DNA on glove near Nancy Guthrie home traced to restaurant worker, sheriff says it has no connection to case

 March 4, 2026

A glove discovered two miles from the Tucson, Arizona, home of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie, has been traced through DNA testing to a worker at a nearby restaurant. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos confirmed the match and stated flatly that the individual is "not part of this investigation."

According to People Magazine, the Pima County Sheriff's Department posted the update to X on March 4, putting to rest weeks of public speculation about the glove's significance. The glove had been found in mid-February, roughly two weeks after Guthrie vanished from her home in the early morning hours of Sunday, February 1.

Nanos addressed rumors directly in an interview with KVOA:

"There was some talk and discussion that it was police officers out in the field just discarding [the gloves], that is so far from the truth."

He went further, saying investigators had suspected the glove's origin from the start:

"We knew that at that time, we believed wholeheartedly that those gloves belonged to a restaurant and guess what? The owner of the glove, we found working at a restaurant across the street."

A dead end, but the case is far from cold

The glove revelation is notable less for what it found than for what it didn't. In a case with precious little physical evidence tying a specific suspect to the crime, every potential lead carries enormous weight. This one dissolved into nothing.

What remains is a chilling timeline. At 1:47 a.m. on February 1, Nancy Guthrie's doorbell camera disconnected. At 2:12 a.m., the camera detected a dark figure walking toward the house. Sixteen minutes later, at 2:28 a.m., her pacemaker disconnected from the pacemaker app on her cellphone. By 2:36 a.m., a car was recorded speeding down a back road about 2.5 miles from her home, footage later obtained by FOX News from a couple living on that road.

Nancy's family did not call 911 until 12:03 p.m. that day. Authorities have said they believe she was taken against her will. Blood spatter found on the front porch belonged to her.

The suspect and the DNA challenge

The Pima County Sheriff's Office, later joined by the FBI, launched a massive investigation into the disappearance. On February 10, authorities released Nest camera surveillance photos and video footage showing a masked, armed man near the home. The FBI Phoenix office described the suspect as "a male, approximately 5'9" - 5'10" tall, with an average build," wearing a black, 25-liter "Ozark Trail Hiker Pack" backpack.

That description remains the clearest public picture of whoever took Nancy Guthrie. And the forensic path forward is complicated. Nanos acknowledged that other gloves have been sent to a Florida lab for testing, but the DNA work is not straightforward:

"It's a challenge because we know we have DNA, but now we have to deal with that mixture and how we're going to separate it."

Nanos did not specify which restaurant the matched individual works at or whether investigators questioned that person further. He offered no additional detail beyond confirming the glove has "nothing to do with the case."

A family's plea

On February 24, Savannah Guthrie released an emotional video announcing that the family is offering up to a $1 million reward for information leading to Nancy's recovery. The family is also donating $500,000 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The FBI has separately posted a $100,000 reward.

Those numbers reflect a family throwing every resource it has at a case that, publicly at least, appears to hinge on a grainy image of a masked figure and a complex DNA puzzle. The cleared glove is a reminder that not every lead pans out, and that the distance between hope and evidence can be measured in dead ends.

What we still don't know

The gaps in this case remain significant:

  • No suspect has been publicly identified or named.
  • The nature and method of the DNA match on the cleared glove have not been disclosed.
  • The Florida lab's timeline for analyzing additional gloves is unknown.
  • No direct evidence beyond blood spatter and surveillance footage has been detailed publicly.
  • Authorities have not explained how the doorbell camera was disconnected or by whom.

An 84-year-old woman, a mother of three, was pulled from her home in the dark. Someone disconnected her doorbell camera. Someone walked toward her house. Someone drove away on a back road minutes later. Weeks of investigation have produced one cleared restaurant worker, one masked figure in a backpack, and a family offering a million dollars for answers.

The glove was nothing. The silence from everywhere else is worse.


About Maria Reese Paul

Maria is a staff writer covering conservative politics, policy, and culture with a focus on Washington’s most pressing debates for Heritage Review. She is Passionate about amplifying voices often overlooked in mainstream media.

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