It’s been six weeks since Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson home. Investigators are being told to start from scratch. A forensic expert says the answer may still be in the house. Not obvious. Not easy. But there, reports NewsNation podcast The Truth of the Matter. The 84-year-old mother of Savannah Guthrie was last seen on January 31 at her home. Law enforcement began searching the next day. Weeks later, no suspect has been publicly identified.
The case has stayed in the headlines. And not just because of the family connection. Even though little is known, interest in the story persists. Experts have weighed in. CeCe Moore, who is known for using DNA to solve cold cases, recently shared what she thought. Speaking on a podcast, she laid out a simple idea. She suggested they go back. She wanted them to swab again. Look closer.
“I would still go back and re-swab parts of that house and look for even, like, a rootless hair,” she said. “We can solve these cases now with just a rootless hair.”
Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her home in the Catalina Foothills area, north of Tucson, on Saturday night, according to the local sheriff.
Her family reported her missing on Sunday around noon local time after she failed to show up to church.
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 5, 2026
It sounds small. It isn’t. Modern forensic work has shifted in the past decade. Genetic genealogy, the method Moore uses, has helped identify suspects in cases that were unsolved for years. When the Golden State Killer was arrested in 2018, it changed. With old evidence and new tools, you can have different outcomes.
Moore says this case likely fits that pattern. “I find it very hard to believe the perpetrator didn’t leave his DNA behind,” she said. Then she shares what she thinks may have happened.
Investigators think the intruder may have used a flashlight. They also think they held it in their mouth during part of the time inside. That detail matters. “We think he had the flashlight in his mouth,” Moore said. “And I doubt that he kept it in his mouth for the full 40 minutes or so that he was there.”
That time estimate of roughly 40 minutes forms parts of the whole working picture they are trying to build. At some point, she says, the person would have moved it. Hands come into play. Surfaces get touched. “As careful as he was to try to not leave his DNA, he would have taken that out of his mouth,” she said. “And he would have immediately had his DNA all over the outside of that glove. And he had to have touched something.”
The house itself has not been sealed the entire time. Family members have come in and out. That complicates things, but the search goes on.
New Nancy Guthrie case controvesy as investigators look into persons who abruptly moved out. “Experts” disagree over the timeline and on why Pima County sherif allegedly didn’t investigate the matter or if the involved persons were illegal immigrants.pic.twitter.com/SGyBFwyrfY
— OSGINT (@posted_news) March 17, 2026
“DNA is actually pretty hardy,” Moore said. “I believe if they haven’t collected his DNA, it is still at that crime scene somewhere.” Forensic teams can separate DNA profiles. It takes time and comparison samples. But it can be done.
She also mentioned the possibility that the crime did not end at the house. A second location, not yet told to the public, could have more evidence. Moore said this is common in abduction cases, especially when there is no immediate sign of where a victim was taken.
The sheriff’s department has not confirmed that scenario. So she was speculating. Cases involving older victims tend to move quickly at first, before slowing down. Search grids expand. Tips come in, but many are dead ends. Public updates also thin out.
Across the United States, thousands of missing persons cases remain open at any given time. While most are resolved, some take time.
