Nancy Guthrie has been missing for 45 days, and authorities say the investigation is growing more difficult as new leads remain scant. Law enforcement told CBS News that additional surveillance images were obtained in recent weeks from cameras at Guthrie’s Tucson home, where she is believed to have been taken in the middle of the night on Feb. 1. Cameras affixed to a fence (facing the back of the house) and one showing the driveway and front of the garage captured family members, landscapers and pool workers going back weeks before the disappearance; investigators found nothing suspicious in those images, and no footage showed the suspect on the front door camera.
The only known images of the suspect remain the doorbell camera video the FBI released on Feb. 10. Lance Leising, a retired FBI supervisory special agent, told CBS News the lack of new evidence suggests “a lack of meaningful leads.” “It becomes much harder to keep the investigation going, keep it current and fight for new leads,” he added.
DNA recovered from the scene is still being analyzed, and investigators have turned to forensic genetic genealogy to try to identify a suspect — a method used previously in high-profile cases such as the Bryan Kohberger investigation. Leising cautioned that such genetic genealogy “takes a while,” noting investigators may need to examine multiple relatives within the same DNA family and pursue each potential lead independently.
Authorities continue to receive tips; the FBI said it received more than 1,500 potential leads after the Guthrie family announced a $1 million reward. Still, it has been nearly three weeks since the family last appealed to the public for information and more than a month since law enforcement held a public news conference about the case.
Leising said he wants to be hopeful — as the family likely is — that the current quiet could mean investigators “are on to something,” but stressed they “just need to investigate harder.” Guthrie, 84, is the mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie.