It’s been nearly four months since Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show cohost Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her home in Arizona. Despite investigators looking into leads, poring through evidence and detaining at least three people for questioning, there have been no breakthroughs in the case.
The Pima County sheriff and the FBI have not publicly identified any suspects or a motive, though Sheriff Chris Nanos has said investigators believe they know why Nancy Guthrie’s home was targeted. Any publicly shared updates from authorities on the case have been sparse in recent weeks.
When Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance reached 100 days on May 11, Nanos told local station KOLD-TV: “I believe, at some point in time, we will make an arrest on this case.” He added, “We’re not going to give up on it just because it’s been 100 days.”
Former FBI special agent Harry Trombitas told Yahoo that while it can be frustrating when there aren’t any updates — certainly for the Guthrie family — the public should remain “patient” as “investigators are working day and night on this case.”
“There’s been over 50,000 tips received, and I truly believe the names of the individuals involved are most likely in those tips,” Trombitas said. “It’s just a matter of working through them. [Investigators] may already be on to somebody right now.”
Trombitas noted that law enforcement also can’t just go out and arrest someone. “You have to build a case and think about future prosecution,” he said, adding that things have to be done properly to make sure there are no mistakes.
Latest on the investigation
Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at around 9:45 p.m. on Jan. 31, when she was dropped off at her home in the Catalina Foothills north of Tucson, Ariz., by family members following dinner, police said. She was reported missing around noon the next day after she did not show up at a friend’s house to watch an online church service.
Authorities are reviewing doorbell camera footage from outside of Nancy Guthrie’s home of a masked individual who the FBI said was “armed.” They’re also reviewing video of a speeding car around the time of her abduction and a backpack possibly bought online. There’s also a damaged utility box investigators believe could be connected to a reported internet outage that occurred around the time she disappeared.
More recently, investigators said they were working to process “mixed” DNA, including a hair sample recovered from Nancy Guthrie’s home, which means there’s genetic material from more than one person at the scene of her possible abduction. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department initially sent the DNA samples to a private lab in Florida that they routinely work with. Then in April, the DNA samples were sent from the Florida lab to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., for advanced DNA analysis.
The former FBI agent acknowledged he’s not part of the actual investigation, but said that “mixed DNA also is a lot harder to work with.”
“I wish it would have gone to the FBI lab first,” he said of the DNA samples. “Ideally, why not send it to the best DNA lab in the entire world? And that’s the FBI lab. We’re able to do so much more than some private labs are able to do.”
A mixed DNA sample can take months to be examined, Trombitas explained. “When you just have one contributor, the amount of time that it takes to process that DNA is a lot less than when you have a mixed sample.”
But, despite the investigation nearing four months, Trombitas said, “I truly believe that this case will be solved.” He thinks the case will likely be solved through a tip that provides the name or names of those involved in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
“I’ve worked cases before where we’ve had thousands of individuals that have been named as suspects, and we literally have to work through each and every one of those names to clear them, either rule them in or rule them out. That can take an awful lot of time,” he explained.
To obtain DNA from a potential suspect, investigators must conduct surveillance to watch the person discard an item, such as a soda can, and collect it, Trombitas said. Investigators could then compare the collected DNA to any potential contributors found in the mixed DNA that’s being analyzed by the FBI.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Pima County Sheriff’s Department tip line at 520-351-4900 or the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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