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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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An expert on genetic genealogy has said that DNA collected from Nancy Guthrie’s property will help law enforcement find the person responsible for the disappearance of the 84-year-old mother of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie.
CeCe Moore, the chief genetic genealogist at Parabon Nanolabs, said investigators can use the DNA that was recovered in a process called Investigative Genetic Genealogy, or IGG. That involves uploading information to a genealogy database to look for possible relatives of the person whose DNA was found at the scene and thus, identify possible suspects.
“I've been waiting for that to happen, just hoping that there would be DNA found that was not tied to any of the known individuals from the home because that will solve the case if nothing else does,” Moore said in an interview with NewsNation’s Brian Entin on his podcast, Brian Entin Investigates, on Sunday.
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“It's just a matter of time then. If they have that DNA, that person who left that DNA will be identified.”
Pima County Sheriff’s Department on Friday said investigators had collected DNA that does not belong to Guthrie or people known to have close contact with her from her home and are working to identify who it belongs to. "We are not disclosing where that DNA was located," the department said.
Guthrie was last seen at her home on January 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities said they believe she was taken against her will and that her blood was found on the front porch.
Why It Matters
The DNA evidence represents a significant development as the search for Guthrie heads into a third week, focusing investigators on physical evidence that could help identify a suspect.
Authorities have expressed concerns about Guthrie’s health because she needs daily medication. Meanwhile, the FBI last week doubled its reward for information leading to Guthrie’s location or a suspect’s arrest and conviction to $100,000, underscoring the urgency of the investigation.
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What To Know
During the interview, Moore said the DNA collected from Guthrie's home is more important, in her view, than the DNA recovered from a glove about two miles from Guthrie’s property. The FBI said the glove appears to match those worn by a masked person outside her front door in Tucson on the night she vanished. The FBI said it received preliminary results from DNA testing on the glove and was awaiting official confirmation and quality control before submitting an unknown male profile to the FBI's national database.
Law enforcement “have a reasonable belief that it could be from the crime scene” if they are considering inputting the information into the database, Moore said.
“However, being 2 miles away, of course, I would obviously use great caution in coming to conclusions about who the suspect is just based on that alone," she added.
The DNA from Guthrie’s home is “much more significant because we know that's tied to the crime scene. Of course it still doesn't guarantee that it is the suspect.”
But she added: "I am very optimistic about that part of it, much more so than the glove. And I think that if they really do have that alien DNA there, that DNA that they are not able to tie to any known person, that that could very well be the answer to this case."
Last Tuesday, the FBI released surveillance videos of a masked person tampering with a camera on Guthrie’s front door on the night she disappeared.
On Thursday, the FBI said they now consider the person to be a suspect and described him as a male, about 5 feet, 9 inches or 5 feet 10 inches tall with an average build. The FBI said he was carrying a 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack.
On Sunday night, Savannah Guthrie posted a video on Instagram in which she appealed to whoever abducted her mother or anyone who knows where she is being kept.
What People Are Saying
CeCe Moore said in the interview with Entin: "If someone leaves their DNA behind at a crime scene, then they absolutely can and eventually will be identified through Investigative Genetic Genealogy. What is going to determine how long that takes is what population group that person is from. So if their ancestry is from Latin America and they have recent immigrant ancestors, it'll be much more difficult to identify that individual. So it could take a lot longer. We have a lot of those Hispanic cases and they tend to take weeks, months or years compared to somebody who has deep roots in the United States and primarily Northwest European ancestry."
Savannah Guthrie said in a video posted on Instagram on Sunday: “We still have hope and we still believe. And I wanted to say 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. And we are here. And we believe in the essential goodness of every human being, that it’s never too late.”
Pima County Sheriff's Department said in a statement on Friday: "All collected evidence has been submitted for laboratory analysis. DNA other than Nancy Guthrie’s and those in close contact to her has been collected from the property. Investigators are working to identify who it belongs to. We are not disclosing where that DNA was located."
The department also said: "Investigators continue to follow up on all leads. The suspect description released by the FBI this week remains a key focus; however, investigators are not ruling out any individuals or possibilities. No suspect vehicles have been identified. We ask the public to continue submitting actionable tips. All submitted videos are being reviewed."
The FBI said in an emailed statement to Newsweek on Sunday:** “The gloves found approximately 2 miles from the Guthrie residence in a field near the side of the road were packaged up by PCOS and sent overnight on 2/12 and they arrived at their private lab in Florida on 2/13. The FBI received preliminary results yesterday on 2/14 and are awaiting quality control and official confirmation today before putting unknown male profile into CoDIS, the national database unique to the bureau. This process typically takes 24 hours from when the bureau receives DNA. Investigators collected approximately 16 gloves in various areas near the house. Most of them were searchers’s gloves that they discarded in various areas when they searched the vicinity. The one with the DNA profile recovered is different and appears to match the gloves of the subject in the surveillance video. The FBI has and will continue to provide assistance on whatever timeline is provided to us.”
What Happens Next
The sheriff's department said investigators are asking neighbors within a 2-mile radius of Guthrie's residence to provide any surveillance footage they have from January 1 to February 2, including "any suspicious activity involving people or vehicles."
Anyone with information is urged to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), 520-351-4900, 88-CRIME or visit tips.fbi.gov.
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