The vanishing of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, mother to the co-host of the Today show, Savannah Guthrie, has passed the third colour-coded week without any official suspect, and the investigation is raising more questions as to the direction and what the challenges of the investigation are.
With law enforcement still working to track Guthrie, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent has described the investigation as a fractured one with challenges of putting together vital evidence and tracking down suspects.
Investigation Timeline and Early Evidence
Last seen at her home in Tucson, Arizona, on the evening of 31 January, 2026, Guthrie was declared missing the next day when she did not show up at an event. Initial investigations took place earlier indicated that she disappeared against her will since no personal effects were found and she had very little mobility.
The Guthrie footage showed a masked person on the front door of her house just before she disappeared, and blood confirmable to belong to Guthrie's was discovered on her front door.
These evidences led the Pima County Sheriff Department to treat the case as a crime scene and not a common case of missing persons.
Also, the investigators have found two ransom notes, but the authorities have not confirmed their authenticity, and they have not been directly communicated with the Guthrie family.
'Fractured' Investigation and Expert Criticism
On a clip on the Jesse Watters Primetime show of Fox News, the former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan informed pundits that the investigation may become 'fractured,' in good part due to the slow pace at which evidence is providing definite leads, as well as the fact that the masked suspect has proven quite challenging to identify.
The slow nature of progress and the contradiction with the theories were the reasons why Kaplan indicated that the strength of the investigation could be destroyed unless properly counteracted.
Similarly, the ex-FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who appeared on Fox News with host Hannity, expressed his criticism of the case, saying that it does not make any sense that the Pima County Sheriff is not accessing the FBI technology.
The remarks of Bongino focused on what he considers to be a failure to use federal expertise to take advantage of opportunities that could enhance the rapidity in examining the evidence.
Local Law Enforcement Defends Coordination with FBI
The Arizona officials, however, have resisted arguments of investigative malpractices or interference. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has stressed the importance of cooperation with the FBI and other agencies, saying that all the evidence, such as DNA and gloves that had been discovered on the scene, has been disseminated and subjected to processing as part of the coordinated response.
When asked by reporters why Nanos chose to submit evidence to an independent laboratory in Florida, where more extensive profiling of DNA could be done than to FBI labs, Nanos responded that he did so to ensure that evidence was submitted to an external lab and not directly to the FBI.
Even the office of the sheriff has made efforts to make it clear that the Guthrie family members are not suspects in the case. Sheriff Nanos came out in a public statement last week to confirm that the family has been wholly cooperative and they should not be treated as persons of interest but rather as having been victims.
The DNA profiles created out of the forensic evidence, including a glove that was found at the place where Guthrie used to live, may be uploaded to the national databases, and this might lead to the identification of possible suspects eventually.
FBI's Forensic and Search Efforts Underway
In spite of these scandals, the FBI is very much involved. Other than investigating physical evidence, police have been using high-tech gadgets that have helped them to monitor Guthrie to determine her whereabouts by using the Bluetooth signal detection gadget that can help in finding the position of her pacemaker signal.
These methods provide a prospective direction investigators may take on the cases of people using medical devices, but it is observed that the method is technically limited, especially with respect to the limited scope of its performance.
In addition, the release of pictures and videos of the alleged intruder by the FBI has continued to keep the masses on their heels and broadened the tipping point and lead given by the populace and the nation.
Originally published on IBTimes UK
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