Forty-five days after Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson home, investigators say progress has slowed as new leads remain scarce. Law enforcement told CBS News they recently obtained additional surveillance footage from cameras at Guthrie’s residence, including fence-mounted cameras facing the back yard and a camera covering the driveway and front of the garage. Those clips, which go back weeks before the Feb. 1 overnight abduction, mainly show family members, landscapers and pool workers; officials say they found nothing suspicious and no sign of the suspect on the front-door camera.
The only widely circulated image of a possible suspect remains the doorbell camera video the FBI released on Feb. 10. Retired FBI supervisory special agent Lance Leising told CBS News the lack of fresh evidence indicates “a lack of meaningful leads,” and he warned that it becomes harder to maintain momentum and generate tips as an investigation grows quiet.
Investigators have recovered DNA from the scene that is still under analysis and have turned to forensic genetic genealogy to try to identify a suspect — the same type of approach used in other high-profile probes such as the Bryan Kohberger case. Leising cautioned that genetic genealogy can take time, since technicians may need to trace and evaluate multiple relatives within a DNA family and pursue each possible lead separately.
Authorities say tips continue to arrive. The FBI reported receiving more than 1,500 potential leads after the Guthrie family announced a $1 million reward, but it has been nearly three weeks since the family last made a public appeal for information and more than a month since investigators held a public news conference.
Leising said he wants to be hopeful, as Guthrie’s family likely is, that the current lull could mean investigators “are on to something,” but he stressed that quieter periods also demand intensified work: “They just need to investigate harder.” Nancy Guthrie, 84, is the mother of NBC “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie.