It’s been nearly 4 months since Nancy Guthrie disappeared. An ex-FBI special agent believes the names of possible suspects are in the thousands of tips investigators are scouring.
It’s been almost four months since his mother, Nancy Guthrie, passed away. Today The show’s co-host, Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her home in Arizona. Although investigators examined clues, examined evidence and detained at least three people for questioning, no progress was made in the case.
The Pima County sheriff and the FBI have not publicly identified any suspects or a motive for the incident, but Sheriff Chris Nanos said investigators believe they know why Nancy Guthrie’s home was targeted. There have been few publicly shared updates from officials on the issue in recent weeks.
On May 11, as Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance reached 100 days, Nanos told the local station: KOLD-TV: “I believe at some point we will make an arrest in this case.” “We will not give up on this just because it has been 100 days,” he said.
Former FBI special agent Harry Trombitas told Yahoo that while the lack of an update is frustrating — especially for the Guthrie family — the public should remain “patient,” noting that “investigators are working day and night on this case.”
“More than 50,000 tips have been received, and I truly believe that those tips likely contain the names of the people involved,” Trombitas said. “It’s just a matter of working on them. [Investigators] “He might be after someone right now.”
Trombitas noted that law enforcement can’t just go out and arrest someone. “You have to build a case and think about future cases,” he said, adding that things need to be done properly to make sure there are no mistakes.
Latest situation in the investigation
Police said Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen around 9:45 p.m. Jan. 31, when family members dropped her off at her home in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Ariz., after dinner. He was reported missing around noon the next day after he failed to show up at a friend’s house to watch an online church service.
Authorities are reviewing doorbell camera footage of a masked man who the FBI says was “armed” outside Nancy Guthrie’s home. They are also reviewing video of a speeding car around the time of her abduction and a backpack that was likely purchased online. There is also a damaged electrical box that investigators believe may be linked to an internet outage that reportedly occurred around the time of his disappearance.
More recently, researchers said they were working to process “admixed” DNA, including a hair sample taken from Nancy Guthrie’s home; This means that there is genetic material belonging to more than one person at the place where he was possibly kidnapped. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department initially sent DNA samples to a private laboratory in Florida with which they routinely work. Later in April, DNA samples were sent from the Florida laboratory to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for further DNA analysis.
The former FBI agent acknowledged he was not part of the original investigation but said “mixed DNA is also much more difficult to work with.”
“I wish it had gone to the FBI lab first,” he said of the DNA samples. “Ideally, why don’t we send it to the best DNA lab in the world? And that’s the FBI lab. We can do a lot more than some private labs can do.”
Trombitas explained that examining a mixed DNA sample could take months. “When you only have a single participant, the time it takes to process that DNA is much less than when you have a mixed sample.”
But despite the nearly four-month investigation, Trombitas said, “I truly believe this case will be solved.” He thinks the case will be solved through a tip providing the name or names of those involved in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
“I’ve worked on cases before where thousands of people were named as suspects, and we had to literally work through each and every one of those names to exonerate them, either rule them out, or rule them out. This can take a lot of time,” he explained.
To obtain DNA from a potential suspect, Trombitas said, investigators must conduct surveillance to watch the person throw away and pick up an item, such as a soda can. Investigators can then compare the collected DNA to potential contributors found in the mixed DNA 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.
