More than 21 weeks after Nancy Guthrie’s suspected abduction, investigators have made notable advances — including a rare recovery of Nest doorbell footage involving the FBI and Google — while two men have been taken into custody and later released without charges. Thousands of tips have also been reviewed, but Guthrie has still not been found.
Herman Weisberg, a former NYPD detective who now works as a prominent private investigator, says the case may still hinge on a single call from the public.
“You’ve got to have a lot of patience when you’re dealing with that because you might just be on your 7,000th call and your 15th cup of coffee that day, but the 7,001st call could be the one that’s really got a piece of valuable information in this,” Weisberg, managing director of the New York-based private investigative firm SAGE Intelligence, told Fox News Digital.
“The 7,001st call could be the one,” he added.
As the investigation stretches beyond 150 days and official updates have become less frequent, Weisberg said the intense public attention surrounding Guthrie’s disappearance could prove to be a powerful tool for investigators.
“The awareness that comes with a high-profile crime like this should be an advantage in solving it,” he told Fox News Digital.
Weisberg cited the case of Gabby Petito, in which members of the public reviewing their own dashcam video helped provide the critical lead that allowed authorities to locate her remains at a remote campground in Wyoming.
He also pointed to other major cases where tips from the public played an important role, including the Boston Marathon bombing, when witnesses reported the movements of the Tsarnaev brothers after the attack, and the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, who was rescued after alert Utah residents recognized her alleged abductors from media coverage and contacted police.
“Crowdsourcing wins cases these days, you know, all the armchair sleuths and the true crime fans that are out there,” Weisberg said.
“Maybe one of them is like what I always say, is the one that looks outside their window and said, ‘That’s strange, that car’s been parked out there too long. It’s got Arizona plates.’ You know, it’s a stolen car. Get the police to come.”
While he said he’s surprised that digital forensics haven’t solved the case already, not everything goes investigators’ way.
“Actually, I’m pretty shocked that this case didn’t come down to technology,” he said.
“A perfect example is that Kohberger case in Idaho. Technology was the case breaker for them, but anything can happen in a case like this. I think the old expression, three can keep a secret if two are dead. If this was a solo perpetrator of this crime, we lose a big advantage of somebody else being able to point the finger here.
“Whatever it is, my personal idea on this is it was a crime that went very wrong from the beginning. We didn’t have some of the advantages, some of [the] investigative opportunities there because this didn’t play out the way that the perpetrator intended it to.”
On the other hand, Weisberg said, as in the Kohberger case, there’s a strong chance that investigators are farther along than the public is aware.
“They could be working on a lead right now,” he said. And if that doesn’t work out, investigators and the Guthrie family are still asking for tips from the public.
There are combined rewards of more than $1.2 million for information in the Guthrie case, including $1 million from the family for information that leads to her recovery.
Her daughter, “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, is asking anyone with information on Guthrie’s case to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Tips can be provided anonymously to Tucson’s Crime Stoppers affiliate, 88-Crime, at 1-520-882-7463.
