Investigators in Tucson are seeking more surveillance footage from neighbors in an effort to broaden the evidence in the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. The department said it sent an alert to residents within about a 2-mile radius of Guthrie’s home, asking them to provide video that could help investigators look back at the days leading up to her disappearance.
The sheriff’s department said the alert requested footage of “anything neighbors deem out of the ordinary or important to our investigation” since the beginning of January. It said federal and local officers have been going door-to-door in Tucson neighborhoods around Guthrie’s residence while also searching for clues near the nearby home of her other daughter, which she had visited just hours before she disappeared.
Investigators have recovered and are analyzing several pieces of evidence, including a pair of gloves, the sheriff’s department said. Authorities also briefly put up a tent in front of Guthrie’s entryway, where blood was discovered in the early days of the investigation, and where a doorbell camera captured images of a masked person on the night Guthrie went missing.
The FBI released descriptors of that masked person on Thursday, calling him a suspect in a post on X. The agency described the suspect as a 5-foot-9-inch or 5-foot-10-inch male with an average build, and it said he wore a black, 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack, sharing photos of the item from multiple angles.
“We hope this updated description will help concentrate the public tips we are receiving,” the FBI said, adding that it had received thousands of tips since Guthrie disappeared. FBI Phoenix also announced it has increased its reward to $100,000 for information that helps locate Guthrie.
Authorities have said Guthrie was taken against her will and has been missing since Feb. 1. They said she takes several medications and there is concern she could die without them.
During the search, investigators also described their work in the surrounding area. On Wednesday, FBI agents carrying water bottles to deal with the desert heat walked among rocks and vegetation at Guthrie’s home and fanned out into a nearby neighborhood, knocking on doors and searching through cactuses, brush and boulders.
A neighbor, Ann Adams, told The Associated Press that officers asked general questions and also focused on specific dates, including the 31st of January and the morning of the first of February. She said investigators were looking to see whether anyone had noticed anything suspicious on cameras during that period.
Adams also described seeing officers’ activity firsthand earlier this week, saying it “started to get really busy” and that she later saw investigators moving slowly along the street while searching. She said two investigators emerged from daughter Annie Guthrie’s home on Wednesday carrying items in paper and trash bags, including mail from a roadside mailbox, and that one investigator was still wearing blue protective gloves.
As part of the public-facing attention on the case, Savannah Guthrie shared an Instagram post on Thursday of a vintage home video of her mom with two children sharing pink flowers, writing, “we will never give up on her. thank you for your prayers and hope.”