(TNND) — Advancements in technology can keep the trail from going cold as the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping investigation nears its two-week mark.
Advancements in DNA analysis, an expanding network of doorbell cameras and license plate readers, and leaps with artificial intelligence that can comb through massive amounts of information can all give law enforcement officers the ability to find a break in a big, complicated case like the one involving Guthrie, said Justin Smith, the executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association and a career law enforcement officer.
“For the family, it’s holding on hope when they expect something early on,” Smith said. “For those in the (law enforcement) system, it’s going through the information you have. It’s putting new eyes on the information you have.”
Smith, whose career spanned over 30 years and included three terms as a sheriff in Colorado, said solid leads usually turn up when law enforcement pours in a lot of resources to a case.
And that’s absolutely what’s happening with the Guthrie investigation.
Pima, Arizona, County Sheriff Chris Nanos, the top local law enforcement officer where Guthrie disappeared, told Fox News on Friday that they’ve got “400 people out on the ground, knocking on doors.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt separately told Fox News that the president is “offering the full resources and weight of the federal government to help local authorities bring this case to an end, to bring Nancy Guthrie home.”
Smith said kidnappings of this nature are extremely rare in the U.S.
He said most involve children and have a connection to a parent or to trafficking.
But it’s rare that an older person is taken by someone possibly demanding ransom, Smith said.
Smith said Guthrie’s health and safety are growing concerns as time passes, but he said law enforcement is focused on what they can control. And that’s working every lead, working every possible option.
Smith said the local-federal partnership is critical, as the sheriff’s department in Arizona knows the local community, but the FBI has the bandwidth, expertise and national reach needed in a case this complex.
Public tips are also critical, Smith said.
The FBI said it has collected over 13,000 tips from the public related to this case since Guthrie was reported missing.
The Associated Press reported that 4,000 calls flooded in within 24 hours of the release this week of doorbell video showing a masked man with a backpack, gloves and a handgun holster outside Guthrie’s home the night she vanished.
The FBI has boosted the reward to $100,000 for information that helps authorities find Guthrie and/or catch her kidnapper.
Nanos told Fox News that Guthrie’s blood was found outside her home. He wouldn’t say if there was forced entry at the home.
Nanos declined to comment to Fox News on the legitimacy of ransom notes, deferring that question to the FBI.
While Nanos said they’re looking at all possibilities with the case, he called it an “obvious kidnapping.”
The sheriff dismissed the notion that he was ever resistant to involving the FBI, calling that idea “absolutely crazy.”
“We don’t hold information from anybody that’s going to help us,” Nanos told Fox News. “Why would we do that? There are no egos here. This is all about finding Nancy.”
Guthrie is the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, which has generated a great deal of public attention on the case.
Smith said a lot of public attention can both help and hurt the case for investigators.
“It can go either way,” he said. “Sometimes having more attention on it will bring people forward. At the same time, sometimes more attention can bring things that cloud the case.”
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