More than two weeks after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson home, investigators have faced a major setback.
Nancy vanished on January 31. Family members say she would not have left on her own. She has limited mobility and depends on daily medication. Her pacemaker and home monitoring devices were disconnected shortly after she disappeared, raising serious concerns for her safety.
Days later, a ransom demand seeking $6 million in bitcoin was sent to authorities. No proof of life was provided before the deadline passed. Surveillance footage later showed a masked person near Nancy’s front door in the early hours of the morning she went missing.
A possible breakthrough came when a black glove was found about two miles from her home. Investigators tested it for DNA and submitted the results to the FBI’s national database, known as CODIS.
This week, officials confirmed the DNA produced no matches. Separate DNA recovered from inside Nancy’s home also failed to match anyone in the database. In simple terms, the person linked to the evidence does not appear in the national criminal DNA system.
With traditional database searches coming up empty, investigators are now turning to genetic genealogy to search for possible family connections.
The FBI continues to offer a reward and urges anyone with information to come forward.