Pima County investigators say DNA lab work and a Florida science trip still drive the Nancy Guthrie probe, nearly nine months after the 84-year-old vanished with no arrests.
Page Six reported that Sheriff Chris Nanos posted a Friday-night statement on the Nancy Guthrie Task Force’s continued push for DNA answers in the Tucson disappearance.
Nancy Guthrie, mother of “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was first reported missing from her Tucson, Arizona home on Feb. 1. She remains missing. No suspects have been arrested.
Nanos said the task force is still working with labs and recently sent investigators to Florida to meet scientists in person. The message was plain: the science track is open, and the public still matters.
Sheriff Nanos wrote:
"The Nancy Guthrie Task Force continues to work with our labs in hopes of furthering our DNA analysis in this investigation,"
He added that the Florida trip came earlier this month and that partners remain in the mix.
"Earlier this month, investigators traveled to Florida to meet with lab scientists to see what more could be done to advance this case,"
Nanos also said ideas were discussed and that the department will keep working with every partner tied to the case. He closed with a fresh call for tips.
"No tip is too small. Even the smallest piece of information could be critical to this investigation,"
Shortly after Nancy was reported missing, the FBI released home security camera photos of an armed and masked person outside her door the night she disappeared. That image set has framed the manhunt from the start.
In June, a former FBI agent claimed investigators were closing in on the man seen on the door camera. Months later, the public record still shows no arrest tied to that figure.
Savannah Guthrie, 54, returned to work at “Today” in April while her mother remained missing. Family statements and case updates have tracked the long wait, including coverage of how Savannah has spoken about her mother as the months stacked up.
Multiple ransom notes have entered the file over the life of the case. Last month, that track flared again.
On Sept. 28, the sheriff’s department said on X that the PCSD/FBI Guthrie Task Force had been made aware of a new possible ransom note and was checking social media comments about it for credibility. That review was part of wider reporting when investigators examined another possible ransom lead deep into the disappearance.
The department’s Sept. 28 post stated:
"The PCSD/FBI Guthrie Task Force was recently made aware of a new possible ransom note related to the Nancy Guthrie investigation,"
It also said investigators knew about social media comments on the note and were digging further. The next day, authorities said the possible ransom text message was “not credible.”
Earlier tip surges followed the release of ransom material, a pattern also tracked when tips climbed after ransom notes became public. The latest note claim did not hold.
The Florida lab focus fits a longer DNA grind that has not yet produced a charging case. In July, the New York Post reported that a hair recovered at Nancy’s Arizona home failed to yield a suspect DNA profile after work at a California laboratory.
Sheriff Nanos did not treat the blank result as the end of the hair evidence. He told reporters the lab came back with no DNA and framed the gap in practical terms.
"It came back...there’s no DNA... But does that mean the hair isn’t that of the suspect? We won’t know that till we have the suspect’s hair."
He also pointed to broader DNA analysis and genetic genealogy as a source of remaining optimism, saying anything investigators can grasp onto with DNA is part of the case. That stance lines up with the new Florida lab meetings described in the Friday update.
In the first weeks after the disappearance, questions also hit the working relationship between local and federal partners. Breitbart reported that Nanos rejected a claim he was blocking the FBI from a glove and DNA evidence from the Tucson home.
“Not even close to the truth,” Nanos told KVOA. He said he pressed to send a wider set of items to a Florida lab that already held DNA profiles and markers, and that FBI partners agreed.
In that same early window, the FBI described the masked suspect on video as about 5 feet 9 to 5 feet 10 inches, average build, and wearing a black 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack. The bureau also raised its reward from $50,000 to $100,000 and posted the case on its Most Wanted page after more than 13,000 tips.
Separate case traffic has continued on the margins, including later booking news around an Arizona man once held in the Guthrie probe and search findings near the home that produced human remains with no confirmed link to Nancy. None of those threads has closed the core disappearance.
Nanos’s Friday statement did not announce a suspect, a charge, or a recovery. It announced more lab work, a Florida science meeting, active partnerships, and another appeal for information.
For an 84-year-old taken from her own doorway, that is a thin public ledger after nearly nine months. DNA, door-camera images, ransom claims, and tip lines are still the tools on the table.
Families in cases like this do not need spin. They need a name, a charge, and a resolution grounded in evidence that holds up in court.
