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 toldFOX 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.

Pima County Sheriff's Deputy collects a backpack found by searchers looking for Nancy Guthrie.pic.twitter.com/niaWXE4zT0

Searchers looking for Nancy Guthrie found articles of clothing in a drainage pipe.pic.twitter.com/tdpYO1TiER

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.'

Searchers found a backpack along the side of the road near Nancy Guthrie's home.pic.twitter.com/PgVtziNZZm

Source: International Business Times UK