(NewsNation) — A forensic expert believes the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie is likely due to an extortion plot.
On Day 31 in the search for Nancy Guthrie, there was movement at her home. Three men showed up and appeared to take a closer look at the front door of her house.
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It follows Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos telling NBC News investigators are “definitely closer” to tracking down a suspect, or suspects, in the case. Nanos also shared there are still several key things investigators have not been able to identify.
That includes a car caught on a Ring camera video about two-and-a-half miles from Guthrie’s home around 2 a.m. on the night she disappeared. Nanos says they are looking into it, just like “Hundreds of thousands of vehicles” that were out driving at that time.
Nanos also said they have not yet identified the clothes worn by the masked man seen on the doorbell video outside Guthrie’s home. In addition, they are now learning the backpack he was wearing — while sold exclusively at Walmart — may not have been purchased there at all, but possibly resold online.
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The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has been consistent in its belief Guthrie was taken from her home against her will.
Guthrie was reported missing Feb. 1, and authorities believe the 84-year-old woman was abducted from her home in the late night or early morning hours. Although there have been multiple ransom notes, Guthrie has still not been found.
“‘I’ve had people that have taken advantage of the elderly because they knew that they had money, and they bum rush them into their house and they snatch them out of there, or they do terrible things like murder inside of the house,” forensic analyst Joseph Scott Morgan told NewsNation.
“She is a much more valuable target to them if they had foreknowledge of whose mother she was … and so if they think that they can get anything out of her, I think that that comes to local knowledge.
“(Perhaps a) grandson that might be in the neighborhood that has some knowledge that’s been talking about this for a protracted period of time. I wonder if it’s gang-related. I wonder what they’re pressing relative to the gang associations in Pima County, because this smacks of this, relative to targeting her.”
