The sheriff said he was hopeful that a gun holster and a possible ring that a man was seen wearing in video from Guthrie's porch could lead authorities to a suspect.
As the search for Guthrie stretches into day 18, 400 investigators continue to work the case, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said yesterday.
And they are running down thousands of tips and leads.
“As long as we have the ability to chase a lead, it’s not cold,” Nanos told NBC News yesterday.
“We’re not going to give up. We’re going to find Nancy, and we’re going to find out who did this.”
As the search continues for Nancy Guthrie, yellow flowers are being placed near Nancy’s home and all across Tucson. In Studio 1A, “TODAY” is sending its love to the Guthrie family with yellow flowers and ribbons.
After DNA evidence found on gloves 2 miles from Guthrie’s house yielded no matches in an FBI database, investigators are now combing through her home and working on further testing DNA found there, which does not match her or anyone who was known to be at her house recently.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told NBC News yesterday that investigators are now pursuing genealogical leads based on partial DNA found at Guthrie’s home.
But all of this could take some time.
The case rings bells of the Idaho murders in 2022, in which it took six weeks to track down Bryan Kohberger who killed the four students overnight in their off-campus home. Officials in that case ultimately matched Kohberger’s DNA by going through trash at his parents’ house, where he was staying after the quadruple murders.
Doorbell camera footage released last week by the FBI, showing a man, remains critical to finding Guthrie, and officials are working with Walmart to track the person based on the backpack he was carrying.
Officials are also going to gun shops to try to identify a weapon seen in that video, and are working to get a signal on Guthrie’s pacemaker.
That said, it is not unusual for this investigation to be in its third week with no suspects or persons of interest identified. All of these avenues take time to pursue, and it requires working with numerous companies and agencies.
As the search continues for Guthrie, the Pima County sheriff tells NBC News that DNA found on her property could belong to the suspect behind her disappearance.
Nancy Guthrie’s family has posted on social media several times pleading for her return since she disappeared nearly two weeks ago.
“TODAY” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie on Feb. 2 posted “please pray” on Instagram, asking for the public to lift up prayers for her mother’s return.
On Feb. 4, the journalist posted a video alongside her siblings, addressing reports of ransom letters. The following day, she shared a video of her brother, Camron Guthrie, asking the possible captor to reach out.
In another video Feb. 7, she said the family was willing to pay for her mother’s return.
“We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” Savannah Guthrie said. “This is the only way we will have peace.”
“This is very valuable to us, and we will pay,” she added.
On Feb. 9, Savannah Guthrie thanked the public for prayers, saying she believes her mother is still out there.
On Tuesday, she posted photos the FBI shared of images retrieved from her mother’s Nest doorbell camera. In a separate post that same day, she shared a video shared by the FBI, writing: “Someone out there recognizes this person. We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”
Late last week, she shared home videos from her youth with her mom, with the caption: “Our lovely mom. 💛 We will never give up on her. Thank you for your prayers and hope.”
In an online plea Sunday, she again said that the family still has hope and believes her mother is alive. She also addressed whoever her mother has or knows where she is, saying: “It’s never too late.”
“You’re not lost or alone, and it is never too late to do the right thing,” she said. “We are here. And we believe. And we believe in the essential goodness of every human being.”
Milwaukee Crime Stoppers President Michael Hupy said last night that he is offering to sponsor a $100,000 reward for information in the Guthrie disappearance.
Hupy said that he would sponsor the reward through the Tucson chapter of Crime Stoppers and that the funds would come from his personal funds.
“It’s my money. I made the decision on my own,” Hupy told NBC News in an interview.
“They have a Crime Stoppers in Tucson. I talked to them. They were very happy to have the reward. I sent it to them today, a cashier’s check, and they’re very responsible,” he continued.
NBC News has reached out to Tucson Crime Stoppers to confirm receipt of Hupy’s $100,000 sponsored reward.
Hupy said he took an interest in the Guthrie case because he is “very saddened at what happened to this lady. And there’s something [that] just doesn’t make sense. If somebody took her and wants ransom, they’ve been awfully quiet about it.”
Hupy emphasized that anonymous tips may yield more useful information. Typically, an FBI reward money involves a tipster providing identifiable information. Crime Stoppers uses a coded number so tipsters can collect money if their tip leads to an arrest.
“When they call Crime Stoppers, they’re given a code number … If that tip leads to an arrest, then they get a reward,” Hupy said. “They go to an unannounced place and receive the reward anonymously by just giving their number.”
Hupy, who has been a longtime advocate for Crime Stoppers, said he wanted to participate with the hope of bringing answers to the Guthrie family.
“The ripple effect in these cases is horrible,” he said. “I mean, it isn’t just somebody’s kidnapped or killed. It’s the ripple effect of a spouse, family, [and] children. We have to bring closure to people.”
Here’s everything we know so far about the suspect in Guthrie’s disappearance:
Images posted to X by FBI Phoenix on Feb. 12 show surveillance footage of a masked man and a black Ozark Trail brand backpack. via FBI Phoenix
Security footage from the house of Nancy Guthrie, released by the FBI. Kash Patel via X
In video taken from Guthrie’s porch the morning she went missing, a man could be seen wearing a holster, and it’s a unique one, the sheriff said today.
Investigators are looking to gun stores to try to match the unique holster.
“We know he had a gun. We know he had a holster that had some pretty unique characteristics,” Nanos said in an interview.
“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? Can you help us identify this weapon? Can you help us identify this holster?’” he said.
All members of the Guthrie family, including all siblings and their spouses, have been cleared as possible suspects in their mother’s disappearance, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said this week.
The family has been “nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case,” he said.
“To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel,” Nanos continued. “The Guthrie family are victims plain and simple.”
Preliminary testing on gloves found about 2 miles from Guthrie’s home point to the DNA of an unknown male, authorities said. Those gloves appear to match the gloves worn by a person seen in security video from outside Guthrie’s home. But DNA from the gloves did not match any samples in the FBI’s DNA database, authorities said last night.
But, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said, “that’s not the end.”
“Now we start with genealogy and some of the partial DNA we have at the home,” he said in an interview today.
“To me, that’s more critical than any glove I found 2 miles away. I’m not dismissing the glove 2 miles away, but I have gloves 5 miles away, 10 miles away, so we prioritize,” he said.
Nanos did not say where in the home the DNA was found.
“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,” Nanos said.
NBC News