Nancy Guthrie, Nancy Guthrie hair sample, Nancy Guthrie DNA, Nancy
Until detectives name a suspect, labs cannot match the single strand from Nancy Guthrie's home to anyone, the sheriff has said FBI Laboratory, public domain

On 10 October, Geo.tv presented the hair testing as a new development, even though ABC News reported that the sample was transferred to the FBI on 16 April and the test results became public on 30 July. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said the hair yielded no usable DNA profile.

Nancy Guthrie, 84, is the mother of Savannah Guthrie, a Today co-host. Someone took Nancy Guthrie from her home in the Catalina Foothills, near Tucson, Arizona, against her will on 1 February, the FBI says. More than eight months on, authorities have not publicly named a suspect.

How the Hair Moved Between Labs

An FBI official said in April that the bureau had asked for the hair sample more than two months earlier. Instead, the Pima County Sheriff's Department had sent the hair to DNA Labs International, a private Florida firm the department uses. Eleven weeks later, the hair reached the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. Detectives had collected the hair in February, which is why the FBI said there was no new DNA evidence.

CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist at Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs, identifies suspects by tracing their relatives' DNA through public genealogy databases. In April, she said results usually take months, though this case could move faster. She thought the hair was rootless, making it harder, but not impossible, to test. Moore told Fox News Digital the hair could belong to 'someone else who happened to visit' Nancy Guthrie, not the kidnapper. Geo.tv's report also incorrectly gave Nancy Guthrie's age as 94 rather than 84.

What the Hair Test Showed

On 30 July, the FBI's Phoenix office told the network NBC News in a brief statement that 'all hair had been resolved and it does not point to a suspect.' Officials there declined to say more. Nanos told the same network that finding DNA on hair is extremely rare, and that hair doesn't produce DNA like touch DNA or bodily fluids.

The result does not establish whose hair it was. 'We won't know that till we have the suspect's hair,' Nanos said in a Fox News Digital interview. The FBI has asked the public to help identify the masked, armed man on Nancy Guthrie's doorbell camera. The FBI describes him as 5 ft 9 in to 5 ft 10 in (175 to 177.5 cm) with an average build, and says he wore gloves and carried a black, 25-litre (6.6 gallon) Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack.

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What Investigators Are Still Testing

The sheriff has said a second sample, mixing DNA from as many as four people, remains the key unresolved DNA evidence. Labs in Kansas, Florida, California and Arizona, as well as the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, are also trying to separate that mix. On 12 February, the FBI raised its reward to $100,000 (about £75,000), as the post below shows.

Nancy Guthrie's family has offered up to $1 million (about £750,000), paid only if a tip leads to her recovery. Anyone with a tip can call the bureau at 1-800-CALL-FBI. In an Instagram video on 27 July, Savannah Guthrie asked whoever took Nancy Guthrie to 'tell us where to look for her.'

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