NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

New clues in search for Nancy Guthrie; Victims identified in Rhode Island hockey shooting; Severe winter weather threatens millions; and more on tonight’s broadcast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tonight a major setback in the search for Nancy Guthrie, the glove found near her home, not matching in the DNA database, as the sheriff reveals to us the fresh leads they're now pursuing. Possible new clues in the videos was the suspect wearing a ring under that glove, plus the hope that DNA found inside the house could lead to a suspect. And the sheriff tells us that major tech companies, even Mark Zuckerberg, have reached out to help. Also breaking tonight, a man with a loaded shotgun in tactical gear rushing the Capitol, how police stopped him. Dangerous storms battering the west, violent winds triggering this deadly 30-car pile-up, the desperate search for skiers trapped in an avalanche. Plus, blizzard conditions sending drivers spinning out where the storms are headed next. Potomac sewage disaster, millions of gallons of waste, spewing into the river,

now among the worst spills in U.S. history. How long will it take to clean up? Team USA's Women of Figure Skating, known as the Blade Angels, take to the ice. Did they live up to the hype? Plus, Ilya Malinen on how Tom Brady and Simone Biles helped him through his loss. A man snatching a child from her mother in a terrifying attempted abduction. What happened next? Catastrophic church explosion, a pastor and firefighters hospitalized within

injuries, what's set off the blast? And going inside the game, the toddler who somehow got trapped inside an arcade claw machine, how police broke him out. Nightly News starts right now. This is NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas. And good evening. We begin tonight with two major updates involving the DNA found in the case of the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie. The new details coming straight from the Pima County Sheriff himself to NBC News. He's revealing that DNA testing on a glove many hope was the one worn by the suspect in this terrifying doorbell camera video came up empty. Hope's now shifting to another piece of evidence. The sheriff telling NBC News in a new interview that DNA found inside the house could belong to the kidnapper.

But investigators finding new leads in that doorbell footage as well, including the possibility that the suspect was you can kind of make it out here wearing some kind of ring underneath his gloves. And the sheriff says they're turning to a vast array of high-tech equipment, including something called a signal sniffer to find any pings from Nancy's pacemaker. Let's get right to Liz Croix and Tucson with the very latest. Tonight, new challenges in the search for Nancy Guthrie. The DNA on the glove found two miles from her home did not match any DNA in the National Data Bank, nor did it match the DNA taken from her property. But the Pima County Sheriff tells us that DNA from the home could be the same. suspects. We believe that we may have some DNA there that may be our suspect, but we won't know that until that DNA is separated, sorted out, maybe admitted to CODIS, maybe through genealogy.

That's pretty critical. That's pretty big. Absolutely. But we have other leads too that are big. Among them, talking to Walmart, where the suspect's backpack is from, and analyzing the surveillance video. Tonight, the sheriff acknowledging a potential new detail, look here, you can see some kind of ring may be showing through the suspect's glove. Have you noticed that the suspect may have a ring on, like something looks like a class ring? I look at the same photo you look at

and I get, I see it, I see people have circled who said, yeah, my speculation is, I'm going to get that to my team. They'll look at that, they'll analyze it, and we'll see, maybe, maybe it is. Something else they're looking into, the suspect's

gun holster. We know he had a gun. We know he had a that had some pretty unique characteristics. We can't quite identify it yet, but that's being worked on. So naturally we go to our gun shops everywhere and say, have you seen this guy? Nano says investigators are also using an array of high-tech technology in the search, including a tool called a signal sniffer to try to track a signal from Nancy's pacemaker. He says Google is also still trying to recover more surveillance footage from Nancy's nest cameras,

which he describes as a challenging process given the videos were recorded over. They call it scratching. It's like the way it was described to me is you've got eight layers of paint and you want to peel down to the sixth layer. But you get to that fifth layer and you might tear the sixth layer. So there it's a delicate operation for them. While on the ground, 400 investigators still working the case 17 days into the search. As long as we have the ability to chase a lead, it's not cold. And we have thousands of leads we're looking at.

We're going to find Nancy, and we're going to find who did this. Liz joins us now live. Liz, we learned a lot of new information there from your interview, and we heard the sheriff talk about Google, but you're learning there's our other private companies helping as well? Yeah, that's right, Tom. He says the sheriff says they've been getting a number of calls, including he says from Mark Zuckerberg himself. He also says Apple has reached out, along with the company that is now helping them prioritize and organize the thousands of tips. Tom. Liz Kreutz leading us off. We also have some breaking news tonight out of Washington.

Police say a man with a loaded shotgun and wearing a tactical vest rush the Capitol building. Ryan Noble joins us now. Ryan, police quickly confronted him. Yeah, that's exactly right, Tom. Capitol Police say that 18-year-old Carter Camacho rushed the west front of the Capitol building with a loaded shotgun but was quickly apprehended as soon as he was confronted by police. He was wearing a tactical vest. And when police searched his car, they found more ammunition, a Kevlar helmet, and a gas mask. No shots were fired, and Capitol Police were prepared. They had just conducted a live shooter threat exercise there. No one was hurt, and now investigators are working to determine a motive. Congress is not in session this week,

so no members were in danger, but the campus was still bustling with staffers. Tom. All right, Ryan, we thank you for that. It is a race against time out west after an avalanche in the Sierra's buried multiple backcountry skiers. That same storm system sparking a massive and deadly 30-car pile up in Colorado. Morgan Chesky is tracking it all. Tonight, a series of winter storms slamming western states with drenching rains, heavy snow, and high winds. Look at that. In Colorado, dozens of cars and semis piling up in a crash leaving four people dead and 29 hospitalized. Authority saying visibility plunged amid wind-blown dust. A mangled mess shutting down I-25 in both directions.

We're going to make sure we have everyone accounted for. While in California, a near whiteout in the Sierra, where a group of 16 skiers went missing after an avalanche this morning. Rescurers say six survived and that 10 others are still missing. The blizzard-like conditions hitting drivers too, closing down nearly 150 miles of freeway. It looked like he was skidding a little bit and he was trying to like avoid me, but unfortunately, he didn't.

Near Los Angeles, intense rains filling city streets, sidelining delivery robots, and forcing Waymo's to pull off roads until conditions cleared up. The multiple storms now blame for growing travel headaches. Flight delays now topping more than 4,000 nationwide. And a separate storm system bringing rain and snow from the upper Midwest to New England tomorrow. While California and the Rockies may see more potential rain and snow this weekend, those headaches could get even worse. And this wild weather across the west could impact the Northeast by the end of the week.

Morgan Chesky joins us now live. Morgan, we can see all that mud there behind you in Altadena in L.A. landslides are concerned tonight? Yeah, Tom, absolutely right with more rain anticipated not only tonight but throughout the remainder of this week. And that is one of the reasons that officials here in Altadena have put up these concrete barriers. Should portions of this fire-scarred hillside give way, they can slow, or stop it before it reaches nearby neighborhoods. Tom. Okay, Morgan, we thank you.

We have new details tonight about how that deadly shooting at a high school hockey game in Rhode Island came to an end. Authorities praising those heroes who took the shooter down. Emily Aketa reports tonight from Rhode Island. Tonight, Rhode Island officials praising Good Samaritans who stepped in during a deadly shooting at a high school hockey game. Their courage undonelly prevented further loss and injury, and we thank them for that. Police say 56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who also went by Roberta, shot and killed ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and son Aden in the stands before pulling out a second gun and dying by suicide. One of the suspect's daughters, Amanda, speaking to NBC affiliate WJAR. His whole adulthood, he's struggled with mental health issues, but when somebody doesn't want to get help, they won't.

Court documents show Rhonda Dorgan filed for divorce from Robert in 2020, said, gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic, and personality disorder traits, which was crossed out and replaced with irreconcilable differences. Hours after witnessing her loved ones get shot, Amanda writing on GoFundMe, our family has been forever changed. Adding her younger siblings, including one playing in yesterday's game, are now facing the future without their parents and older brother. Team seen returning to the arena to collect equipment a day after the shooting.

was on the ice and I thought it was balloons at first. While people in the community show their support, placing hockey sticks on doorsteps and outside the arena. Police do not think there was a confrontation right before the shooting that also critically injured three people identified as the ex-wife's parents and a family friend. Tom. All right, Emily, we thank you. In Washington, it could be one of the largest environmental disasters ever in this country. A massive cleanup is underway after hundreds of millions of gallons of waste spilled into the Potomac. Tom Costello is on the scene. The river George Washington called the Nation's River is tonight off limits and contaminated. After a 60-year-old sewage line in Maryland broke open last month spewing more than 240 million gallons of raw waste

into the river. The same river that flows past the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Memorial and used by boaters, kayakers, high school, and college rowing teams. So you can see some of the toilet paper and the sewage up on the banks there. Riverkeeper Dean Nell-Yooks says the stench and environmental damage are staggering, with E. coli levels more than 10,000 times above EPA quality standards at the time of the spill. While slowly coming down, health experts warn no one should be boating, fishing, or even touching the Potomac. Is drinking water at all affected here? No, from day one, drinking water has never been impacted by this. But massive boulders that collapsed into the six-foot-wide pipe are delaying the repairs. Meanwhile, President Trump has

blamed Maryland's Democratic Governor Westmore for gross mismanagement, while Moore fired back saying the pipe was federally built and regulated, and the Trump EPA has been slow to respond. The fear now, the Potomac may not be safe for months. You used to swim right here? I've swam right here. Would you swim in here again? Not for a while. D.C. Water expects to have the immediate repair job done by mid-Mid. March, but overhauling the entire line could take at least nine months. Tom? Tom Costello for us, Tom, thank you. Tonight we're remembering an icon of the civil rights movement. Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84. Jackson was an influential activist, a Baptist minister, and he ran historic

presidential campaigns twice. For nearly six decades, Jesse Jackson lived on the front lines of the civil rights movement, relentless in his fight and armed with that booming voice. When he ran for president, his secret service code name was Thunder. Oh, Chief Hope alive. The Baptist minister was born in Greenville, South Carolina, as a young man working closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Jackson's life changing just three years later when an assassin shot and killed Dr. King in Memphis. When he returned, all we could see was police coming. Police were coming from the direction of the shot. Jackson and other activists kept the civil rights movement alive.

I may be poor. As his influence grew, Jackson would launch a presidential bid in 1984. Our flag is red, white, and blue. But our nation is rainbow, red, yellow, brown, black, and white. We're all precious in God's sight. But the campaign was derailed when he admitted using an anti-Semitic slur in a private conversation. However innocent and unintended, it was insensitive. and wrong. Jackson came very close to the nomination with another presidential run in 1988,

cementing a leading role in the party. We must find common ground as a basis for survival and development and change and growth. 20 years later, an emotional Jackson witnessed America elect its first black president, Barack Obama. Today, Barack and Michelle Obama calling him a true giant, saying Reverend Jackson also created opportunities for generations of African Americans and inspired countless more, including us, adding, we stood on his shoulders. The activist, also a father and a husband whose lifetime of service shifted generations. You love to motivate you and obligate you to serve the human family. Young America dream.

In 60 seconds, we're back with the women of USA figure skating taking to the ice. Did the so-called Blade Angels deliver? That's next. We're back now with one of the most highly anticipated events of the Winter Olympics. Women's figure skating with three strong Americans taking to the ice. Stephanie Gosk is watching it all from Milan. The Blade Angels taking to the ice tonight, Amber Glenn, Alyssa Lou, and Isabel Lovito. It's been thinking.

about talking about how special it would be to skate here at the Olympics in Milan. All three U.S. figure skaters entered as medal contenders. In an event, the U.S. hasn't meddled in since 2006. And tonight, two of the Americans skated clean programs. I'm just, like, really, really happy. And this moment's really exciting. And I don't want it to, you know, end. But Amber Glenn made a mistake that could take her out of the running for a medal.

In the arena to support his teammates, Ilya Malinan, who spoke with us earlier in the day, on the pressure of coming in as the gold medal favorite and the disappointment of finishing eighth. When you finish your performance, you put your head in your hands. What went through your head? It was honestly not the best. It was just devastating in the moment. I just felt like I let myself down. I let the people I care about down. He told us some of the world's best athletes have reached out. Simone Biles, Tom Brady, Steph Curry, really the only people who can relate to the pressure, which Malinin described as endless and insurmountable.

It definitely started as soon as I got to the Olympics. Over the two weeks that I've been here, it really just started building up more and more. Were you surprised by how different Olympic ice was? Really surprised. It was, you know, call me off guard, honestly. But Malin says he is incredibly grateful to be here and thankful for all the support. Life is not easy and it throws everything it can at you. And your job is to, you know, stay strong and really just keep pushing, keep fighting for it, no matter what happens. And you want to keep rolling and spinning.

Keep jumping. Keep spinning. Keep skating. That's what I want to do. The women's free skate is on Thursday, and the Americans will have tough competition, especially from the Japanese who dominated this short program, Tom. Okay, Stephanie, we thank you. Primetime Olympics coverage kicks off tonight at 8 p.m. on NBC and Peacock. We are back in a moment tonight with the firefighters. pastor injured an explosion at a church. Plus, it's every parent's worst nightmare, how one child escaped an attempted kidnapping.

That's next. We're back now with a massive explosion that destroyed a church in upstate New York. Take a look at these flames engulfing the church, sending huge clouds of smoke into the air. Boonville police say three firefighters, a fire chief, and the church pastor were critically injured after a basement furnace activated

triggering that explosion. And in Italy, every parent's worst nightmare caught on camera, video shows the terrifying moment you saw it there. A man allegedly tries to kidnap a child, attempting to snatch her away from her mother as the family exits a grocery store. This happened just outside of Milan. Police say other shoppers tried to stop the attacker

until officers were able to arrest him. The girl was left with a fractured female. Pretty scary stuff there. And in St. Louis, this toddler bypassed the claw in this arcade game and went into the machine himself. There's Cooper playing with the toys as officers figure out how to get him out.

Cooper's mother told story full a service technician eventually freedom, adding her son was having a ball. All right, when we come back, Game of Drones, the Olympics, like we've never seen them before. We take you behind the scenes with the pilots flying those drones at speeds topping 90 miles per hour.

That's next. An incredible look from above by drone in the Alps of Levineo, and we want to leave you tonight with the new stars of these Olympic games. Not the athletes, but the drone pilots. Their videos chasing those athletes down mountains at unbelievably fast speeds have likely left you breathless. Molly Hunter takes us behind the scenes with how they pull it all off. Never before has the average person been able to experience this.

Watch these jumps. Or this, or this point of view ripping down the mountain at 80 miles per hour. Or how about feeling like you are actually hurtling down an icy track headfirst with no brakes? Kelly Curtis of the United States. Behind that shot, powerful first-person high-speed broadcast quality drones. And in the case of the sliding events, drone pilot Ralph Hoganberg. It's fully manual. So the drone doesn't even know what's up or down.

It doesn't have any sensors. What? So I'm fully... So you are fully steering it. Yeah, because these sensors, they're a little bit too slow for this kind of speed and this precision. So, yeah, it's all up to me at this point. and to split-second reflexes. There are strict rules.

Drones can't overtake the racers. And Hokenberg says they practiced with athletes to make sure the whizzing wasn't a distraction. I mean, it's so narrow. It looks so crazy, which is why we get such a good view at home. So the skeleton, especially just before turn run, I get really close behind their feet.

So I think maybe one or two meters behind them, it's a perfect shot, and it's still under control the whole time. Maximum speed here is about 40 to 50 miles per hour with zero margin for air. We got a peek inside the drone cape where Hoganberg straps on his goggles. A three-man crew keeps him airborne, spotting, swapping batteries, cooling the motor even in freezing temperatures. A revolutionary way to experience the games, that's been all the buzz. Molly Hunter, NBC News for Tina.

And you can catch all that incredible drone footage when primetime Olympics coverage kicks off tonight at 8 p.m. right here on NBC and Peacock. That's nightly news for this Tuesday. I'm Tom Yamas. Thanks so much for watching. Tonight and always we're here for you. Good night.