HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — As little evidence has been made public in the abduction of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, a renowned Houston forensic artist says she felt compelled to attempt sketch a masked suspect at the center of the case.
“It’s the worst torture in the world,” Lois Gibson said, recalling the stories families of kidnapping victims have told her over her career.
Gibson is not associated with the Guthrie case, but with a long history of nailing suspect’s likeness for some of Houston’s most notorious crimes, she feels this guess is going to be a good one.
“I’m brave, and I’ll take the hit. If I messed up and he is way different and he has tattoos, yeah, oh well, you can criticize me,” Gibson said.
With nearly four decades of experience as a former forensic artist for the Houston Police Department, Gibson has spent countless hours talking to people who were in the same position as the Guthrie family.
Those stories were all Gibson said she could think of when the Pima County Sheriff’s Office in Tucson, Arizona, released video of a person of interest. In the doorbell video, we see a masked person on the front porch of Nancy Guthrie’s home the night of her abduction.
“I printed up the surveillance images, and I went to the easel, and I just drew it, something, just to get a ballpark,” Gibson said.
Nancy is the mother of “Today” show host, Savannah Guthrie. Police say she was kidnapped from her Tucson, Arizona, home on Feb. 1 in the middle of the night.
Gibson said she decided she couldn’t stand by and do nothing.
“I went ahead and was brave, because I know what it feels like to be with people who have had a loved one kidnapped,” Gibson said.
Gibson put pen to paper and tried to look behind the mask.
“And if you have this, you know how far down the nose is going to go, generic nose, and you can tell here, it’s not a great big hook nose, it’s slight, not a great big old nose, it doesn’t stick out that far and it does not stick out that wide,” she said.
The latest official identifying information from the Pima County Sheriff’s Office is that the masked suspect is a man between 5’9″ and 10″ tall. Law enforcement is looking for tips in the case from anyone who knows something.
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