Law enforcement is preparing to return Nancy Guthrie’s Arizona home to her family, as the search for the missing woman nears its fourth week, according to a report.
Federal agents were spotted Wednesday at the home, which has been the center of law enforcement activity ever since the 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie was reported missing on February 1.
Officials no longer see the need to keep the home sealed as a crime scene or bar Nancy Guthrie’s family from entering, sources told NBC News.
The recent flurry of activity was related to efforts to turn the home back over to the missing woman’s family, the sources said.
More than 23,000 calls have been made to the FBI tip line since Nancy Guthrie was taken, 750 of which came in the first 12 hours after Savannah Guthrie offered a $1 million reward for her mother’s recovery in an emotional video shared to Instagram Tuesday, according to the report.
Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home in the Catalina Foothills outside of Tucson, Arizona, in the early hours of February 1, in what authorities believe was an abduction or kidnapping.
Her disappearance sparked a massive search involving state and federal law enforcement agencies. Authorities said Nancy Guthrie relies on daily medication, and there could be “fatal” consequences if she is unable to take it.
Authorities have not publicly identified any suspect in the disappearance, but on February 10, they shared video of a masked, armed man appearing to tamper with Nancy Guthrie’s doorbell camera the morning she vanished.
Reports this week from ABC News and CNN now suggest the suspected kidnapper may have been at her door on another day before the alleged abduction. It was unclear which day the suspect may have been at the home.
However, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement shared with The Independent Monday night, “There is no date or time stamp associated with these images. Therefore, any suggestion that the photographs were taken on different days is purely speculative.”
Aldine Meister, who lives in the same neighborhood, told Fox News Digital she saw a suspicious young man walk by her home two weeks before the abduction, telling the outlet, “He just didn’t fit.”
The Pima County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI are pursuing “all viable leads,” officials said Tuesday.
DNA evidence has been collected from the home’s yard and from several other search locations. The samples have been submitted for forensic analysis, but have not yielded results thus far, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Nancy Guthrie’s family has offered a $1 million reward for her return home.
“Every hour and minute and second and every long night has been agony,” Savannah said in an Instagram video on Tuesday. “We need to know where she is. We need her to come home.”
The visibly emotional anchor acknowledged that her beloved mother may already be gone, but said she and her family “still believe in a miracle.”
