In a concerted effort to locate Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother, federal authorities have turned to advanced technology, deploying a ‘signal sniffer’ attached to a helicopter.
Nancy Guthrie has been missing for over two weeks, having disappeared from her million-dollar home in Tucson’s Catalina Foothills early on February 1. Both local and federal teams have been tirelessly searching for her since.
With the trail growing cold, officials decided on Saturday to use a ‘signal sniffer,’ a small device designed to detect the signal from the 84-year-old’s pacemaker, as reported by NewsNation.
The device was spotted mounted on the skid of a Pima County Sheriff’s Department helicopter, which was seen flying over the Tucson area that evening.
Maureen O’Connell, a former FBI special agent, noted that the agency likely employs a range of high-tech methods in their search for Guthrie.
She explained, “This tool is useful because the pacemaker emits a short-range signal. They will need to get quite close to pick it up,” highlighting the precision required in the operation.
Guthrie’s pacemaker was disconnected from an app on her phone the night she went missing, just before 2.30am, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has said.
Her Nest doorbell camera had been disconnected less than an hour earlier, at 1:47am, when an unidentified masked figure was seen yanking the camera from the door frame.
Federal authorities continued the search for Today s how host Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother on Saturday night
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department installed a ‘signal sniffer,’ a compact device they hope could track the 84-year-old’s pacemaker, to one of its helicopters – which was seen flying low over Tucson, Arizona on Saturday evening
The masked man, who authorities say was carrying a 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack, also tried to obscure the camera with a bunch of flowers he ripped from Guthrie’s entranceway.
Federal authorities believe the suspect is approximately 5ft 9in to 5ft 10in with an average build.
Tens of thousands of tips have rolled in to the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Office since the footage was released last week, but on Friday, Sheriff Chris Nanos expressed his fear to the New York Times that it could take ‘years’ to find the mother of three.
Still, there was some hope as Nanos announced that DNA recovered from Guthrie’s property did not match her or anyone known to have been in close contact with her.
Investigators have also said they found several gloves between roughly two and 10 miles from Guthrie’s home – though Nanos said he had ‘no way’ of knowing whether the gloves were the same ones worn by the unidentified figure in the footage.
In the meantime, Nanos said authorities were focused on ‘tracking down leads’ as federal agents were seen performing a traffic stop on a gray Range Rover Friday night while a SWAT team executed a search warrant on a nearby house.
One man briefly detained in the raids ‘was our person of interest,’ Sheriff Chris Nanos told Fox News on Saturday.
It is believed that the individual owns the gray Range Rover that authorities searched and towed as part of the investigation.
Nanos said the individual was being cooperative with authorities, but did not elaborate on whether he believes the person that was briefly detained has any direct connection to Guthrie’s disappearance.
Sheriff Chris Nanos expressed his fear to the New York Times that it could take ‘years’ to find the mother of three
Federal agents were seen performing a traffic stop on a gray Range Rover Friday night
A house in Tucson was raided by a Pima County Sheriff Department’s SWAT team on Friday night. Law enforcement said they were executing a federal search warrant
But according to Nanos, the ‘person of interest’ has been released.
‘No arrests,’ he told NewsNation’s Brian Entin about the raids. ‘And no signs of Nancy.’
David Curl, who has lived in Nancy’s neighborhood for 30 years, offered additional information about the raid.
He told The New York Times he was relaxing at home after returning from vacation when a sheriff’s deputy showed up with his next-door neighbor.
She had been alone when law enforcement arrived at her residence with the search warrant.
The homeowner was forced to spend the night at Curl’s home after police told her she could not be inside her house while investigators were also inside.
‘She had no idea what they were asking about,’ Curl said. ‘She had no information about the disappearance or any idea why they were focusing on their house.’
The woman later told Curl that her adult son had been questioned by investigators and released. He was now staying with friends.
She declined to speak to the outlet, and her identity was concealed.
Federal authorities are now said to be waiting for test results to come back from the raids before they could release any more information about Friday night’s raids.
But the sheriff has previously faced scrutiny for sending DNA samples to a private lab in Florida rather than to the FBI’s forensics facility in Quantico, Virginia.
He forcefully denied the allegations and called them ‘not even close to the truth,’ according to KVOA.
As the investigation drags on, though, Savannah reportedly told Nanos that ‘she has her own people and didn’t need him’ as the FBI hiked its reward to $100,000 for any information on Nancy’s disappearance.
The sheriff, who has had a long career in law enforcement, admitted he is not used to the amount of scrutiny that has come with leading the investigation into Nancy’s disappearance.
Multiple sources close to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department have told the Daily Mail how Nanos allegedly mishandled the crime scene (pictured)
Federal authorities are now said to be waiting for test results to come back from the raids before they could release any more information about Friday night’s raids
Multiple sources close to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department have told the Daily Mail how Nanos allegedly mishandled the crime scene and issued contradictory messages to the public.
According to those insiders, a vital search-and-rescue aircraft was grounded in the initial hours of the investigation when it was needed most.
The alleged delay in getting the surveillance aircraft airborne was not caused by mechanical issues or weather, but by staffing shortages that left the department without qualified pilots to fly the plane – a shortage sources blame directly on Nanos.
In multiple press conferences, the sheriff has apologized for delays and walked back statements made during television interviews.
At one briefing, he said Nancy was ‘harmed at the home’ and taken from her bed, before later saying he had misspoken.
In another press conference, he failed to instill confidence when asked about potential suspects and motives, replying: ‘Your guess work is as good as mine.’
