Investigators might be looking at a new clue from Nancy Guthrie’s security footage as the search for her continues.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told NBC News on Tuesday, February 17, that it appears the suspect filmed on Guthrie’s porch appeared to be wearing a ring underneath the pair of black gloves.
“I look at the same photo you look at and I get — I see it,” Nanos said in the interview. “I’m going to give that to my team. They’ll look at that. They’ll analyze it and we’ll see. Maybe, maybe it is.”
He also confirmed that police are looking to match the gun holder that the apparent suspect had on their belt.
“We know he had a gun. We know he had a holster that had some pretty unique characteristics,” Nanos continued. “We can’t quite identify it yet, but that’s being worked on. So naturally, we go to our gun shops everywhere and say: ‘Have you seen this guy? Can you help us identify this weapon? Can you help us identify this holster?’”
News broke on February 1 that Today host Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy, had gone missing from her Arizona home. Savannah has stepped away from her NBC role to be with her family amid the ongoing investigation.
Savannah and her siblings, Annie and Camron Guthrie, have presented a united front on social media with several videos begging for the return of their mother. The news anchor has also recorded solo videos with messages to the kidnappers. (It’s been widely reported that several ransom notes have been sent regarding the terms for Nancy’s return.)
The FBI released photo and video footage from Nancy’s house on February 10 that showed an apparent suspect wearing a ski mask while standing at the entrance to her home. The alleged assailant appears to try and cover the camera. They appeared to be wearing a backpack, which Nanos stated during Tuesday’s interview could be another clue.
“That backpack, we could positively now identify as a backpack that is sold at one place only. That’s Walmart,” he told NBC News. “So we’re working with our Walmart managers all across the state to try to find out how many sales were there of that backpack in the last 20, 30 days, the last 60 days.”
Nanos added, “And can we do something with that? Can we break it — maybe we’ll find a credit card or a bank card. Maybe we’ll find a video of the guy walking in.”
Nanos confirmed in a separate interview with NBC — which aired via the Today show on Wednesday, February 18 — that Nancy’s kidnapping was absolutely a targeted attack.
“I think this was an individual who had a target for whatever reason, and he has made it tough, but I’ve got some pretty tough investigators too,” Nanos said.
There are upwards of 400 investigators working on the search for Nancy.
“As long as we have the ability to chase a lead, it’s not cold,” Nanos said on Tuesday. “We’re not going to give up. We’re going to find Nancy, and we’re going to find out who did this.”
