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Nancy Guthrie’s family has been cleared as possible suspects in her abduction, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said on Monday, as the case involving the mother of Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie entered its third week.
Guthrie’s family, which includes “all siblings and spouses,” has been co-operative and gracious as authorities investigate the kidnapping, Nanos said.
“To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel,” he said in a statement. “The Guthrie family are victims plain and simple.”
Investigators on Sunday said they had obtained a DNA sample from a glove that was found near 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie’s Arizona home and appears to match the pair worn by a masked prowler seen in doorbell camera footage before she was abducted two weeks ago.
She was last seen on Jan. 31, when family dropped her off at her home near Tucson after she had dined with them, and relatives reported her missing the following day, authorities have said.
WATCH | DNA recovered from glove found near Nancy Guthrie’s home:
FBI recovers DNA from glove found near Guthrie home
A glove containing DNA was found about three kilometres from Nancy Guthrie’s home. It appears to match a glove worn by a person seen outside Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Ariz., the night of her disappearance. Her daughter Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor of NBC’s Today show, released a new video plea for her mother, who has been missing for two weeks.
Nanos has said the elder Guthrie was extremely limited in her physical mobility and could not have left her home unassisted, leading investigators to conclude early on that she had been taken against her will.
At least two purported ransom notes have surfaced since she vanished, both of them delivered initially to news media outlets. But there has been no known direct contact between Guthrie’s presumed captors and her family, or with authorities.
Traces of blood found on her front porch were confirmed by DNA tests to have come from Nancy Guthrie, officials said last week.
Law enforcement and family members have described her as being in frail health and in need of daily medication to survive. She also had a pacemaker.
WATCH | FBI releases video of masked person:
FBI releases video showing masked person at Nancy Guthrie’s door
New video released by the FBI shows a masked person who appeared to have a holstered firearm outside Nancy Guthrie’s door on Feb. 1, the day authorities believe she was abducted.
Savannah Guthrie, 54, co-anchor of the popular NBC News morning show Today, has posted several video messages, along with her brother Camron Guthrie and sister Annie Guthrie, pleading for their mother’s return and appealing for the public’s help in solving the case.
Nanos has told Reuters that no proof of life has surfaced since the abduction, but he added that “there’s not been any proof of death either,” saying his working presumption is that Nancy Guthrie remains alive.