Nancy Guthrie DNA Evidence Gets New Update After Blood Splatter Findings
Often in kidnapping cases, the easiest way to find the perpetrator is by having someone close to them, or someone who has seen something strange, call the authorities. Over two months into the Nancy Guthrie investigation, and despite a reward for information sitting at over $1 million, that hasn’t happened. So, the case now rests on the forensic evidence. Specifically, a hair sample.
But those results could take a while, according to experts. “In my experience, it usually takes months, but I am assuming they will make it a top priority since most of the other cases are generally cold cases so it may be much quicker,” CeCe Moore, one of the nation’s leading genetic genealogists, told Fox News Digital. “It also depends on a little luck because sometimes they have to make multiple attempts before they get the DNA.”
Related: Who are Savannah Guthrie’s siblings?
Results have already taken longer than anyone would have wanted, and it all seems to have come down to a matter of jurisdiction. The Pima County Sheriff Department sent DNA evidence to a private lab they worked with, rather than the FBI. Eleven weeks later, the evidence finally got to the FBI.
“FBI asked to test this DNA 2 months ago with the same technology we’ve always had — when the local sheriff instead sent it to a private lab,” said Ben Williamson, the bureau’s assistant director of public affairs. “Any further developments we will share as soon as appropriate.”
Considering the lack of answers from the private lab, Moore believes the hair sample is rootless, which makes identification way more complicated. “Hopefully that will mean the SNP profile can be created more quickly than is typical in my experience, so the IGG can begin to identify the owner of that hair,” she said.
IGG or investigative genetic genealogy, mixes DNA profiles and traditional research, combining genetics, public records and other information to identify a person of interest in a case through their heritage. It has been used to solve some high profile cases, like that of the Golden State Killer.
“At that point, we just have to hope that the hair actually belongs to Nancy’s kidnapper and not someone else who happened to visit her or had their hair transferred to her home,” Moore said.
Recently, retired FBI profiler Jim Clemente told NewsNation’s Brian Entin that the blood spatter found outside Nancy Guthrie’s home was enough to draw some conclusions.
“This tells me a number of things, and it’s very specific. One is that … at this point, Nancy’s face was very close to the ground, within a foot of the ground. This could be she was either on her knees, hunched over, or actually lying on the ground,” he said.
“Where that blood pattern disappears, I believe she was likely picked up and carried the rest of the way, perhaps with her face up so that there was no more blood deposited on that walkway.
All of it led Clemente to theorize that Guthrie was kidnapped by just one person. “If there were two people, you would think one of them would have control of her, complete control of her inside the house and brought her outside and would not have lost that control,” he stated. “But here, she’s clearly on the ground coughing this blood up.”
