Police have identified the owner of a pair of gloves found in connection with the Nancy Guthrie investigation, but the individual has no ties to the disappearance.
“There was some talk and discussion that it was police officers out in the field just discarding them, that is so far from the truth,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told KVOA this week. “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. It has nothing to do with the case.”
The official did not specify precisely where the gloves were found or to whom they belonged. Guthrie, the daughter of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, lives in the foothills of Tucson near a shopping center with multiple restaurants.
Investigators are still scrutinizing DNA tied to the February 1 disappearance, which is presumed to be a kidnapping.
Nanos has sent another pair of gloves to a Florida lab for analysis.
“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 added in his interview with KVOA.
Police continue to operate under the assumption Nancy Guthrie is alive, more than a month after her suspected abduction, Nanos said this week.
The Independent has contacted the sheriff’s office for more information.
The investigation, now being led by a task force of local police and Tucson-based FBI agents, entered its 32nd day on Wednesday. The 84-year-old Guthrie, who is in fragile health, remains missing and no suspects have been publicly announced.
Nanos told said on Monday that investigators are “definitely closer” to cracking the case.
Police are using a variety of tools to hunt for information, including digital forensics.
Investigators have reviewed local Walmart sales data to see if there’s a match with a backpack seen on a suspect in the disappearance filmed on Guthrie’s doorbell surveillance camera, but police told KSDK that their initial review suggests the backpack may have been bought from another store.
Police are also analyzing footage from a neighbor’s Ring camera and local traffic cameras.
The sheriff’s department encourages community members to submit relevant footage online here.
Two individuals detained and later released as part of the investigation have recently spoken out.
Luke Daley told AZ Family he and his mother Mary were detained on February 13, though they are still not sure why.
“I have thought of any type of reason why they could have come after me, but there’s nothing, and I think that’s why they didn’t tell me,” Daley told the outlet.
Contrary to the public impression that the investigation is becoming a cold case, police have a “red-hot” investigation on their hands, according to a former FBI agent.
“This case is the polar opposite of a cold case,” retired FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer told Newsweek. “It is a red-hot case with agents, up to 100, and analysts and Pima County Sheriff’s officers and other law enforcement working on all the actionable leads.”
Savannah Guthrie and her sister visited a memorial to their mother outside her home on Monday.
“We feel the love and prayers from our neighbors, from the Tucson community and from around the country,” the Today anchor wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo of flowers left at the site. “Please don’t stop praying and hoping with us. Bring her home.”
The Guthrie family is offering up to a $1 million reward in the case, on top of a combined reward of about $200,000 from state and federal officials.
