Finally Confirmation on if There’s a ‘Name on the Table’ for Nancy Guthrie’s Suspect: ‘His Luck Will Run Out’
It’s been over two months since Nancy Guthrie, Savannah Guthrie’s mom, first vanished. The 84-year-old woman went missing sometime between the night of January 31 and the early hours of February 1 and hasn’t been seen since. So far, the police have not identified a suspect or disclosed a motive publicly. But does that mean they haven’t zeroed in on anyone or that they don’t want to tip their hand?
NewsNation’s Brian Entin talked to a law enforcement insider who revealed that the police have not identified a name before they haven’t zeroed in on one, with the source confirming that people investigating the case “tell me that there’s no direct suspect right now—no name on the table.”
Related: Who are Savannah Guthrie’s siblings?
In their estimation, this means the suspect is either “lucky as hell or more cunning than a lot of people seen in the past.”
What does that mean for the investigation? “If you take the first extremely lucky, maybe his luck will run out, but so far it hasn’t. But if you take the second one, that he was extremely cunning, there’s a chance that he may have covered his tracks so well that we may not find out what happened,” the insider said.
So far, the investigation points to the fact that a masked, armed individual took Guthrie from the house overnight on February 1. The back doors of the home were “propped open” when Nancy’s family got there the next day, and her keys, phone, and wallet were still in the house. Guthrie had limited mobility, so she couldn’t have walked out of the house by herself.
Police released surveillance photos and video recovered from Nancy Guthrie’s doorbell camera, but it’s important to note that the doorbell camera was ripped from its frame the next day, and it took several days for law enforcement to access the footage. The man seen in the video and photos is masked, and his features are not visible.
The investigation has centered on what could have happened on that night, with the FBI and law enforcement canvassing the neighborhood, talking to people who live nearby, and investigating even a possible empty house near where Nancy Guthrie lived. Reports indicate that the possibility of an internet outage the night of the kidnapping was also looked into.
At this point, the expectation is that DNA evidence recovered from the scene could be the key to solving the case, even if it takes longer than people would want it to. Retired FBI special agent Jason Pack told Parade, “The absence of a named suspect does not mean the absence of progress,” he said. “The most consequential investigative work almost never happens in front of a camera,” he added. “Right now, investigators are sitting on months of subpoena returns, lab results, financial records and digital forensics.”
“The DNA recovered from the property that does not match Nancy or anyone in her circle is still one of the biggest threads left to pull,” Pack explained. “When CODIS does not return a hit, investigators turn to genetic genealogy. That science broke the Golden State Killer case. It has cracked cases far colder than this one.”
The reward for information about Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is up to $1 million.
