Chris Nanos, the Arizona sheriff leading the search for Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother, Nancy Guthrie, remains hopeful she will be found. However, when that might happen is unclear.
“Maybe it’s an hour from now,” Nanos told the New York Times on Friday. “Maybe it’s weeks or months or years from now. But we won’t quit. We’re going to find Nancy. We’re going to find this guy.”
He added that investigators are “looking hard” and acknowledged that “it’s exhausting, these ups and downs. But we will keep moving forward.”
Earlier this week, it appeared authorities were getting closer to answers in the two-week search for Guthrie, 84, who was reported missing on Feb. 1. Officials have said they believe she was abducted, and police detained a delivery driver in Arizona as a possible suspect after reviewing previously released doorbell camera footage.
However, the 36-year-old man, identified only as Carlos, was released Tuesday after being held for several hours. He told the NYT he had been sitting in his car in Rio Rico, Arizona, when officers approached him, asked for his name and detained him.
“I hope they get the suspect, because I’m not it,” Carlos said in an interview from his Rio Rico home following his release. He added that he had not heard of Nancy Guthrie before his detention.
On Thursday, following a forensic analysis of the doorbell footage by the FBI’s Operational Technology Division, investigators released a description of the man they are searching for: approximately 5-foot-9 to 5-foot-10, with an average build. In the footage, he appears to be wearing a black 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack.
In interviews with ABC News and CNN on Friday, the Pima County sheriff said investigators recovered DNA from gloves found within a 10-mile radius of Guthrie’s home, along with other potential evidence. Those samples are being compared with DNA from family members, acquaintances and others who had access to her home.
Late Friday night, authorities swarmed an area about two miles from Guthrie’s residence. The sheriff’s office said no arrests had been made and no one was in custody. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to Guthrie’s location and the arrest and conviction of those involved in her disappearance.
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