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Nancy Guthrie case: Amid Dominic Evans, Tommaso Cioni buzz, Early Black bandmate Walter Goncalves' interview resurfaces
A 2012 interview of Early Black bandmember Walter Goncalves has resurfaced amid buzz about Dominic Evans and Tommaso Cioni after Nancy Guthrie kidnapping video.
Nancy Guthrie's kidnapping has surprisingly led to new focus on Early Black, a post-punk band from Tucson, founded in 2007. This is because the 84-year-old's son-in-law Tommaso Cioni played in the band.
Cioni was also reportedly the last person to see Guthrie before her disappearance. She'd had dinner with her daughter Annie, who reportedly lives close by, and Cioni, Annie's husband, dropped her off home after, according to New York Times. Authorities believe that Guthrie was kidnapped from her residence near Tucson, Arizona, between then and the next morning, when she was reported missing.
Now, new footage has been released by the FBI showing the potential suspect at the doorway of Guthrie's residence. Dressed in a ski mask, and wearing gloves, not much is known about the identity of the individual in the video.
However, this has not stopped speculations with a lot of buzz surrounding Cioni, since he's potentially the last person to see Guthrie before she was allegedly taken. Cioni was also reported to be the suspect by former News Nation journalist Ashleigh Banfield, though cops junked her claims. Since then, there has been sustained interest in Cioni's personal life, and by extension his associates, which includes Dominic Evans, fellow bandmember who allegedly has a rap sheet. Walter Goncalves who was in the band with them has not been spared either.
“Tommaso Cioni and his bandmates Dominic Evans and Walter Goncalves should be investigated. Evans had a previous criminal record including theft and embezzlement,” one person wrote on X. Another questioned, “What about Walter Goncalves? Same facial features as man in mask?”.
Amid this interest, an old interview of Goncalves has resurfaced. Goncalves spoke to Tucson Weekly in 2012, two years after the publication put out a positive review of their album Life: Love :: Love:Murder, which has also caught people's attention amid the Guthrie case.
What did Walter Goncalves say?
Goncalves' interview was mostly regarding his taste in music. He spoke about how The Ramones was the first concert he saw, at the age of 15. Goncalves also shared his guilty pleasure when it came to music. “I don’t feel guilty about any of my musical pleasures, but maybe listening to Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works too much when I was, like, 13 … a little too pretentious.”
Goncalves also gave a peep into his personality during the interview, listing Joy Division's Atmosphere as the song he'd want played at his funeral, and adding that The Cure changed his outlook towards music.
However, Goncalves did not open up much about bandmates Cioni and Evans.
Early Black's description reads, “Early Black was born on April 2007, when Dominic Evans (drums) and Tommaso Cioni (bass, vocals) met Walter I. Gonçalves, Jr. (guitar, vocals) over a series of online and newspaper ads (Evans met Gonçalves through a Craigslist posting, Cioni responded to a Tucson Weekly posting).”
Despite immense public interest in Cioni, his band, and its members, there is nothing that ties them to the new footage released by the FBI. The bureau and the Pima County Sheriff's Department are yet to identify any suspects or persons of interest in Nancy Guthrie's alleged kidnapping.
