Nancy Guthrie Update: Why The FBI Just Handed The Missing Mother's Home Back To Her Family

Federal agents are preparing to return Nancy Guthrie's Tucson home to her family, according to NBC News sources.

The update on Nancy Guthrie signals that investigators no longer consider the property necessary to keep sealed as an active crime scene.

It is worth noting that Guthrie's house has been the centre of the search since the 84-year-old, the mother of TODAY anchor Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing on 1 February, with the FBI treating the case as an apparent abduction.

NBC reported that officials do not believe the family should be barred from entering and do not believe the home needs to remain sealed. That is not the same as closure, and it does not mean police have answered the basic questions of who took her, how, or where she is now.

Nancy Guthrie Update As The Home Reopens To Family

The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona confirmed to Fox News Digital that federal prosecutors visited the property on Wednesday to assist the FBI with what it described as a 'routine legal process'. Fox News reported that agents remained at the home for several hours and that vehicles were seen entering and leaving the driveway during the afternoon.​

A Fox Flight Team drone also captured footage of agents moving in and out of the house and around the backyard, Fox News said.

NBC, citing federal law enforcement sources, characterised the activity as connected to returning the home to the family as the search moved into a fourth week.

Savannah Guthrie has kept the case in the public eye, and on Tuesday she posted a video on Instagram announcing a family reward of up to $1 million (£738,750) for information leading to her mother's recovery, according to NBC News and Fox News. NBC reported that the FBI received more than 750 calls within the first 12 hours after the reward was announced.

In the same appeal, Guthrie said the family would also donate $500,000 (£369,375) to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to reporting carried by NBC's TODAY.​

Tips, DNA And Unsettled Questions

The surge of public attention has not, at least publicly, translated into a named suspect. Authorities have not publicly identified a suspect or any persons of interest, Fox News reported, and the investigation remains open.​

NBC reported that more than 23,000 calls have been made to the FBI tip line since Guthrie's disappearance. Taken together, those figures show two things at once, the appetite for involvement and the difficulty of turning information into evidence that points clearly to one person.

Investigators have also been careful about the possibility that more than one person was involved. Fox News Digital previously reported that officials have not ruled out the prospect that Guthrie may have been abducted by more than one person.​

Part of that uncertainty comes from the fragments the public has seen. Fox News reported that surveillance footage from Guthrie's Nest doorbell camera shows a masked man tampering with the device on her doorstep. It also reported that a separate still image released by the FBI appears to show a similarly dressed man without a backpack or holster, prompting speculation from experts that more than one person may be involved.​

Speculation is not proof, and law enforcement has not said publicly that the images confirm multiple suspects. What officials have said, through repeated updates, is that the forensic work has not yet produced the breakthrough that many hoped would come quickly.​

Fox News reported that DNA leads have not produced any major developments. In a previous report cited by Fox News, two federal law enforcement sources said samples recovered from inside the home primarily matched people who had legitimate reasons to be there, while one unknown sample yielded only a partial profile that could not be entered into the FBI's CODIS database.​

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has also said the DNA recovered from the scene has not yet led investigators to a suspect, according to Fox News. For a case that has gripped the public, that line lands heavily because it is the closest thing to a status report that cuts through the daily churn of tip numbers and camera images.​

The house, though, is only one part of the investigation. Returning it to the family may be a sign that the centre of gravity is shifting, away from what can be pulled from a single property and towards whatever comes next, whether that is fresh tip triage, more detailed analysis of existing evidence, or a lead that finally sticks.