Nancy Guthrie update: Ex-FBI agents respond to family being cleared

Investigators in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance having “cleared” family members as possible suspects could show progress has been made in the case, former FBI agents have said.

“To be clear… The Guthrie family – to include all siblings and spouses – has been cleared as possible suspects in this case. The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, who is leading the investigation into the 84-year-old woman’s disappearance, said in a statement shared on X late Monday.

“To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel. The Guthrie family are victims plain and simple… please, I’m begging you the media to honor your profession and report with some sense of compassion and professionalism,” he added.

A retired supervisory special agent with the FBI and CNN law enforcement contributor Steve Moore said that the family being cleared as suspects was “a very strong indicator of progress,” which indicated that investigators “have to have enough information to exclude them, which means they are gaining more and more information on the case itself.”

Retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer listed on social media the standard factors that allow investigators to rule someone out as a suspect.

“Alibi meaning unequivocal evidence they weren’t there,” she said. “Media scrub—Analysis of texts, emails, SM, Google searches proved negative for any nexus to Nancy’s disappearance; DNA not at scene,” she listed. 

“Passed Polygraph; cooperated with search efforts that turned up negative; good relationship with victim; no evidence of contracting anyone to abduct Nancy,” she added.

Searches for the 84-year-old mother of the Today show presenter Savannah Guthrie, who disappeared from her home near Tucson, Arizona, in the night between January 31 and February 1, are now in their third week.

Pima County Sheriff’s Department did not provide further details on how the Guthrie family members were cleared.

Crime scene investigator and forensic expert Sheryl McCollum told Fox News on Sunday that her theory is that Guthrie’s disappearance is a “revenge situation” where the assailant’s behavior was “unusual.”

This is a developing news story; updates to follow.