By Herbert Villarraga and Steve Gorman
TUCSON, Arizona, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Investigators have obtained a DNA sample from a glove that was found near 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, the FBI said on Sunday.
Results from the glove could potentially lead to what forensic experts call a “hit” as early as Monday after they have conducted a national database search on the DNA specimen, the FBI indicated in a statement.
The preliminary findings from a private crime laboratory in Florida were received by the FBI on Saturday and were awaiting “quality control and official confirmation” on Sunday before the results are submitted for comparison with known DNA profiles taken from individuals and crime scenes and stored in the national database, the FBI said.
The process of running a specimen through CODIS, short for the Combined DNA Index System, typically takes 24 hours from when the Federal Bureau of Investigation receives a DNA sample.
The glove is one of roughly 16 collected by investigators in recent days in a roadside field about two miles from the Tucson-area residence of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, the mother of U.S. television journalist Savannah Guthrie. Most of the gloves recovered by investigators turned out to have been dropped on the ground by searchers in the vicinity, the FBI said.
But the one submitted for DNA analysis is “different and appears to match the gloves” worn by the man in a ski mask seen trying to disable Guthrie’s door camera in the early morning hours shortly before she was abducted, according to the FBI statement.
Hours after the DNA announcement, Savannah Guthrie posted a video message on social media saying, “we still have hope” and urging whoever has her mother or knows her location “to do the right thing.”
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said on Friday he was certain the person in the video, who was also wearing a gun in a holster and an over-stuffed backpack, was the primary suspect investigators were looking for to solve the high-profile case.
SEARCH ENTERS THIRD WEEK
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on January 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.
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 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.
The sheriff said on Friday that DNA not from Nancy Guthrie or anyone close to her had also been collected from her property, but there has been no official word on any lab findings from those samples.
‘DO THE RIGHT THING’
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. In one video, they expressed a willingness to meet ransom demands.
In her latest Instagram video, two weeks to the day after her mother was reported missing and directed to “whoever has her or knows where she is,” the broadcast journalist said, “We believe in the essential goodness of every human being, and it’s never too late.”
Nanos told Reuters on Friday no proof of life had surfaced since the abduction but added: “There’s not been any proof of death either.”
Acting on a federal court-ordered warrant in connection with the Guthrie case on Friday night, sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents searched another house in an affluent neighborhood less than two miles from her home, authorities confirmed over the weekend.
The sheriff’s office also said a person was questioned that night in a related traffic stop, but no arrests resulted from either incident.
The presumed kidnapping has drawn intense media attention as well as expressions of sympathy and support from President Donald Trump.
(Reporting by Herbert Villarraga in Tucson, Arizona; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sergio Non, Alistair Bell, Chris Reese and Kate Mayberry)
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