Nancy Guthrie’s Disappearance Gets Fresh Scrutiny

It’s been three weeks since Nancy Guthrie was forcibly taken from her Tucson, Arizona home, and investigators are still searching for leads. Now, a top forensic scientist is calling for a fresh approach, saying the best experts should scrutinize her house for trace evidence.

A Fresh Set of Eyes

Peter Valentin, chair of the Forensic Science Department at the University of New Haven, told Fox News’ ‘Crime and Justice’ podcast that a new team of experts could crack the case. ‘What I would suggest is that you go into that house with the best people in each discipline in forensics,’ he said. ‘Go into that house and scrutinize that house, looking for the trace evidence that must exist, or hopefully still exists.’

Valentin is confident that there’s evidence lurking in the house, and it’s just a matter of finding it. ‘Because if people went into that home, and we believe they did, right? To take her from that house, there must be evidence of their presence in that home. Where is it? What is that evidence? We need to find it,’ he said.

Hair, Fibers, and Other Clues

Valentin warns that the key piece of evidence might not be obvious, like a DNA profile or a latent fingerprint. Instead, it could be something more subtle, like hair or fibers. ‘It’s probably some of the things that we’ve probably not used as much, right? The hair, the fibers, the other kinds of trace evidence. But we’ve got to start cobbling together all the forensic evidence we have at our disposal to move this case forward, because otherwise it might not move forward,’ he said.

Nancy Guthrie’s family is still holding out hope, with her daughter Savannah pleading for tips on social media. ‘Be the one who brings her home,’ she said. If you have any information, you can contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.