Pima County authorities say the investigation into the suspected abduction of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of «Today» co-host Savannah Guthrie, remains active as detectives work through tens of thousands of video clips collected since she disappeared from her home in Arizona.
Sheriff Chris Nanos said Thursday that investigators are nowhere near exhausting their leads and expressed confidence the case will eventually be solved, even though no arrests have been made and no suspects have been publicly identified six months after Guthrie was reported missing.
«We're not even close to these leads being dried up,» he said. «We'll continue to work them, and even if they all dried up and we had nothing else to go on, we have a cold case unit.»
The comments came just before the six-month mark of Guthrie's disappearance from her longtime home in the Catalina Foothills area near Tucson. She was taken from the Catalina Foothills home on Feb. 1, and the case has drawn national attention because of her daughter's role on NBC's morning show.
Nanos said the task force assigned to the case is still sorting through a massive amount of video footage, grouping the images so they can be quickly reassessed if new context or evidence emerges. He described the daily work as reviewing clips and categorizing them by characteristics such as vehicle type.
«We have so many thousands of pieces of video, literally tens of thousands, that what happens daily is the team looks at these videos and really they're just kind of compartmentalizing them,» he said.
Under that approach, investigators can later compare footage with vehicles or people linked to a suspect. Nanos offered the example of a red car spotted near the crime scene.
He said detectives could go back to the videos after an arrest and recognize the same vehicle. «That kind of thinking,» he added.
The sheriff declined to discuss specific evidence, but authorities have previously been seen canvassing neighborhoods, major intersections and commercial areas for security camera footage. The FBI removed home security cameras from Guthrie's roof and backyard in February.
Months after Google and the FBI worked together to recover Nest doorbell video that produced the only known images of a suspect in the case, Nanos said other technology companies have also reached out to assist. He said Google's work was critical but not necessarily the only source of useful material.
«Google comes up because they were the ones that first came out with the development of that one photo that was released. And it was critical, right? This is who we believe is the guy. It's the only piece of evidence we have that says, here's a picture of him right now. Does that mean other evidence doesn't exist, video or otherwise? No, I think it does. I think it's out there. And maybe we have some of that,» he said.
Nanos said specialized technology and expertise from companies around the country could help investigators, adding that he believes some of the best minds in the nation are working on the case.
The sheriff also played down suggestions of friction between his office and the FBI, saying local FBI agents have been involved since the first day. He noted that FBI leadership stood alongside him at the initial press conferences and that members of the FBI's violent crimes task force were called to the scene immediately.
«My team that is assigned to the FBI office here locally, they meet every day with the FBI, with their managers, with my supervisors and command staff,» Nanos said.
Investigators were previously unable to obtain a DNA profile from a hair sample recovered inside Guthrie's home, but Nanos said the hair has not been destroyed and could still be compared with a suspect's DNA if someone is ever identified. He said advances in technology may also allow other evidence to yield new leads.
«It came back... there's no DNA,» Nanos said. «But does that mean the hair isn't that of the suspect? We won't know that till we have the suspect's hair. You don't just destroy it.»
Nanos indicated the hair sample was only part of broader DNA work underway, though he did not specify how many other samples are being tested. The FBI and local authorities have not announced any arrests in the case, and sheriff's officials have offered no additional public details about the investigation.
The investigation continues as the six-month mark passes, with the sheriff urging anyone with information to come forward. He said he remains confident that the work being done by detectives, FBI agents and partner agencies will ultimately bring resolution.