Hair found in Nancy Guthrie’s Arizona home contained no DNA, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said.
“To find DNA on hair is extremely rare. Hair doesn’t produce DNA like touch DNA or bodily fluids,” Nanos told NBC News on Thursday, July 30.
The sheriff added to Fox News, “Yes, there was a hair. We had it and thought, ‘OK, well, we’ll do the DNA first,’ right? You’re going to do DNA before something else. … It came back … there’s no DNA.”
Nanos said the hair sample has been preserved in case it might still prove useful to the investigation.
“But does that mean the hair isn’t that of the suspect? We won’t know that ’til we have the suspect’s hair. You don’t just destroy it,” he told Fox News. “There’s other things that hair may prove valuable for, but right now, it was just about, ‘Is there any DNA there?’ And the answer was no. That was just a matter of weeks ago.”
In a brief statement to NBC News, the FBI Phoenix field office confirmed that “all hair had been resolved, and it does not point to a suspect” in Guthrie’s disappearance.
The news comes nearly six months after Guthrie, 84, was reported missing from her home outside of Tucson, Arizona, on February 1. Police are investigating the case as a kidnapping. No suspect has been identified.
Nancy, the mother of Today show cohost Savannah Guthrie, was last seen on the evening of January 31.
On Monday, July 27, Savannah, 54, issued a fresh plea for her mom’s return via social media.
“I’m coming on today with a very specific message,” she said in an Instagram video. “It has been months since our mom was taken from us. Our family is in agony. We are in a nightmare that will not end. Nothing about our situation has changed. We have done our part, but we will never stop looking for her. We will always ache for her. Feel that hole in our hearts.”
Savannah continued, “The world can be a cruel and unforgiving place, and I know that you have tried to do things the right way. So I’m asking you, begging you, to do the right thing now. Make the right choice. Help us find her. Tell us where to look for her. I truly believe it is never too late to do the right thing. Help us bring this situation to an end. For all of us — no matter where we’ve been and what we’ve done — I believe there is always, always a way home. Please make the right choice.”
She captioned the post, “Bring her home 💛.”
