Nancy Guthrie Search, Day 84: A DNA expert recently shared a potential issue with critical evidence currently being tested by the FBI.
Earlier this month, reports revealed that a hair sample collected in February had been sent to the FBI for more advanced analysis. This followed prior testing of the same evidence at a Florida lab used by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
In the April 24 episode of “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace,” host Nancy Grace and renowned genetic genealogist CeCe Moore discussed a possible problem with the hair being tested multiple times.
“If it is one hair, then how can it be used over and over?” Grace asked. “I mean, how much analysis can you get out of one hair?”
Nancy Guthrie Update: How Repeated DNA Testing Could Impact Hair Evidence
Moore explained that hair evidence being tested multiple times in the Nancy Guthrie case could pose a “real issue,” especially if it’s just a single hair.
The expert noted that the hair is “destroyed when it is being analyzed in that manner,” which could ultimately impact the investigation.
However, Moore clarified that it would be a different story if the hair were longer, as that could provide more material and allow for additional testing.
Grace raised the question of whether the hair evidence could run out of a specimen, and whether it can be “resequenced and regenerated.”
“No. And I don’t believe there could have already been a lot of testing on that hair, unless it’s a very long hair,” Moore explained. “And so that leads me to believe that either DNA Labs International did not attempt it, or there was, you know, more hair than we know available to test because it is destroyed and you can’t just keep retesting it over and over and over again.”
Expert Weighs In on Why Hair Evidence Wasn’t Sent to FBI Sooner
GettyAs to why the hair evidence found in Nancy Guthrie’s home wasn’t sent to the FBI earlier, Moore said it’s “really hard to understand.”
The DNA expert theorized that the delay was likely because the hair evidence was only recently discovered.
“And that’s why I wonder if it’s something that wasn’t found until recently,” Moore added. “Meaning, they say it was collected back in February, but maybe it wasn’t detected.”
She elaborated, “Maybe that was stuck on one of those M-VAC filters somewhere, and it wasn’t noticed until they’d been going through these dozens or hundreds of pieces of evidence, and then came across it. Otherwise, it doesn’t make much sense to have this month’s long delay.”
Meanwhile, former CIA officer Tracy Walder disagrees with Sheriff Chris Nanos’ decision to rely on the private lab in Florida.
“I try to go a little bit easy on anyone in law enforcement, but I actually vehemently disagree with what Sheriff Nanos did in this case,” Walder told NewsNation. “But in a case like this, where you may know that you may have some biological samples that may need to get DNA from, it should have immediately gone to the FBI. I think they lost 11 weeks of time.”
