As the search for Nancy Guthrie hit its 50th day Sunday, leaving the local sheriff desperate and humiliated, a legendary cold-case detective insisted to The Post that the case is still ripe with potential leads.
“Nancy’s case is still very fresh,” said Brian Martin, the crack detective from Fort Payne, Ind., who helped catch the killer of 8-year-old April Tinsley almost 30 years after her murder.
Martin said he is optimistic that law enforcement will track down the abductor of the 84-year-old mom of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, after Nancy vanished with nary a trace from her home near Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 1.
The detective said his money is still on the DNA.
“I’m sure they have an item of evidence which was probably at the scene and was foreign, meaning this is something that would not have been in her house, and this was something that was probably left by the suspect,” he said.
Martin added that the case is a long, long way from going cold.
“Often agencies will not consider a case cold until it has sat inactive with no leads or evidence developments after three years. I would not consider the Nancy Guthrie [case to be cold] now,” he said.
Frustrated locals don’t share Martin’s optimism: A recall effort is under way for Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos after 50 torturous days of false alarms, dead-end leads and refusals to let the FBI take over.
Investigators recovered clear footage of at least one masked, armed suspect disabling Guthrie’s doorbell security camera.
They also found suspicious DNA samples from inside her home and from a glove matching a description of the suspect’s that had been discarded nearby.
Cops detained and questioned several persons of interest based on anonymous tips and cellular tower records. Two of those people were driving vehicle models the sheriff deemed suspicious.
Yet both were soon released and cleared of suspicion, as were Guthrie’s daughter Anne and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni, after the couple endured weeks of public suspicion stoked by crime-influencers and amateur sleuths.
As for the suspicious glove, it apparently belonged to the owner of a restaurant near where it was found.
Testing the remaining DNA samples could take up to a year, Nanos revealed last month.
Existing DNA samples failed to match anyone in the federal CODIS database of people who have been arrested, charged with crimes or investigated in some other way.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Office has said it is “looking into additional investigative genetic genealogy options on DNA samples collected at the crime scene.”
Genetic geneology uses a cutting-edge technique in which investigators try to identify a relative, even as distant as a great aunt or second cousin, and construct a family tree leading to a suspect.
The technique draws on public databases such as GEDMatch, an open source platform where millions of people have uploaded their data from private services to connect with birth parents or find out more about their lineages.
Martin and his team used a genetic genealogy technique to find April Tinsley’s elusive killer: reclusive oddball John Miller, who dodged police for decades after assaulting and killing the child in 1988.
“We were pushing 30 years of investigative techniques, good old-fashioned police work. Then with the advances of genetic genealogy, in just over six weeks, we cleared the Tinsley case,” Martin said.
Meanwhile, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings continue to beg for their mother’s return.
“We continue to believe it is Tucsonans, and the greater southern Arizona community, that hold the key to finding resolution in this case,” the family said in its latest heart-wrenching statement Saturday.
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