of public nuisance.
During a Monday night stream, 857 Tucson said followers helped raise money to bond out both Zabel and Bradshaw.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department has repeatedly stated that residents of the neighborhood have asked all media, professional and amateur alike, to stay out of the area. Early in the investigation, the PCSD set up designated media areas and warned about possible trespassing charges. The HOA posted signs. Deputies issued citations. None of it drove the streamers away.
Sheriff Chris Nanos told KOLD's Kayla Butter on Monday that the department planned to arrest a YouTuber who may have been living in a tent in the area and was seen pouring urine on a nearby property. Nanos said the department had received video evidence of the public urination behind a makeshift tent.
The Guthrie neighborhood has already endured extraordinary disruption since the kidnapping was first reported. The sheriff's department acknowledged in a Monday night release that some individuals "continued to disregard the law" despite repeated warnings.
"Sheriff Nanos will no longer tolerate behavior that disrupts the community or violates the law. Effective immediately, individuals found in violation of the law may be cited and released on a first offense."
Not everyone in local law enforcement sees the sheriff's handling as effective. The Pima County Deputy's Organization, which has long been critical of Nanos, posted about the arrests and said, "The public can once again see why we fight so hard to rid ourselves of him." The sheriff has faced scrutiny on other fronts as well.
Zabel also made national news on Tuesday when he called News Nation reporter Brian Entin a derogatory term for a gay man. Entin had been discussing the YouTubers' arrests at the time. He responded on X:
"Alex, I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt the first time you were rude to me on the street outside Nancy's. But calling me or anyone a f****t is not cool."
Hundreds of users came to Entin's defense and called out Zabel for the slur.
Nancy Guthrie's disappearance remains one of the most closely watched missing-persons cases in the country. Authorities have said she was taken against her will on February 1. Security video of a suspect was released, but the individual has not been identified. The PCSD and the FBI continue to investigate. The FBI has explored new forensic technology as the case approaches the five-month mark, and experts have told KOLD that the investigation has not gone cold.
Tens of thousands of tips have been called into the PCSD and FBI tip lines. The PCSD said in mid-February that one of the hardest challenges it faces is vetting the volume of leads. Also on Thursday, the department said it was aware of reports that an anonymous tipster claimed Guthrie is buried in an unmarked grave in Mexico. A group said it found 25 unmarked graves during a recent search near Nogales but did not find Guthrie.
Savannah Guthrie has spoken publicly about her mother's disappearance, and the family has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Nancy Guthrie's recovery. The FBI has offered a $100,000 reward. A private citizen in Milwaukee added another $100,000.
Several streamers have found items during independent searches, gloves, clothing, masks, even bones. None of it has been connected to the case. In early May, a YouTuber found human remains near River and Craycroft roads. Multiple crime bloggers speculated a connection to Guthrie. The bones turned out to be tens, if not hundreds, of years old. The find became a prehistoric anthropological investigation.
Nanos confirmed Monday that a memorial for Guthrie near her home had been removed. He said the PCSD did not remove it and suggested the HOA may have done so. The Guthrie family continues to push for answers while contending with the spectacle that has grown around the case.
Back in February, Zabel struck a different tone. When KOLD spoke with him during a volunteer search for Guthrie, he said the streamers only wanted to help and did not want to get in the PCSD's way.
"We feel it's our duty to find her. It's everybody's mom, everybody's grandmother."
Four months later, the man who invoked duty was urinating behind a makeshift tent on a public road, hurling slurs at a reporter, and knocking a sheriff's sergeant to the ground, all while streaming it for an audience that helped post his bail.
A woman is still missing. Her neighbors are still afraid. And the people who showed up claiming to help have become the problem the community now needs protection from.
