Three weeks after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson home, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told BBC News on Tuesday that investigators have not ruled out the possibility that an accomplice aided the suspected kidnapper captured on doorbell camera video.
Guthrie was last seen the night of January 31, when her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, dropped her off at her house after she spent the evening with him and her daughter, Annie Guthrie. She was reported missing the following day. Her heart pacemaker showed a disconnect from her phone in the early morning hours that night.
The FBI shared doorbell camera footage last week showing what it described as an armed individual who appeared to have tampered with the camera at Guthrie's front door on the morning of February 1. The bureau describes the suspect as male, between approximately 5 feet 9 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, with an average build. No suspect has been named.
According to CBS News, on Monday, the Pima County Sheriff's Department announced that Savannah Guthrie, the "Today" show co-host and Nancy's daughter, along with her two siblings and their spouses, had all been cleared as suspects. Nanos did not mince words about how thoroughly investigators examined the family before reaching that conclusion:
"We really put them through the wringer. We not just interview them, we take their cars, we take their houses, we take their phones, all this stuff — and we're not taking it. They're giving it to us voluntarily. They have been 100% cooperative with us through everything we've asked. They are victims. They are not suspects."
All three of Nancy Guthrie's children have appeared in videos pleading for their mother's return since the disappearance.
Nanos told BBC News he believes Guthrie was targeted in the apparent abduction. That word, "targeted," carries weight. It suggests that investigators believe this was not random, that someone selected an 84-year-old woman living alone and executed a plan to take her. Whether that plan involved one person or more remains an open question.
The forensic picture is developing but has yet to produce a breakthrough. Investigators recovered a set of gloves approximately two miles from Guthrie's home. On Tuesday, the sheriff's department disclosed that a DNA profile from those gloves did not produce a match in the national database maintained by the FBI, nor did it match different DNA evidence collected at the home itself.
Investigators are now looking into genetic genealogy options to check for matches, a technique that gained national attention in the Golden State Killer case and has since become a critical tool for law enforcement working without a hit in traditional databases.
On Thursday, the sheriff's office said "biological evidence" found at Nancy Guthrie's home was being analyzed and that DNA profiles were "under lab analysis." The office did not specify the type of biological evidence recovered.
Meanwhile, the FBI has been probing gun purchases in the Tucson area. The owner of a local gun store told CBS News that an FBI agent visited approximately a week ago, showed him several images with faces and names, and inquired about purchases made in the last year. That suggests the bureau is working from a set of possible leads, even if none have materialized publicly.
Law enforcement sources also told CBS News that investigators have been using a "signal sniffer" tracking device to detect possible signals from Guthrie's heart pacemaker. Engineers are still working through additional cameras from the property as well.
The reward for information has climbed sharply. On Thursday, the 88-CRIME tipline reward increased to $102,500, buoyed by a $100,000 anonymous donation. The FBI is separately offering $100,000 for information leading to a resolution. That is a combined incentive of $200,000 for anyone who knows something.
The size of that reward reflects both the severity of the case and the frustration of a community watching an elderly woman's disappearance stretch into its third week without an arrest. Anonymous six-figure donations don't materialize for ordinary cases. Someone with resources wants answers badly enough to pay for them.
The most unsettling detail in this investigation may be what is absent. No ransom demand has surfaced publicly. No suspect has been identified by name. No person of interest has been announced. The doorbell footage shows a figure, not a face. The DNA tells investigators who the suspect isn't, not who he is.
Nanos's refusal to rule out an accomplice adds another layer. A solo kidnapping of an elderly woman from her home is alarming enough. The possibility that this was coordinated, that more than one person planned and executed the abduction of an 84-year-old grandmother, transforms the case into something darker.
For now, the investigation grinds forward on forensics, genetic genealogy, gun purchase records, and whatever those additional property cameras might yield. The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department are working the case aggressively. The question is whether the evidence will catch up to whoever disappeared into the Arizona night with Nancy Guthrie.
An entire family waits. So does a $200,000 reward. Someone knows something.
