The Nancy Guthrie investigation has hit another snag after DNA evidence that was discovered inside a glove found approximately 2 miles from the 84-year-old’s home was submitted to CODIS & produced no matches.
The news was announced in a social media post by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, in which they said that there is still “additional DNA evidence that was found at the residence that is also being analyzed.”
However, after no matches showed up in CODIS, which is a software program that allows the authorities to compare DNA profiles, it seems investigators are taking another path.
“Now we start with genealogy and some of the partial DNA we have at the home,” Nanos said in an interview today (per NBC News). “To me, that’s more critical than any glove I found 2 miles away. I’m not dismissing the glove 2 miles away, but I have gloves 5 miles away, 10 miles away, so we prioritize.”
“We believe that we may have some DNA there that may be our suspect, but we won’t know that until that DNA is separated, sorted out, maybe admitted to CODIS, maybe through genealogy,” Nanos added.
How Investigators Can Use Genealogy Testing
According to TMZ, big companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com will not work with law enforcement due to privacy reasons, but there are smaller companies that are willing to help.
“Even if there’s not a direct match on a genealogy search, there’s still a path to finding a criminal,” the outlet writes. “The profile could closely but not exactly resemble the target, and that could be a relative”
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos Isn’t Giving Up Hope
In an interview with Fox10, Nanos spoke about one of the key questions regarding the Nancy Guthrie investigation, which is whether the 84-year-old is still alive.
“They ask me, do I have proof of life? I ask them, is there proof of death?” Nanos said. “I’m going to have that faith, and sometimes that faith, that hope, is all we have… My team, 400 people out there in the field today, woke up this morning and went out there with the hope and the belief that they’re going to find Nancy.”
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos Says Identifying The Backpack Could Be Crucial
Nanos also addressed how the identification of the backpack shown in the video could impact this investigation in a recent interview (per NBC News). Specifically, they have found that it was sold at Walmart.
“That backpack, we could positively now identify as a backpack that is sold at one place only. That’s Walmart,” Nanos said.“So, we’re working with our Walmart managers all across the state to try to find out how many sales were there of that backpack in the last 20, 30 days, the last 60 days.”
“And can we do something with that? Can we break it — maybe we’ll find a credit card or a bank card,” he added. “Maybe we’ll find a video of the guy walking in.”
