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TUCSON, Ariz. — The sheriff overseeing the investigation into the suspected abduction of Nancy Guthrie has released two purported notes that may have been sent by one of her kidnappers as he urged anyone with information to come forward and appeared confident that investigators remain on the right track — revealing that investigators are reviewing “tens of thousands” of videos.
Saturday marks six months since the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie was taken from her longtime home in the Catalina Foothills on Feb. 1.
While there have been no arrests in the case and no suspects have been publicly identified, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told Fox News Digital he’s optimistic that investigators will crack the case.
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“We’re not even close to these leads being dried up,” he said. “We’ll continue to work them, and even if they all dried up and we had nothing else to go on, we have a cold case unit.”
Google comes up because they were the ones that first came out with the development of that one photo that was released. And it was critical, right? This is who we believe is the guy. It’s the only piece of evidence we have that says, here’s a picture of him right now. Does that mean other evidence doesn’t exist, video or otherwise? No, I think it does. I think it’s out there — and maybe we have some of that.”
In a wide-ranging interview Thursday, the sheriff discussed new developments in the investigation, setbacks, cooperation with the FBI and why he believes the case will be solved.
Here are six key takeaways:
Detectives are reviewing ‘tens of thousands’ of videos
Task force members are still going through a large number of video and may have more images of the suspect, the sheriff said.
“We have so many thousands of pieces of video, literally tens of thousands, that what happens daily is the team looks at these videos and really they’re just kind of compartmentalizing them,” Nanos told Fox News Digital.
Investigators are still examining the video for clues and sorting them in a way that they can be quickly reassessed later if new context or evidence emerges, he said.
NANCY GUTHRIE UPDATE: DNA COULDN’T BE PROFILED FROM CRIME SCENE HAIR SAMPLE, SHERIFF SAYS
“We take them and, hey — here’s a red car. Give me all the red cars; let’s compartmentalize them,” he said.
That’s done because down the line, someone may get arrested in a red car similar to one that police can already place near the crime scene.
“Now we can go back to those videos and say, ‘Aha — this is the same red car,'” Nanos said. “That kind of thinking.”
He declined to discuss specific evidence, but investigators have previously been seen canvassing the surrounding neighborhoods, major intersections and commercial areas for video that could help in the case. The FBI also removed home security cameras from Guthrie’s roof and backyard back in February.
‘Corporate America’ is helping out
Months after Google and the FBI teamed up for the groundbreaking recovery of Nest doorbell video that shows the only known images of a suspect in the case, Nanos said other major companies around the country are also helping out.
“It may be Google today, it could be, I don’t know, pick another large company that says, ‘Hey, sheriff, you know, we work at this and I think we might have something that can help there,” he said.
Google, which helped recover cached imagery from a backend system, is just one example, he said.
“Google comes up because they were the ones that first came out with the development of that one photo that was released. And it was critical, right? This is who we believe is the guy. It’s the only piece of evidence we have that says, here’s a picture of him right now. Does that mean other evidence doesn’t exist, video or otherwise? No, I think it does. I think it’s out there. And maybe we have some of that.”
The sheriff said companies have been reaching out with specialized technology and expertise that may help investigators.
“So I like to think that we have some of the best minds in the nation, if not the world, that are trying to solve this case,” he said.
Sheriff pushes back on criticism of FBI cooperation
Nanos has downplayed suggestions of meaningful friction between his office and the FBI during the investigation, telling Fox News Digital the detectives and FBI agents on the case are working together on a Guthrie task force assembled from members of the long-standing Southern Arizona Violent Crime Task Force.
“You have the videos of those first days of press conferences,” he said. “Who’s standing there with the sheriff? I mean, it’s like right after we get done with the crime scenes, we come out, day one or two, whatever it is, there’s a press conference. In fact, in the first four days, there’s two press conferences. And who’s on the stage with the sheriff? Not just the FBI special agent in charge of Tucson, but the special agent and in charge of all of Arizona.”
Additionally, he said local members of the FBI’s violent crimes task force were called to the scene on day one and described a close, ongoing working relationship between sheriff’s detectives and the FBI, with daily coordination between the agencies.
“My team that is assigned to the FBI office here locally, they meet every day with the FBI, with their managers, with my supervisors and command staff,” Nanos said.
He said local members of the FBI’s joint task force have been part of the case since “day one” and remain involved six months later.
The hair sample was a DNA dead end, for now, but other genetic evidence is still being tested
Investigators couldn’t obtain a DNA profile from a hair sample recovered inside Nancy Guthrie’s home, Nanos said, but rapid advances in technology mean other evidence could yield new leads. And the hair itself could still be used to compare to a suspect if one is ever identified.
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“It came back … there’s no DNA,” Nanos said. “But does that mean the hair isn’t that of the suspect? We won’t know that till we have the suspect’s hair. You don’t just destroy it.”
Nanos indicated the hair was only one part of the broader DNA work underway, though he did not specify how many other samples are being tested. Fox News Digital has previously reported that there was also a mixed sample collected from the home, and sources said early on that a cutting from Guthrie’s bedding had also been sent to a crime lab.
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“Anything we can grasp onto with DNA is a part of this investigation,” he said.
That includes investigative genetic genealogy research, which is used to generate leads from a family tree.
Nobody is permanently ruled out
New evidence could quickly turn the focus of investigators back to people who have been previously cleared, the sheriff said.
NANCY GUTHRIE CASE: SHERIFF SAYS NO ONE IS PERMANENTLY RULED OUT AS DETAINED MAN PREPARES LAWSUIT
“From what we have in front of us, the evidence, the DNA, the whatever, the videos. Yeah, I think you can eliminate them,” Nanos told Fox News Digital in a sit-down interview Thursday. “And so that elimination happens. But it’s like any [criminal case], because you’re eliminated doesn’t mean you didn’t do it. It doesn’t mean that we can’t get more information.”
New evidence could put anyone back in the investigation’s focus, Nanos said.
“I think I early on said, ‘Look, there is no suspects. The family is not suspects. They’re not,” he told Fox News Digital. “Now, does that mean that ends it forever? No. What happens if next week somebody calls and says, ‘Hey, a family member did this, and here’s how I know it’? You know that always opens a door.”
GOT A TIP?
‘Somebody knows something’
Investigators believe someone may be able to help identify the masked man seen in Guthrie’s Nest doorbell video.
“We believe, just as the family does, just as Savannah does, somebody knows something,” Nanos said. “We need that person to call us.”
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His office also released a pair of notes that may have been sent by one of Guthrie’s abductors. While authorities haven’t yet confirmed the notes are legitimate — they haven’t ruled them out either. And Guthrie’s daughter, Savannah Guthrie, has said she believes they may be real.
The sheriff’s department said the notes share a “unique linguistic style” and could have been written by the same person. Investigators are asking for the public’s help identifying that person.
“As with the unidentified male depicted in the video, we believe these distinctive linguistic characteristics may be recognizable to someone who knows or has interacted with the notes’ writer,” authorities said. “A friend, family member, coworker, classmate, or acquaintance may recognize these patterns of expression and possess information that could help identify the individual responsible.”
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Anyone with information is asked to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI or, to remain anonymous, call 520-88-CRIME.
The sum of all rewards in the case is over $1.2 million — none of which has been claimed.
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