The Nancy Guthrie casecould be broken open by the same specialist DNA lab that helped identify evidence linked toGilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann, a leading genetic genealogist has suggested after the FBI took control of a crucial rootless hair sample recovered from Guthrie's Tucson home.
Guthrie, 84, the mother of Today anchor Savannah Guthrie, was last seen at her secluded home near Tucson, Arizona, on 31 January. Investigators believe she was abducted in the early hours of 1 February.
Blood found inside the house has been confirmed as hers, while FBI-released footage shows a masked man on her front porch around the time she vanished. More than two months later, no suspect has been publicly named and no motive has been disclosed, placing fresh focus on whether advanced forensic testing could finally produce a lead.
Attention has centred on a single hair recovered inside Guthrie's home. According toOK!Magazine's summary of US reports, the strand was initially sent by local authorities toDNA Labs International, a private facility in Florida.
The sample is now back with the FBI, which has taken possession of it and could, experts say, send it to another lab with a stronger record in analysing this type of evidence.
That lab isAstrea Forensics in San Francisco. Earlier this month, 62‑year‑old Rex Heuermann stood in a New York courtroom and admitted to strangling eight women in killings that had long haunted Long Island. A pivotal piece of evidence in that case was rootless hair, analysed by Astrea using cutting‑edge techniques that can recover DNA from shafts once considered forensically useless.
'I am pretty confident that they will want to use the lab that they have been extremely successful with, which is Astrea,' CeCe Moore, chief genetic genealogist at Parabon NanoLabs in Virginia, toldFox News Digital.
Moore was less convinced by the original Florida testing. She said DNA Labs International 'has been working to refine their own rootless hair analysis, but I haven't seen any successful cases from them yet'.
By contrast, she said the FBI appears to have 'a lot of confidence in Astrea' because of its success in other high-profile investigations. 'Sending it to Astrea, where there is a proven track record, is by far the safest option,' she added.
Her remarks underline how quickly forensic priorities are shifting as rootless hair analysis becomes more sophisticated. In a case like Guthrie's, where conventional evidence has yet to identify a suspect, a viable DNA profile from a single strand could prove pivotal.
Source: International Business Times UK
