Big update in Nancy Guthrie case as cops rule out

As the investigation enters its sixth week, a string of promising leads have did not ship the breakthrough investigators and the Guthrie household are desperately hoping for.

Nancy Guthrie has not been seen since Saturday, January 31. She was reported lacking the following day by members of the family who alerted the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, which has said it believes the 84-year-old was taken from her residence against her will.

One of the most carefully watched developments centered on a broken utility box found round the nook from Guthrie’s residence. Investigators moved rapidly to look at whether or not it may very well be related to her suspected kidnapper — a hyperlink that, if confirmed, would have represented a big development in the case. It comes after a thriller man who claimed he “saw Nancy 5 days ago” provided chilling new proof.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is reported to have confirmed on March 8 that the box was “being reviewed as part of the ongoing investigation,” according to Tucson news station KVOA.

The development was also reported on the March 9 version of the Today present by Guthrie’s co-anchor Craig Melvin.

But by the time USA TODAY reached the sheriff’s workplace later that same day, allegedly the lead had already cooled. A spokesperson said investigators had discovered “nothing to indicate that the utility box would be related to the case.”

Melvin also referenced earlier NBC News reporting — NBC shares a mum or dad company with the Today present — that representatives from each the sheriff’s division and the FBI had gone door-to-door in Guthrie’s Catalina Foothills neighborhood asking residents whether or not they had observed web disruptions round the time she went lacking. NBC News national correspondent Liz Kreutz reported on March 6, based on conversations with householders, that the canvassing had taken place.

A pair of black gloves found roughly two miles from Guthrie’s residence had initially been handled as a big lead. Visually, authorities said, they appeared to match those worn by a person the FBI recognized as a suspect after he was captured on surveillance footage at her residence.

DNA analysis in the end pointed elsewhere. “Sheriff Nanos stated in a recent interview that the black gloves found approximately 2 miles away from Nancy Guthrie’s home were traced back via DNA analysis to a person who works at a restaurant in the area,” the sheriff’s division said in a March 4 assertion. “That person is not considered part of this investigation. Lab analysis remains underway on other DNA evidence.”

A February 17 update had already indicated there have been “no DNA hits in CODIS” — the FBI’s national DNA database — from the gloves, and that the DNA didn’t match samples collected from Guthrie’s residence, states the report. Law enforcement has individually confirmed the presence of DNA inside the residence that belongs to neither Guthrie nor anybody in her inside circle, however has supplied no additional updates on that analysis.

The Express US already reported how the investigation took a dramatic flip when a SWAT team descended on the Tucson residence of Luke Daley, 37, detaining him and his 77-year-old mom for a number of hours under a search warrant before releasing them without cost.

Daley has since spoken to True Crime Arizona host Briana Whitney, saying he believes he was focused after social media customers claimed he resembled the masked man seen in the doorbell digicam footage from Guthrie’s residence. He was emphatic in his denial. “It’s not me. I don’t see the resemblance of it looking like me. Absolutely not. I have nothing to do with this case,” he said.

He added, “Someone says something and then they just go off of it based on no evidence, no truth.” Daley said he, “like everyone else,” hopes Nancy comes residence safely.