Overview
- Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen on the evening of January 31 and her family reported her missing on February 1, and she remains unlocated nearly nine months later.
- Authorities have released doorbell images of a masked person on Guthrie’s porch and published alleged ransom notes, but no suspect has been publicly identified or arrested.
- Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos confirmed evidence has been sent to four specialized laboratories, including a private Deerfield Beach Florida lab and facilities in Kansas and San Francisco.
- Detectives traveled to the Florida lab to pursue low-copy-number and rootless-hair DNA testing, while retired investigators say one lab is examining a DNA mixture of up to four people and are surprised there is no genetic-genealogy hit so far.
- Specialized labs use niche extraction and mixture-analysis techniques that can take weeks or months and may or may not yield profiles usable for genetic genealogy, a reality that shapes investigators’ timelines and the family’s ongoing $1 million reward appeal.