PIMA COUNTY, Ariz. - An FBI spokesperson told Fox News on Sunday, Feb. 15, that out of several gloves recovered during the search for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, a pair appears to match the gloves of the suspect seen on surveillance footage, and it's testing to confirm a DNA match.
What we know:
The update comes on the 15th day of the investigation into the Tucson-area woman's disappearance.
Five days ago, the FBI released recovered Nest camera footage from Guthrie's Catalina Foothills home, showing a masked man approaching her front door before trying to cover the camera with leaves.
Investigators are waiting for final lab results before uploading the DNA profile to a national database to possibly identify the individual.
Full statement from the FBI
"The gloves found approximately 2 miles from the Guthrie residence in a field near the side of the road were packaged up by PCOS and sent overnight on 2/12 and they arrived at their private lab in Florida on 2/13. The FBI received preliminary results yesterday on 2/14 and are awaiting quality control and official confirmation today before putting unknown male profile into CoDIS, the national database unique to the bureau. This process typically takes 24 hours from when the bureau receives DNA. Investigators collected approximately 16 gloves in various areas near the house. Most of them were searchers’ gloves that they discarded in various areas when they searched the vicinity. The one with the DNA profile recovered is different and appears to match the gloves of the subject in the surveillance video. The FBI has and will continue to provide assistance on whatever timeline is provided to us."
Fox News spoke with former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb about how valuable the processing of this DNA could be to identify the suspect.
"DNA is not like a TV show where you get the results within no time and you figure out who did it by the end of the show," Lamb said. "DNA takes time and there is a place in Florida that you can actually process DNA against familial DNA and this could be anyone who might be related to a suspect."
Dig deeper:
Law enforcement flew over the Guthrie home with a Bluetooth signal detector to try and track a signal from Nancy Guthrie's pacemaker, which disconnected from her phone app just before 2 a.m. on Feb. 1.
"You open up a browser and it pings— that creates a ping with latitude and longitude, a specific location and a time we can track, so I've actually got two teams and analysts looking at the data," Cybersecurity expert Morgan Wright said. "Once this is done were gonna provide a report for law enforcement."
The backstory:
The Pima County Sheriff's Department says it appears Guthrie was taken against her will after she was last seen on Jan. 31. She was reported missing on Feb. 1 when she didn't show up for church.
She's the mother of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie, who, alongside her brother and sister, have pleaded on social media for the safe return of their mother. She said they'd comply with alleged ransom notes, but so far, there hasn't been any updates on a ransom being paid.
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