The Pima County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed that specialist search dogs trained to find dead bodies are on hold and are not actively being used in the Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance case.
The 84-year-old mother of broadcaster Savannah Guthrie has now been missing for more than five weeks following her kidnapping from her home in Tucson, Arizona. While the expert K-9 units have previously been used in the early parts of the investigation, they are now on standby and will be available for use if necessary.
Specialist Cadaver Dogs Remain on Standby as Search for Nancy Guthrie Continues
GettyDuring the early parts of the investigation, the cadaver dogs — which are specifically trained to help find deceased individuals that may have been hidden — were spotted being used by specialist officers. However, they have seemingly been absent from the case since that time.
Now, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has confirmed that the cadaver dogs are available for use but that they are not currently involved in the investigation. Nanon told Fox News Digital, “They are available if needed in the future.”
According to retired sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith, who previously worked as a Chicago law enforcement officer and is now a spokesperson for the National Police Association, the lack of action for the cadaver dogs could be down to several factors.
Smith told Fox News Digital that this could include things such as the Pima County Sheriff Department still believing that Nancy is alive, that a body could be in a location that is not easy for a cadaver dog to access, or that the search area is too large to make it practical to use the K-9 units.
“I do believe that the sheriff’s department has much more information that they are not releasing to the public,” Smith revealed. “And I’m not sure at this point why that would be, unless they have a solid suspect and don’t want to tip them off.”
Neighbor in Nancy Guthrie Case Reports Seeing a Suspicious Man
GettyA neighbor who lives near Nancy’s home in Tucson, Arizona has recently come forward to explain that she witnessed a suspicious man in the weeks before the kidnapping. Speaking in an interview with NewsNation, the unnamed individual told the outlet that she saw a man acting suspiciously on January 11 in the area around the crime scene.
“I’m getting ready in the morning, and I saw him out there, so I couldn’t make out his face,” the witness said. “He was in kind of street clothes, not shoes that you’d walk in, and he had a baseball hat really low, and he was kind of hunched over, and he was kind of looking around, and he just didn’t fit.”
She added, “He wasn’t going terribly quickly like a normal person who’s getting exercise. He was kind of going slowly, and when he walked by this street, he really took a long look at it.”
