WALMART has handed over evidence in the search for Nancy Guthrie.
The man pictured on Nancy’s doorbell camera appeared to be wearing a backpack and gun holster that are both sold at the retail giant.
The search for Nancy Guthrie, who was taken from her Tucson home, has entered its third weekCredit: Reuters
Investigators will now likely be combing through CCTV footage and purchase records from Walmart stores.
“The backpack and the holster are both very promising leads,” Betsy Brantner Smith of the National Police Association told The New York Post.
The potential breakthrough comes as the search for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, mother of The Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie, enters its third week.
The backpack appears to be a black Ozark Trail Hiker bag, which is sold exclusively at Walmart.
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The buyer of the bag may be tracked down through the item’s stock keeping number (SKU).
The SKU is a unique code for each item sold. Using this, investigators can track where and when that backpack was sold.
The buyer may then be captured on the store’s CCTV and their identity tracked down through credit card records, if they didn’t pay cash.
The man in the video may be tracked down using Walmart’s CCTV and purchase records
This bag sold exclusively at Walmart appears to be the one worn by the man caught on doorbell camera footageCredit: Reuters
However, if the man pictured on CCTV bought the backpack second hand, such as from Goodwill, or shoplifted it, then the clue may lead to a dead end.
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On Sunday night, Savannah Guthrie posted a fresh appeal on her Instagram.
She said the family still had hope and spoke directly to the kidnappers.
“I wanted to say that to whoever has her or knows where she is, that it’s never too late. And you’re not lost or alone, and it is never too late to do the right thing,” she said.
“And we are here, and we believe in the essential goodness of every human being, and it’s never too late.”
It comes as Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said the family had been ruled out as suspects.
“To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel. The Guthrie family are victims plain and simple,” he said.
Meanwhile, DNA has been recovered from a glove recovered from the crime scene that looks like the one worn on the doorbell footage.
The DNA profile is expected to be entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS.
From there, the FBI will see if it matches anyone in the national database.
The agency may also look for matches in ancestry databases, which could track down close relatives.
“It’s not just one person — do you match or not? You have a whole network of people that you can kind of put together in a big Sudoku puzzle,” said Colleen Fitzpatrick, the president and founder of Identifinders Forensic Genealogy told Fox 10.
“If they’re related to you, they’re related to each other through marriage or blood. So you start building the trees, connecting them.”
President Donald Trump has also weighed in on the case.
He said the kidnappers would face “very, very severe — the most severe” consequences, in an interview with The New York Post.
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He confirmed that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would seek the death penalty if Nancy was not returned alive.
Gun stores have also been canvassed by investigators, reports Fox News.
Investigators had a breakthrough when doorbell camera footage was recoveredCredit: Getty
