TUCSON, Ariz. — Investigators in the Nancy Guthrie missing persons case are not looking into any new names, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said, amid challenges with mixed DNA found at the 84-year-old’s Arizona home at the lab his agency is using. 

“In terms of leads and working and getting out there, I think that’s still growing, yeah,” Nanos said of the investigation during an interview with “NBC Nightly News” that aired Saturday. 

The sheriff’s remarks ran counter to statements from local businesses about how they’ve been shown a list of names and images by the FBI. 

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It’s also unclear whether the DNA recovered inside Guthrie’s has been useful for the investigation. Nanos said the samples are mixed, meaning they contain DNA from more than one person, making it harder to run through national databases.

“Our lab tells us that there are challenges with it,” Nanos said of the Florida lab his department is using. “The technology is moving so fast and in such a frenzy that they think some of this stuff will resolve itself just in a matter of weeks, months, or maybe a year.”

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The sheriff noted that investigators were still working other avenues of the weeks-long probe into Guthrie’s abduction. 

“I think we’re getting a little closer to identifying some of the other articles, not just that backpack. Like the shoes, the pants, the shirt or jacket,” he said. 

Guthrie was last seen on the night of Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, after being dropped off at her home in the Catalina Foothills area near Tucson. 

“It’s never fast enough for the sheriff,” Nanos said of the criticism of his office weeks after Gutherie’s disappearance, with no arrests made. “I want it like you. Come on, guys, let’s go. Let’s go, let us find her. But the reality is, I also know that sometimes things take time.”

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“We’re not quitting,” he added. “We’ll find her.”

Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this report. 

A former FBI agent believes that investigators should explore a new possible angle in the mysterious disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.

Jonny Grusing worked in the FBI’s Denver Division for 25 years, investigating violent crimes, missing persons, serial killers and more. He is also the author of “The Devil I Knew: Unmasking a Serial Killer,” about the true crime case of Scott Kimball. 

Grusing made it clear that he is only operating off of information that has been made public in the case, and that he’s positing a new theory in case it might jog the memory of a member of the public who could help solve the case.

“The first thing he does is with his glove, and with his glove, it doesn’t look like he’s trying to take [the camera] off,” said Grusing of the suspect’s behavior on Guthrie’s stoop. “It looks like he’s trying to cover it with his right hand. “And then he looks down, he looks around, and he gets the branches, and he puts the branches up in front of it.”

“Is there a chance, since we don’t have audio, that he is either knocking on the door loudly or that he has pressed the ring doorbell, [that] he’s trying to get Nancy to answer the door, and he’s shielding himself from being seen as a masked person, so she will, in her confusion, open the door?” Grusing asked rhetorically.

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Grusing said that if that’s the case, the suspect likely wasn’t there to rob the home. Since Guthrie lives in a sprawling residential area, Grusing also believes it unlikely that the suspect was a robber who accidentally showed up at the wrong address.

Rather, he said, the suspect might have been there because he had a personal grievance against Guthrie, and might have lured her out of the home onto her porch.

The possibility makes even more sense, Grusing said, when considering that blood was found spattered on Guthrie’s front porch and down the driveway, and authorities have not released any information about whether there was blood found inside the home.

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The suspect also wore a gun in what is believed to be a cheap Walmart holster, and wore it on the front of his body, which Grusing described as not “tactically sound.” Grusing also believes that the gunman would have had trouble firing that gun with the gloves he was wearing, and that the gun may have just been a prop to instill fear in Guthrie.

“So, if the gun’s a prop, if he’s shielding himself from being seen, if he’s actually ringing the doorbell or knocking on the door, getting her to come, he wants to confront her about something in my opinion,” said Grusing.

Grusing has always believed that in whatever interaction Guthrie had with the suspect, something went wrong, causing him to remove her from the house. Perhaps, he said, Guthrie identified him, causing a panic. He also says the kidnap-for-ransom theory doesn’t add up, given that alleged kidnappers never reached out to the Guthrie family directly.

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Grusing wouldn’t speculate on what kind of grievance someone might have had with Guthrie, or why they might have had it.

But he wants the public to consider the possibility, just in case they remember someone saying they were wronged by a person fitting Guthrie’s description.

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“It’s hard to be an expert in human behavior because it’s so unique to that person,” said Grusing, despite his quarter-century of experience.

“You know, I’m just trying to use the experiences of different cases and trying to apply any sort of logic to this in the hopes that someone from the public who has thought it might be someone they know whether it’s his family or whether now it’s a coworker or friend or associate or whatever, to put that one puzzle piece together that says, ‘Yes, and now I think it could be him.’”

Several firebrand conservatives are set to duke it out in what promises to be a particularly explosive debate ahead of the GOP primary election for Texas attorney general.

The debate will be held at the famed Granada Theater in Dallas on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Central Time. It will be hosted by the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and moderated by conservative podcaster and Texas native Allie Beth Stuckey. Fox News Digital will stream the debate.

With early voting having already started, the Lone Star State is in the midst of a highly contentious primary election season.

Four Republicans are gunning for the role of Texas’ top attorney, a slot that is being vacated by Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate. In the running are Congressman Chip Roy, R-Texas, who is running on a limited government platform, Aaron Reitz, a former Trump Department of Justice official and assistant attorney general under Paxton, state Sen. Mayes Middleton, an oil executive running on an America first platform, and state Sen. Joan Huffman, who has emphasized respect for the rule of law in her campaign.

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As a fourth-term congressman, Roy has the most time in the national spotlight. A member of the House Freedom Caucus, he has at times found himself at odds with President Donald Trump and the GOP establishment.

On Dec. 19, 2024, amid a high-stakes standoff over government funding and the federal debt ceiling, Trump railed against Roy in a Truth Social post in which he called him one of several “Republican obstructionists” who he said, “Have to be done away with.”

Both Reitz and Middleton, who have positioned themselves as the Trump loyalists in the race, have used this line of attack against him. Reitz has accused Roy of being “belligerently anti-Trump” and a party antagonizer, while Middleton has echoed the obstructionist theme.

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Stuckey has said the debate questions will focus on the national legal battles the Texas attorney general must lead regarding the border and constitutional rights. In an X post, she said that her team and RAGA have been working to make sure that “every single question is not only relevant to Texas voters but also to Americans as a whole.”

She promised a “fiery, fun and informative night.”

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Addressing the debate, RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper said in a statement that the Texas attorney general “plays a critical role locally and nationally from protecting Texans to promoting the rule of law and preserving freedom for future generations.”

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Piper said that “RAGA looks forward to providing Texans the opportunity to hear all four Attorneys General candidates answer questions on the important issues facing the state.”