Accomplice not ruled out in Nancy Guthrie disappearance, Arizona sheriff says
Investigators have not ruled out that an accomplice aided the suspected kidnapper seen in doorbell camera video outside the Tucson, Arizona, home of Nancy Guthrie the night of her disappearance, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos.
Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie, 84, was forcibly taken from her home in the middle of the night before she was reported missing Feb. 1. Nanos told CBS News partner network BBC News in an interview Tuesday that he believes Guthrie was targeted in the apparent abduction.
The video recovered from Guthrie’s Google Nest doorbell camera, which was shared by the FBI last week, is the only video that Google has been able to recover from the cameras at Guthrie’s home, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. There are additional cameras from the property that engineers are still working through as they try to recover usable video. Investigators are hopeful that tech companies working on the videos will uncover more, according to the sheriff’s department.
A reward from the 88-CRIME tipline was increased on Thursday to $102,500 — thanks to a $100,000 anonymous donation, the organization said — for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons involved in Guthrie’s disappearance. That reward is in addition to a $100,000 reward the FBI is offering.
Authorities haven’t named a suspect or person of interest in the case, and did not provide further information about a possible accomplice. The FBI described the suspect seen in the doorbell camera video as a male who is between about 5 feet, 9 inches and 5 feet, 10 inches tall with an average build.
“Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie, her two siblings and their spouses were all cleared as suspects in the case, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department announced Monday as the high-profile investigation entered its third week.
Nanos said the Guthrie family has cooperated with investigators.
“We really put them through the wringer,” Nanos said. “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.”
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on the night of Jan. 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, at their home, authorities said.
Since Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, Savannah Guthrie, Annie Guthrie and their brother, Camron Guthrie, have appeared in videos pleading for their mother’s return.
Investigators were looking into genetic genealogy options to check for matches with DNA evidence collected in the case after a DNA profile from a set of gloves didn’t produce a match in a national database maintained by the FBI, the sheriff’s department said Tuesday. The gloves were found about 2 miles away from Nancy Guthrie’s home.
The DNA profile also didn’t match with different DNA evidence collected at the home, the sheriff’s department said.
The sheriff’s office said Thursday that “biological evidence” found at Nancy Guthrie’s home was being analyzed and DNA profiles were “under lab analysis.”
Law enforcement sources told CBS News that investigators have been using a tracking device known as a “signal sniffer” in an effort to detect possible signals from Nancy Guthrie’s heart pacemaker, which showed a disconnect from her phone in the early morning hours the night she went missing.
CBS News has also learned the FBI is probing gun purchases in the Tucson area. According to the owner of an area gun store, an agent came in about a week or so ago and showed him several images with faces and names on them, and agents inquired about purchases in the last year.
