‘Ozark Trail’ Backpack
X/ JLR Investigates

Volunteers searching for missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie recovered a backpack on Sunday along the side of a road near her Tucson home, with a Pima County sheriff's deputy collecting the item as the investigation entered its fourth week.

The group found the backpack along Orange Grove Avenue in the Catalina Foothills, roughly two miles from Guthrie's home, Newsweek reported. True crime reporter Jonathan Lee Riches, posting under the handle @JLRINVESTIGATES on X, shared photographs and video showing a deputy bagging the backpack at the scene. His post had drawn more than 102,000 views by early Monday.

Searchers also recovered articles of clothing from inside a drainage pipe in the area, Riches posted separately. Deputies collected those items alongside a black glove the volunteers had found nearby.

The volunteers belonged to Searching Mothers of Sonora, a collective of women from Mexico who lost loved ones to cartel violence. 'We dedicate ourselves to actively looking for them, putting flyers all over the city, in the field, digging, moving land,' Lidia Hernandez of the group told FOX 10 Phoenix.

The recovered backpack does not appear to match the one worn by the suspect captured on surveillance footage, FOX 10 confirmed. The FBI previously identified the suspect's pack as a black 25-litre 'Ozark Trail Hiker Pack' sold exclusively at Walmart. Investigators have been working with the retailer to trace purchases of that model.

Sheriff Warns Volunteers To Step Back

Some volunteers were spotted searching around Guthrie's front yard on Saturday, prompting deputies to intervene.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department released a statement on 21 February asking volunteer groups to give investigators room, per Fox 5. 'We appreciate their concern, and we all want to find Nancy, but this work is best left to professionals,' the department said. 'Private property laws apply.'

DNA Challenges Slow The Investigation

Guthrie, the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, was last seen around 9.45 p.m. on 31 January at her home in the Catalina Foothills. She had spent the evening with family. When she failed to turn up at church the following morning, she was reported missing. Blood confirmed as hers was found on the front porch. Authorities believe she was taken against her will.

On 10 February, the FBI released doorbell camera footage showing a masked man on Guthrie's porch the morning she vanished. He wore gloves, carried the Ozark Trail backpack, and appeared to have a firearm in a distinctive holster. The bureau described him as male, roughly 5 ft 9 in to 5 ft 10 in, with an average build and a black moustache.

A glove found roughly two miles from the home yielded DNA from an unknown male, but produced no match in federal databases, NBC News reported. Additional DNA recovered from the property was mixed, complicating analysis further.

Thousands Of Tips And Still No Answers

More than 200 law enforcement personnel remain on the case. The FBI has received upwards of 21,000 tips. A combined reward exceeding $202,500 (£164,000) has been posted, including $100,000 (£81,000) from the FBI and $102,500 (£83,000) through the local 88-CRIME tip line.

Savannah Guthrie stepped away from her NBC duties to help in the search. In a video posted on 15 February, she addressed whoever took her mother. 'It's never too late to do the right thing,' she said.

Sheriff Chris Nanos has said his department will not stop. 'We're not quitting,' he told NBC News. 'We're going to find Nancy, and we're going to find out who did this.'

No suspect has been named. No arrest has been made. Nancy Guthrie, 22 days on, remains missing.

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