By Herbert Villarraga and Hannah Lang
TUCSON, Arizona, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Nancy Guthrie’s family members have been cleared as possible suspects in her abduction, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said on Monday, as the case involving the mother of “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie entered its third week.
Guthrie’s family, which includes “all siblings and spouses,” has been cooperative and gracious as authorities investigate the kidnapping, Nanos said.
“To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel,” he said in a statement. “The Guthrie family are victims, plain and simple.”
Investigators on Sunday said they had obtained a DNA sample from a glove that was found near 84-year-old 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.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on January 31 when she was dropped off at her home near Tucson by her family after she had dined with them, and was reported missing by relatives 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.
NO PROOF OF LIFE HAS SURFACED
At least two purported ransom notes have surfaced since she vanished, both of them delivered initially to news media outlets. There has been no known direct contact between any suspects and Guthrie’s family or 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 has a pacemaker.
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.
Nanos has told Reuters that no proof of life has surfaced since the abduction, but added that “there’s not been any proof of death either,” saying his working presumption is that Nancy Guthrie remains alive.
In an interview with the New York Post on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump demanded that Guthrie’s kidnappers immediately release her unharmed, suggesting he would want the U.S. Justice Department to seek the death penalty if Guthrie is found dead.
Authorities would first need to find and convict a suspect before considering sentencing.
(Reporting by Herbert Villarraga in Tucson, Arizona and Hannah Lang in New York; editing by Scott Malone, Nick Zieminski and Paul Simao)
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