Investigators are continuing their search for new clues that could lead to a breakthrough in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, more than three weeks after she was taken from her home in the middle of the night.
Officials have not offered any new information since a DNA sample from gloves found a few miles away from her home did not match any entries in a national database called CODIS that stores DNA taken from crime suspects or people with convictions.
“Investigators are currently looking into additional investigative genetic genealogy options for DNA evidence to check for matches. CODIS is one option of many databases that are available,” the sheriff’s department said Tuesday.
Tapping into DNA genealogy databases could offer investigators new clues and help narrow down possibilities after weeks of searching that have not yet led to her recovery.
Genealogy sites like Ancestry and 23andMe have large databases that can be tapped into by court orders or user opt-ins to help investigators identify suspects. Police can use DNA from crime scenes to find distant relatives and build a family tree that significantly narrows down the possible list of suspects in the case.
A genealogy database, GEDmatch, has been credited with helping investigators crack the case of the Golden State Killer and arrest Joseph DeAngelo after decades of dead ends. It also helped authorities identify Bryan Kohberger as a suspect in the deaths of four University of Idaho suspects in 2022, when investigators used the sites to build a family tree and pulled trash from his parents’ home to make a connection.
It’s unclear where authorities are in the process of running DNA collected to the crime scene against the databases and it comes with some limitations like the quality of the sample. The process may offer new hints but could still take time to process.
“I’ve solved cases in less than eight hours where people shared a lot of DNA with the suspect. Other cases, you’re still working on them two years later. This could take a while,” Barbara Rae-Venter, a genealogist who worked on the DeAngelo case, told CNN.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Office is also working with experts to find Guthrie using her pacemaker through Bluetooth signals that can be found up to 218 yards away. Search crews and helicopters have been circling the surrounding areas near her home in hopes of picking up a connection.
While officials have not offered public updates on the investigation in several days, they still have thousands of leads to sort through. The FBI and sheriff’s office say they have received tens of thousands of tips since Guthrie went missing to pursue along with DNA and crime scene evidence they are continuing to comb through.
Officials have asked for the public’s help identifying a man seen in images and videos captured by Guthrie’s doorbell camera the night she disappeared. The video showed a man wearing a ski mask, long pants, jacket and gloves. The FBI said the suspect is about 5-foot-9 with a medium build.
Police have also identified that the backpack the man was using is exclusively sold at Walmart. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told NBC on Sunday that authorities are getting closer to identifying the other articles of clothing the man was wearing.
A pair of gloves that appeared to match the person in the video were found about two miles from her home and contained the DNA that was matched against the national database.
Investigators are also trying to match the gun the man was carrying and the holster he was using as possible hints to identify a suspect.
Guthrie hasn’t been seen since the night of Jan. 31, when she was dropped off at her home after dinner with her family. She was reported missing the following morning when she did not show up to view a church service with her friends in a case that has expanded to involve federal law enforcement and drawn worldwide attention.
Investigators have ruled out her immediate family and their spouses as possible suspects in the case. Nanos said in a statement last week that the family had been “nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in the case” after online speculation about who is responsible for Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have released a series of videos pleading with whoever is involved with their mother’s disappearance to contact them and that they were willing to pay for her return.
A series of alleged ransom notes have been sent to news outlets over the last several weeks containing information about Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapping and asked for payment in exchange. Authorities have not publicly verified the notes but has said they are taking them seriously.
None of the notes has contained proof that Guthrie is still alive, but Nanos recently said he was holding out hope. Officials have voiced concern about Guthrie’s condition because she takes daily medications and has a pacemaker.
“You have no proof, nobody does, that she’s not (alive),” Nanos told Fox10 in an interview. “I’m going to have that faith. Sometimes that hope is all we have.”
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