Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Nancy Guthrie Investigation Hangs by a Hair
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The Search for Nancy Guthrie
- 0:09Speaker 1: tonight at a chilling turning point. Good evening, I'm Nancy Grace.
- 0:15Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for
- 0:17Speaker 1: being with us in the last weeks. The FBI has
- 0:21Speaker 1: confirmed that they obtain DNA from inside Nancy Guthrie's home.
- 0:27Speaker 2: And now do you have these laboratories across the country.
- 0:30Speaker 3: That are able to extract.
- 0:32Speaker 2: A DNA profile from a hair that is done having
- 0:35Speaker 2: that great root materials.
- 0:38Speaker 1: According to reports, the DNA at the Guthrie home, we
- 0:42Speaker 1: believe from the bedroom is hair. Tonight, the search for
- 0:47Speaker 1: Nancy Guthrie at a chilling turning point as a cycle
- 0:52Speaker 1: of frustration, new leads falling through and exhaustion is taking
- 0:58Speaker 1: its toll. That mixed with a constant drama within the
- 1:03Speaker 1: Peva County Sheriff's office. Now word that Nanos could be
- 1:07Speaker 1: charged with perjury? Is that true? What a distraction in
- 1:13Speaker 1: the search for Nancy Guthrie. Joining us in all Star
- 1:16Speaker 1: panel to make sense of what we are learning tonight.
- 1:19Speaker 1: But right now, to one of the foremost genetic genealogists
- 1:25Speaker 1: in our country, it's Ccmore. She is the chief genetic
- 1:30Speaker 1: genealogist at Parabon Nano Labs. She has worked with our government,
- 1:36Speaker 1: the FEDS, and private institutions for decades. CC. We have
- 1:43Speaker 1: heard so much about what is happening with the DNA
- 1:48Speaker 1: we are now into day eighty two. I don't understand it.
- 1:54Speaker 1: Even if SNIP DNA tests were being done, single nuclear
- 2:00Speaker 1: polymorphism tests that should have been returned by now. The
- 2:05Speaker 1: only thing I can think of CEC is that when
- 2:07Speaker 1: Nanos's crew went in, and this is no criticism of
- 2:11Speaker 1: the crew itself. All criticism is aimed at him. When
- 2:18Speaker 1: the crew first went in, they may have missed DNA.
- 2:23Speaker 1: This is a small jurisdiction, This is not their expertise. Somehow,
- 2:29Speaker 1: some way a hare was obtained CC.
- 2:34Speaker 4: What is happening, Well, it's possible that they collected dozens
- 2:40Speaker 4: or even hundreds of pieces of evidence there and it
- 2:44Speaker 4: took time to go through it.
- 2:45Speaker 2: I always wondered if they might have tried to use
- 2:48Speaker 2: an mback on some of the surfaces or some of
- 2:51Speaker 2: the items that could have possibly have been how they
- 2:54Speaker 2: found that rootless hair. You know, when they use the endback,
- 2:57Speaker 2: it gets caught on a filter and then they test
- 3:00Speaker 2: those filters for DNA, so I think that it must
- 3:05Speaker 2: have been a more recent discovery, even though we have
- 3:09Speaker 2: heard that they've had it since February. If they had
- 3:11Speaker 2: it since February, I certainly would think they would have
- 3:14Speaker 2: already sent that off to austraya much earlier, because they're
- 3:18Speaker 2: the ones who've had so much success extracting snips from
- 3:21Speaker 2: rootless hair.
- 3:22Speaker 1: Ccmore, chief genetic genealogist at Parabond Nanolabs. You threw out
- 3:28Speaker 1: a lot of phraseology right there that lay people, civilians
- 3:32Speaker 1: and lawyers that are not well versed in DNA are
- 3:37Speaker 1: not going to understand. Speak to us Ccmore as if
- 3:41Speaker 1: you were speaking to a jury. Now you mentioned an
- 3:46Speaker 1: M that, Emazon mother that and CC I'd like you
- 3:50Speaker 1: to look at your screen. We are showing now the interior.
- 3:55Speaker 1: Oh thank you, there's an impact right there. That's for
- 3:57Speaker 1: DNA collection, the interior of Nancy Guthrie's bedroom. And according
- 4:05Speaker 1: to reports from inside the investigation, this hair was found
- 4:10Speaker 1: in the bedroom. Let's see that video from today's YouTube.
- 4:15Speaker 1: The video CC shows missus Guthrie in her bedroom and
- 4:20Speaker 1: there are so many surfaces. There is a rug, there
- 4:24Speaker 1: are curtains, there is a bedspread, pillows, a lot of fabric,
- 4:31Speaker 1: hardwood floors. Beside her bed, there is a nightstand with
- 4:37Speaker 1: books and other things on it. So in this setting,
- 4:43Speaker 1: if the report is accurate that this hair was found
- 4:47Speaker 1: in the bedroom once and for all cecmore, how would
- 4:51Speaker 1: an imvact be used to get that hair.
- 4:56Speaker 2: Well, it could have been on one of the surfaces,
- 4:59Speaker 2: or it could have been on one the items that
- 5:00Speaker 2: they collected. I'm not saying that's necessarily how they found it,
- 5:04Speaker 2: but it could explain why we're just hearing about it
- 5:07Speaker 2: now a couple months later, or they've been working with
- 5:11Speaker 2: it at DNA Labs International, the lab that Nanos sent
- 5:15Speaker 2: the evidence to, and have been potentially unable to extract
- 5:21Speaker 2: that snip profile. That's something DNA Labs International told me
- 5:24Speaker 2: they were working on way back in twenty nineteen. But
- 5:27Speaker 2: I just haven't seen any successful cases coming.
- 5:30Speaker 5: Out of that lab.
- 5:31Speaker 2: That's not to say that there aren't any, but I
- 5:33Speaker 2: have not known of any whereas Astray of Forensics has
- 5:37Speaker 2: had one success after another with rootless hair, and they
- 5:41Speaker 2: are the ones that originally developed this technique to extract
- 5:47Speaker 2: snips from rootless hair. After scientists have been saying for
- 5:50Speaker 2: decades that it was not possible.
- 5:54Speaker 1: Okay, it is possible. SNIP has been around a little while,
- 5:58Speaker 1: of course, nothing like other type of DNA analysis. But okay,
- 6:03Speaker 1: I've got to break down what you just said, CC,
- 6:05Speaker 1: because a lot is writing on it. First of all,
- 6:09Speaker 1: the MVAC. Can MVACT be used on hard surfaces and
- 6:13Speaker 1: fabric surfaces?
- 6:15Speaker 5: I believe.
- 6:16Speaker 2: So I'm not the one in there collecting the DNA.
- 6:18Speaker 2: I work with it after that has all been done.
- 6:21Speaker 2: But my understanding is that it can.
- 6:23Speaker 1: Well you're right, ccmore the MVAC forensic DNA collection system
- 6:28Speaker 1: is extremely effective on both fabric and hardwood. It's for
- 6:35Speaker 1: particularly recovering DNA from porous or even challenging surfaces. And
- 6:42Speaker 1: what it is is a WETVAC. We all have a
- 6:45Speaker 1: WETVAC for our basements. A WETVAC technique. It sprays liquid
- 6:51Speaker 1: very gently and then suctions it back into the MVAC.
- 6:56Speaker 1: See that that plastic tube, that's what that is. That
- 7:01Speaker 1: is the recirculation of DNA that is taken from either
- 7:07Speaker 1: a hard such as a hardwood floor or a tabletop
- 7:11Speaker 1: or a countertop, a hard surface or fom fabric. So
- 7:14Speaker 1: just what we were showing you in the Nancy Gouthrie bedroom,
- 7:17Speaker 1: the bedspread, the cushions, the carpet. So an MVAC squirts
- 7:23Speaker 1: out very gentle spray of liquid and then it sucks
- 7:27Speaker 1: it back up through that plastic tube. It looks like
- 7:30Speaker 1: you're actually using a wet vac. Now this has by
- 7:36Speaker 1: far outperformed traditional swabbing on materials like cloth, cloth bedding
- 7:44Speaker 1: and wood. Why because it gets the entire surface. When
- 7:50Speaker 1: you use an MVAC, you get the whole surface, like
- 7:54Speaker 1: you're vacuuming your floor or your carpet, and you can
- 7:57Speaker 1: see where you vacuumed, same thing with an In fact,
- 8:00Speaker 1: when you swab, which is with very often, it's with
- 8:06Speaker 1: a long queue tip and a substance is put on
- 8:11Speaker 1: the queue tip and it is then used to collect
- 8:15Speaker 1: DNA off the surface. So clearly an EMVACT will cover
- 8:19Speaker 1: a greater area. Hence why it is so much more
- 8:23Speaker 1: successful than traditional swabbing techniques. So once you get the
- 8:29Speaker 1: IMVACT result or the swabbing result, you get one hair
- 8:35Speaker 1: cee semore you keep mentioning Austria labs. What is that?
- 8:40Speaker 2: It is a lab out in Santa Cruz that was
- 8:44Speaker 2: founded by the very brilliant doctor Ed Green. And when
- 8:48Speaker 2: I say that we were told it couldn't be done,
- 8:50Speaker 2: that's because for decades we were told that you could
- 8:53Speaker 2: only get useful DNA from hair that has a root,
- 8:56Speaker 2: and so there are many cases out there that only
- 8:59Speaker 2: have root hair that hair shaft and doctor Edgreen proved
- 9:03Speaker 2: everyone wrong by developing a technique to extract snip DNA,
- 9:08Speaker 2: which is what we need for genetic genealogy from those hairs.
- 9:12Speaker 5: I personally have helped solve.
- 9:13Speaker 2: Six cases using rootless hair alone working with Australia Forensics,
- 9:18Speaker 2: and they have done dozens and dozens more cases since
- 9:22Speaker 2: they developed this technique.
- 9:24Speaker 1: Rootless hair evidence crime stories with Nancy Gray CC, you
- 9:40Speaker 1: are referring to rootless hair evidence. This is critical correct.
- 9:45Speaker 1: Rootless hair evidence traditionally would require a mitochondrial DNA analysis
- 9:54Speaker 1: in your hair, in the root of your hair. It's
- 9:57Speaker 1: called nuclear DNA. Like the new clear family a mother
- 10:01Speaker 1: a father child nuclear family, Nuclear DNA has DNA from
- 10:07Speaker 1: the mother and the father only found in the root
- 10:11Speaker 1: of your hair when it comes to hair, So if
- 10:14Speaker 1: that root is not attached to the hair, which is
- 10:17Speaker 1: very often the case, we shed thousands of hairs a
- 10:21Speaker 1: day from our arms, from our body, which reminds me
- 10:23Speaker 1: of Cec. I got to talk to you about the
- 10:25Speaker 1: difference if this is a head here, or an arm hair,
- 10:27Speaker 1: or a leg hair, or an eyelash or an eyebrow,
- 10:32Speaker 1: how that differentiates when you're doing this analysis. But without
- 10:37Speaker 1: that nucleus in the root, it becomes a whole another
- 10:41Speaker 1: can of worms. You see, Seymour have had great success
- 10:46Speaker 1: in rootless hair evidence. Now, isn't it true that the
- 10:51Speaker 1: lab used in the Long Island serial killer case against
- 10:57Speaker 1: Rex Hureman who we know murdered eight people and I
- 11:01Speaker 1: think many many more. Oh dear Lord there he is
- 11:05Speaker 1: just pled guilty, so we'll never know the full truth
- 11:07Speaker 1: in that. Like Brian Coburger, rootless hair evidence was very
- 11:12Speaker 1: very important in that case. Isn't it true, c Cymore
- 11:16Speaker 1: that the wife of the Long Island serial chillers hair
- 11:24Speaker 1: was found on some of the victims' bodies.
- 11:27Speaker 2: Yes, so nine hairs were found and analyzed by Australa
- 11:32Speaker 2: forensics and they were found on six to seven of
- 11:35Speaker 2: the victims, on belts, on tape and in the burlap
- 11:40Speaker 2: sacks as well. And those hairs were then traced back
- 11:43Speaker 2: to Rex Huerman, his wife, and his daughter.
- 11:47Speaker 5: I think that's one of the reasons.
- 11:49Speaker 2: He probably decided to decided to confess because when they
- 11:53Speaker 2: had a fry hearing to determine whether that DNA evidence
- 11:57Speaker 2: could be used in court, the judge ruled in favor
- 11:59Speaker 2: of prosecution. So that was a really important precedent that
- 12:03Speaker 2: was set using rootless hair in a court of law.
- 12:07Speaker 1: So CC, the lab behind the Gilgo Beach killer conviction
- 12:11Speaker 1: is now believed to be involved in the Nancy Guthrie
- 12:15Speaker 1: kidnap case. Now what do you make of that? You're
- 12:19Speaker 1: referring to Astria Forensics. Is that the lab you're talking about?
- 12:23Speaker 4: It is?
- 12:24Speaker 2: And I've been hypothesizing that the FBI would send that
- 12:27Speaker 2: rootless hair onto Austraia because that is who they've had
- 12:31Speaker 2: so much success with, including in the Gilgo Beach murder prosecution.
- 12:36Speaker 5: But that's not the only one.
- 12:37Speaker 2: There have been dozens of other cases where the FBI
- 12:40Speaker 2: has sent rootless hair to Austraya and had success.
- 12:45Speaker 1: Question to you, if it is one hair, ccymour, If
- 12:50Speaker 1: it is one hair, then how can it be used
- 12:54Speaker 1: over and over and over? For instance, if it went
- 12:58Speaker 1: to DNA Labs International, and they were obviously not successful
- 13:02Speaker 1: with the snip technique. Now it's being sent, we believe,
- 13:06Speaker 1: to Australia. How much hair, I mean, how much analysis
- 13:10Speaker 1: can you get out of one hair?
- 13:13Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a real issue because the hair is destroyed
- 13:16Speaker 2: when it is being analyzed in that manner. And so
- 13:20Speaker 2: I don't know if this was a longer hair which
- 13:22Speaker 2: gave them more opportunity for testing, or whether DNA Labs
- 13:27Speaker 2: International didn't even attempt to analyze that. We don't know, unfortunately,
- 13:33Speaker 2: but I know that even at ASTRAYA, sometimes it takes
- 13:36Speaker 2: multiple attempts to extract that SNIP profile from the hair.
- 13:41Speaker 2: And by the way, SNIP profiles are nuclear DNA. That
- 13:44Speaker 2: is why we can use that for genetic genealogy, and
- 13:48Speaker 2: so that's what makes it so valuable to make that identification. Now,
- 13:52Speaker 2: of course, we don't know who that hair comes from,
- 13:55Speaker 2: and won't know until there is successful analysis and then
- 13:58Speaker 2: genetic genealogy performed to identify that contributor of that hair.
- 14:04Speaker 1: Well, here's the good news, Cecymore. If it belonged to
- 14:08Speaker 1: Nancy Guthrie or anybody in her family or a relative
- 14:12Speaker 1: of hers or anyone that worked there that has been
- 14:14Speaker 1: used for comparison, they wouldn't still be analyzing it. And
- 14:18Speaker 1: we know from the beginning because Nana's blurted out that
- 14:22Speaker 1: there is a strange There is stranger DNA found in
- 14:27Speaker 1: her home. So that is the good news. It's not
- 14:30Speaker 1: Nancy Guthrie, it's not her family or the people that
- 14:33Speaker 1: work with her.
- 14:34Speaker 2: I think the FBI probably was in the process of
- 14:37Speaker 2: analyzing it to see if it was consistent with Nancy's
- 14:40Speaker 2: hair or any of the known visitors from the home,
- 14:43Speaker 2: and if not, that's when it would then be sent
- 14:45Speaker 2: on to Austraia. So if we have confirmation that it
- 14:48Speaker 2: has gone to Austraia or is on its way there,
- 14:51Speaker 2: then that certainly does suggest that it does not appear
- 14:54Speaker 2: to be from anyone who was known to be in
- 14:56Speaker 2: that home.
- 14:57Speaker 1: So we were talking about how far one hair can
- 15:00Speaker 1: take us. At what point do you use up the
- 15:04Speaker 1: one hair? And when we're talking about and I'm saying
- 15:08Speaker 1: just one hair, just one hair, but we have to
- 15:11Speaker 1: remember in the Brian Coburger quadruple homicide case, that case
- 15:17Speaker 1: rose and fell on a DNA analysis of one is
- 15:23Speaker 1: one simple of DNA on the snap of a knife
- 15:29Speaker 1: sheath that was invisible to the naked eye. So if
- 15:34Speaker 1: that was invisible to the naked eye and we can
- 15:38Speaker 1: see the hair air go, there would be more DNA
- 15:42Speaker 1: and something we can actually see with the naked eye.
- 15:45Speaker 1: So it's hard for us lay people, a civiliancy seemore
- 15:49Speaker 1: to understand how one hair can go so far, Like
- 15:54Speaker 1: they can test it at DNA Labs International and after
- 15:57Speaker 1: testing and testing and testing, they go, oh, no good,
- 15:59Speaker 1: We're sending it to Austria. So and what I'm saying Austria,
- 16:03Speaker 1: it's a st r e a Austria. When will that
- 16:09Speaker 1: hair give out? When when we run out of a specimen?
- 16:13Speaker 1: Can it be re sequenced and regenerated?
- 16:17Speaker 2: No, And I don't believe there could have already been
- 16:19Speaker 2: a lot of testing on that hair unless it's a
- 16:22Speaker 2: very long hair. And so that leads me to believe
- 16:24Speaker 2: that either DNA Labs International did not attempt it or
- 16:28Speaker 2: there was you know, more hair than we know available
- 16:33Speaker 2: to tests because it is destroyed and you can't just
- 16:36Speaker 2: keep retesting it over and over and over again.
- 16:39Speaker 5: So I'm just thankful there is some left that.
- 16:42Speaker 2: Is able to be sent to Australia Australia apparently, since
- 16:45Speaker 2: they are the ones that are really the experts in
- 16:47Speaker 2: that process.
- 16:49Speaker 1: What I don't get, CC is why it wasn't sent
- 16:52Speaker 1: to them to start with.
- 16:55Speaker 2: Yeah, that is really hard to understand, and that's why
- 16:57Speaker 2: I wonder if it's something that wasn't found until recently,
- 17:01Speaker 2: meaning they say it was collected back in February, but
- 17:03Speaker 2: maybe it wasn't detected, you know, maybe just one hair,
- 17:07Speaker 2: maybe that was stuck on one of those MBAC filters
- 17:10Speaker 2: somewhere and it wasn't noticed until they'd been going through
- 17:15Speaker 2: these dozens or hundreds of pieces of evidence and then
- 17:19Speaker 2: came across it. Otherwise, it doesn't make much sense to
- 17:22Speaker 2: have this month's long delay.
- 17:26Speaker 1: Ccmore, this is quite a burden on the lab that
- 17:30Speaker 1: is conducting the test because this whole case could hang
- 17:35Speaker 1: in the balance and depend on one hair. But once
- 17:41Speaker 1: you get the analysis on the one hair, like once
- 17:44Speaker 1: you got Brian Coberger's match, then all the other pieces
- 17:48Speaker 1: fall in place. You find the car, you find his location,
- 17:52Speaker 1: you go into his search history and his social media
- 17:56Speaker 1: based on the first It's like, you know, every building
- 18:02Speaker 1: starts with one brick, and this is the brick on
- 18:06Speaker 1: which the case will be built if we get a match.
- 18:11Speaker 1: Now quickly, Cecie, I know you're running to another lab
- 18:14Speaker 1: right now. Let me ask you a question. What is
- 18:18Speaker 1: the difference if you have a head hair versus an
- 18:22Speaker 1: arm hair, a leg hair, an eyelash, even an eyebrow hair.
- 18:28Speaker 1: How is that analyzed any differently? I mean, obviously if
- 18:31Speaker 1: you have a head hair, and as you pointed out,
- 18:34Speaker 1: it's got to have a nucleus to undergo SNIP testing,
- 18:39Speaker 1: so whatever it is has a nucleus. But how do
- 18:43Speaker 1: those various hairs, how are they analyzed differently? Or are they.
- 18:49Speaker 5: They aren't.
- 18:49Speaker 2: But with head hair, it is often thicker than something
- 18:53Speaker 2: like arm hair or leg hair, and head hair, of
- 18:56Speaker 2: course will keep on growing and growing, so you might
- 18:58Speaker 2: have a much longer versus a very tiny hair from
- 19:02Speaker 2: an arm or a leg. We've worked with pubic hairs
- 19:06Speaker 2: as well. They're all of slightly different thickness or coarseness,
- 19:12Speaker 2: and so that might mean that it's easier to get
- 19:14Speaker 2: DNA from a thicker hair obviously a longer hair, but
- 19:19Speaker 2: otherwise I don't think the process is all that different.
- 19:22Speaker 1: So you see, how hard is it to do what
- 19:24Speaker 1: do you physically have to do.
- 19:26Speaker 2: I know it is a very difficult process, which is
- 19:28Speaker 2: why it was believed for so long to not even
- 19:31Speaker 2: be possible. I have waited months for that SNIP profile
- 19:36Speaker 2: to be created from rootless hair on some of my cases,
- 19:40Speaker 2: and so I know they've had to try multiple times
- 19:42Speaker 2: on some pieces of hair. Some hair is more SNIP rich,
- 19:46Speaker 2: more DNA rich than others, and so you know, you
- 19:49Speaker 2: kind of have to get lucky as well that there
- 19:51Speaker 2: is a lot of DNA to be extracted on any
- 19:54Speaker 2: given hair. Whether it's gone through a chemical process can
- 19:58Speaker 2: affect it, you know, whether it's been ey that can
- 20:01Speaker 2: have an effect, and so we've got to hope for
- 20:04Speaker 2: a little bit of luck here. If they're sending one
- 20:06Speaker 2: single hair out to Australia, You're right, it puts a
- 20:09Speaker 2: huge burden on them, very stressful. I have no doubt
- 20:13Speaker 2: that they would push that analysis to the front of
- 20:17Speaker 2: their long line because most of the time we're working.
- 20:20Speaker 5: Cold cases with these rootless hairs.
- 20:22Speaker 2: The fact that this is a hot case and that
- 20:24Speaker 2: Nancy is still out there and needs to be found
- 20:27Speaker 2: makes this.
- 20:28Speaker 5: Really really top priority.
- 20:30Speaker 2: So I hope that they will be able to complete
- 20:32Speaker 2: that analysis much more quickly than what I have seen historically.
- 20:37Speaker 1: Cecie, you stay that you personally have had six successful
- 20:41Speaker 1: cases out of Australia. What kind of cases.
- 20:45Speaker 2: Were they, Well, one of them was a kindergartener and
- 20:50Speaker 2: fam who was walking to kindergarten on her own very
- 20:54Speaker 2: first time. She begged mom that she could walk. There
- 20:58Speaker 2: were I think twelve children. They were from Vietnam, moved
- 21:02Speaker 2: here for a better life, and their young daughter walking
- 21:06Speaker 2: to school was kidnapped. She was murdered and dumped on
- 21:10Speaker 2: the military base up there. And I worked with Seaside
- 21:14Speaker 2: Police Department and Monterey Police as well on that case.
- 21:20Speaker 2: We had a rootless hair and we were able to
- 21:24Speaker 2: identify her killer as one of her neighbors. Poor Annie
- 21:28Speaker 2: Famm walked right by his house on her way to
- 21:31Speaker 2: school and it was only like a short block or two.
- 21:34Speaker 2: I mean, just horrible, horrible luck that he happened to
- 21:37Speaker 2: live right there and that she was allowed to walk to.
- 21:40Speaker 5: School that day.
- 21:41Speaker 2: And so that was an important case because we did
- 21:44Speaker 2: not have the traditional law enforcement DNA profile, There was
- 21:49Speaker 2: no CODUS profile, There wasn't DNA evidence in that case.
- 21:54Speaker 2: Prior to being able to use that rootless hair, and
- 21:57Speaker 2: so the court had to decide whether or not it
- 21:59Speaker 2: was accept that snip profile for identification, and they chose
- 22:05Speaker 2: to do so in that case, which was another really
- 22:08Speaker 2: important precedence as far precedent set as far as using
- 22:12Speaker 2: rootless hair in cases like this.
- 22:15Speaker 1: Ccymore, Chief genetic genealogist pirabon Nano Labs, We're all on standby.
- 22:23Speaker 1: She has had great success with Austria Labs, great success
- 22:28Speaker 1: even in difficult degraded DNA old DNA cases. It's amazing
- 22:35Speaker 1: that this entire case could hinge on one hair. Tonight,
- 22:40Speaker 1: legal eagles and forensic specialists all over the country are
- 22:44Speaker 1: concerned that the hot and cold nature of the search
- 22:48Speaker 1: for Nancy Guthrie is taking a toll and creating now
- 22:54Speaker 1: a chilling turning point in the search for Nancy Guthrie.
- 22:59Speaker 1: There's been a lot of stops and starts straight out
- 23:02Speaker 1: to Dave Matt Crime Stories investigative reporter Dave. In the
- 23:06Speaker 1: last days we were told that in the late nine
- 23:10Speaker 1: hours a subject had been detained for questioning. Nothing ever
- 23:15Speaker 1: came of it when questioned about it. Nano's the elected
- 23:21Speaker 1: sheriff in p Ma County gave a very terse, one
- 23:25Speaker 1: word answer, No, that was it. No further elaboration about
- 23:31Speaker 1: what is going on. It seems as if it's up
- 23:34Speaker 1: and down, hot and cold. You think you have a lead,
- 23:37Speaker 1: you wake up the next morning, it just vanishes like fog.
- 23:42Speaker 1: It's exhausting to the investigators, to the detectives, much less
- 23:47Speaker 1: to the family. What happened with Nanos. I'm not talking
- 23:50Speaker 1: about his new drama with claims of perjury. We'll get
- 23:54Speaker 1: to that, but the hot and cold nature of this case.
- 23:59Speaker 6: Yeah, Nancy, this case is being followed by millions of
- 24:03Speaker 6: people nationwideing around the world, and you know, we all
- 24:06Speaker 6: got that tip that there was activity south of Tucson,
- 24:09Speaker 6: a neighborhood where we've been before where a person was
- 24:13Speaker 6: detained previously, and now there is activity and possibly somebody
- 24:17Speaker 6: detained again. That was news that exploded, and we were
- 24:22Speaker 6: on it where our whole team was calling one another
- 24:24Speaker 6: trying to figure out what was going on. And yet
- 24:27Speaker 6: when it comes right down to it, Nanos doesn't even
- 24:31Speaker 6: talk about it other than when he's asked a question,
- 24:34Speaker 6: was there someone detained last night? He doesn't explain anything.
- 24:38Speaker 6: He doesn't explain why there was activity, or if there
- 24:40Speaker 6: even was. He only says nope, just like that, and
- 24:46Speaker 6: it's I cannot imagine how bad it is for the
- 24:49Speaker 6: family to be dismissed like that, because look, he can
- 24:52Speaker 6: be dismissed it to the media, but to the family
- 24:55Speaker 6: to not engage and say this is what's going on.
- 24:58Speaker 6: It didn't pop out of nowhere, Nancy. There had to
- 25:00Speaker 6: have been a reason that we were all told a
- 25:03Speaker 6: certain thing and went after it. And all we're getting
- 25:06Speaker 6: from Nano's nope.
- 25:08Speaker 1: To Brian Fitzgibbons joining us. He is the director of
- 25:11Speaker 1: Operations USPA Nationwide Security. Fitzgibbons leads a team of investigators
- 25:17Speaker 1: around the world looking and extracting missing people, including in Mexico,
- 25:23Speaker 1: which is significant in the Nancy Guthrie case. There have
- 25:27Speaker 1: been more recent ransom notes where Nancy Guthrie is described
- 25:33Speaker 1: as having been in Mexico having been seen that, said, Brian,
- 25:39Speaker 1: in every case, there are stops and stars. In this case,
- 25:45Speaker 1: it's been extremely peculiar and exhausting. Have you experienced that
- 25:51Speaker 1: in your searches.
- 25:53Speaker 7: Oh, certainly, Nancy, And on one case in particular that
- 25:58Speaker 7: you've actually covered a couple of times that my team
- 26:00Speaker 7: and I have been working on for close to four
- 26:03Speaker 7: years now, Andy Wagner Missing from Evansville, Indiana. We would
- 26:09Speaker 7: go through periods where, you know, we'd have hundreds of
- 26:12Speaker 7: calls on the tip line, emails information.
- 26:16Speaker 8: Then something would pop right, and that you have to.
- 26:20Speaker 7: Fight the natural inclination to become emotionally attached to that
- 26:26Speaker 7: lead and to run your process. And you know, with
- 26:30Speaker 7: the public specter of Missus Guthrie's case, that's incredibly difficult
- 26:37Speaker 7: for these investigators knowing, you know, the mountain of evidence
- 26:41Speaker 7: that they have to process, the mountain of tips, and
- 26:45Speaker 7: then one of these things seems to move forward and
- 26:48Speaker 7: then it falls off. That's very difficult to keep morale high.
- 26:53Speaker 1: Well. Another aspect to this, Brian Fitzgibbons, as we saw
- 26:57Speaker 1: a series of people detained, questioned and released, but in
- 27:04Speaker 1: a regular investigation, that is to be expected. What do
- 27:08Speaker 1: you want them to do? Not detaining the person, not
- 27:10Speaker 1: question them, So that goes with the territory. So you
- 27:13Speaker 1: can't really blame the Sharf's department for that. They're doing
- 27:16Speaker 1: what they need to do.
- 27:19Speaker 7: I think what's different here is it speaks to limited capabilities.
- 27:24Speaker 7: The people detained and released seemingly have no connection to
- 27:29Speaker 7: Missus Guthrie, and it exposes that maybe some of this
- 27:33Speaker 7: cellular analysis and data analysis that had been done wasn't
- 27:38Speaker 7: so great right, that they're capturing a vehicle that was
- 27:41Speaker 7: through there that as zero connection to the case, and
- 27:44Speaker 7: that they were actually further off than the public believed
- 27:48Speaker 7: that they were.
- 27:49Speaker 1: Two. Doctor Bethany Marshall joining us, a renownced psychoanalyst out
- 27:53Speaker 1: of the LA jurisdiction, author of deal Breaker. You can
- 27:57Speaker 1: see her now on Peacock and and find her at
- 28:01Speaker 1: Dr Bethany Marshall dot com. Dr Bethany. The hot and
- 28:05Speaker 1: cold nature of this investigation has worn down investigators, worn
- 28:10Speaker 1: down the family, worn down the public. And the way
- 28:14Speaker 1: that Nano's is treating it is highly unusual.
- 28:18Speaker 3: You know, Nancy to work with the sheriff who gives
- 28:23Speaker 3: out a lot of information when he's at the beginning
- 28:26Speaker 3: of the case. He's in his glory days, so to speak.
- 28:29Speaker 3: There's a lot of narcissistic gratification. All the reporters want
- 28:32Speaker 3: to talk to him. He's he's a celebrity of sorts,
- 28:37Speaker 3: and then as the case begins to grow cold, his
- 28:40Speaker 3: only response is Nope, he becomes depriving and withholding with information.
- 28:46Speaker 3: That's what I call a toxic relationship. Right, When the
- 28:49Speaker 3: other person feels good, they give you a lot of information.
- 28:51Speaker 3: When they feel bad, they become withholding and depriving. So
- 28:55Speaker 3: I think the public has a toxic relationship with nanos.
- 28:59Speaker 3: So just let's just hold that in mind as a
- 29:02Speaker 3: frame for my next comments, which are that it's a
- 29:05Speaker 3: little bit like compassion fatigue. If you have somebody in
- 29:09Speaker 3: your life who says, oh, I'm about to die, I'm
- 29:12Speaker 3: going to kill myself, and you and you, you know,
- 29:14Speaker 3: put all your resources and efforts towards helping.
- 29:17Speaker 5: Them, and they say, nah, I'm okay.
- 29:19Speaker 3: And then a week later they're like, I'm in crisis,
- 29:21Speaker 3: I'm going to kill myself. You put all your efforts
- 29:23Speaker 3: and resources towards helping them.
- 29:25Speaker 5: A week later, nah, I'm okay.
- 29:27Speaker 3: It creates a feedback loop between you and the other
- 29:30Speaker 3: person where you start to disbelieve them and you start
- 29:34Speaker 3: to hold back your own internal resources so that you're
- 29:38Speaker 3: not exploited. Now that's not you know, Apple to Apple's
- 29:42Speaker 3: comparison with the Nancy Guthrie case. But I will say
- 29:46Speaker 3: with the investigators and the family.
- 29:48Speaker 5: When they are given.
- 29:49Speaker 3: Information that is sort of sensationalized, the media picks it up.
- 29:56Speaker 3: It's given by nanos in such a way that, ah,
- 29:59Speaker 3: we got the culprit, you know, that kind of excitement,
- 30:03Speaker 3: and then the lead grows cold. That creates dread, anxiety,
- 30:10Speaker 3: feelings that you cannot trust the people who are in
- 30:14Speaker 3: charge of the investigation, and you know, investigators, detectives, these
- 30:21Speaker 3: people are not immune from human emotions like the rest
- 30:25Speaker 3: of us. So if your hew a carriage is held out,
- 30:29Speaker 3: then it's taken away, held out, taken away. They're going
- 30:32Speaker 3: to feel very anxious, deprived, confused, not sure what to believe,
- 30:37Speaker 3: and eventually withdraw from hope in order to protect themselves.
- 30:43Speaker 3: And then that leaves Savannah Guthrie's family sort of out
- 30:47Speaker 3: in the cold without supports.
- 30:50Speaker 1: You know, I'm just thinking of the toll it has
- 30:52Speaker 1: taken on the investigation. Also, we are learning more about
- 30:57Speaker 1: one of the ransom notes. We're learning that it was
- 31:02Speaker 1: very vividly written quote I saw her alive with kidnappers
- 31:07Speaker 1: in Mexico. A couple of new notes in the Nancy
- 31:11Speaker 1: Guthrie case, both from the same person, offering information on
- 31:14Speaker 1: the kidnapper, but they reveal a location claiming they saw
- 31:20Speaker 1: her in Mexico, in Sonora. The state of Sonora a
- 31:25Speaker 1: large Mexican state. It borders Arizona and also borders parts
- 31:29Speaker 1: of New Mexico. So I noticed that the center is
- 31:34Speaker 1: not suggesting Nancy Guthrie is still alive, which also takes
- 31:40Speaker 1: us to a critical turning point in this investigation. They say,
- 31:44Speaker 1: in fact, quote, she is dead. Straight back out to
- 31:50Speaker 1: Brian Fitzgibbons, USPA Nationwide Security, what will be the challenges
- 31:55Speaker 1: of searching in the Sonora area and how will it
- 31:59Speaker 1: be done if, in fact this note is taken seriously.
- 32:04Speaker 7: Well, I don't think that this note will be taken
- 32:07Speaker 7: seriously for a number of reasons, but let's say it
- 32:10Speaker 7: was right. The searching in Sonora is going to bring
- 32:14Speaker 7: on a whole new set of challenges. First and foremost,
- 32:18Speaker 7: there's going to have to be significant collaboration and cooperation
- 32:22Speaker 7: between the US and Mexican governments to organize these searches. Secondly,
- 32:28Speaker 7: there's going to be very limited buy in from the
- 32:31Speaker 7: local populace to organize volunteer searches or to utilize.
- 32:36Speaker 8: Resources from their local law enforcement.
- 32:39Speaker 7: So you know, if Missus Guthrie is indeed in Sonora
- 32:44Speaker 7: and was taken across the border, this complicates things tremendously well.
- 32:50Speaker 1: Also in that area, Brive Hiss Gimmons. Isn't it true
- 32:53Speaker 1: that there are huge swaths of desert virtually impossible to
- 32:58Speaker 1: search that type of terre. Also, the corruption we see
- 33:02Speaker 1: in the US amongst police is nothing compared to what
- 33:08Speaker 1: it is in Mexico. It's unlike anything we have experienced
- 33:11Speaker 1: in the US. You've got a few bad apples, that's
- 33:14Speaker 1: the truth. A few bad apples within the police are
- 33:18Speaker 1: corrupt there. There's only a few people that are not
- 33:22Speaker 1: corrupt within law enforcement. So you've got these huge swaths
- 33:26Speaker 1: of desert, you've got extreme corruption within the law enforcement there,
- 33:32Speaker 1: and you have the cartel influence on all of the citizens.
- 33:39Speaker 1: They don't want to cooperate in any way with law enforcement.
- 33:44Speaker 1: So where does that leave us?
- 33:46Speaker 7: Yeah, and adding to that, nancy beyond the corruption is
- 33:51Speaker 7: who controls.
- 33:52Speaker 8: This land and then the land that would.
- 33:54Speaker 7: Be searched, and primarily in the first instance, there would
- 33:58Speaker 7: be an extensive grid search done drone Right, So do
- 34:02Speaker 7: these people want to allow those drones to fly over
- 34:05Speaker 7: their land. You know, are their legal activities happening on
- 34:08Speaker 7: that land?
- 34:08Speaker 8: It's going to be you.
- 34:10Speaker 7: Know, complicated is not the right word. Nearly impossible if
- 34:16Speaker 7: missus Guthrie was taken across the border without a source,
- 34:20Speaker 7: without a direct witness source, so.
- 34:23Speaker 1: To doctor Bethany Marshall joining us psychoanalyst out of LA.
- 34:28Speaker 1: Where does this leave Nancy's family? Do you know? People
- 34:32Speaker 1: are still online claiming the family is responsible. They're pointing
- 34:36Speaker 1: directly to the son in law, Annie Guthrie's husband. I mean,
- 34:41Speaker 1: it just never ends seemingly. But now as the case
- 34:47Speaker 1: is reaching this turning point, many people are calling it
- 34:49Speaker 1: a cold case. Detect this are insisting it is not
- 34:52Speaker 1: a cold case. It may hinge on one hair. What
- 34:58Speaker 1: is the family supposed to do if they're functioning under
- 35:01Speaker 1: the belief she could be in Mexico where we're going
- 35:03Speaker 1: to get no cooperation at all, and then you've got
- 35:07Speaker 1: Nano's potentially facing perjury charges.
- 35:12Speaker 3: Nancy huge disappointment, anxiety, dread. Do you know, Nancy that
- 35:17Speaker 3: one conspiracy theorist actually said that Savannah Guthrie disappeared her
- 35:23Speaker 3: own mother in order to get increased ratings and to
- 35:26Speaker 3: get a new contract on the Today Show.
- 35:29Speaker 5: That's how disgusting the.
- 35:30Speaker 3: Theories are that are out there. So the family's under
- 35:33Speaker 3: assault and siege while they are looking for their own
- 35:38Speaker 3: beloved mother. You know, Nancy, when it comes to our mothers,
- 35:42Speaker 3: it's never a cold case. We always want to have
- 35:46Speaker 3: our mothers safe in with us. Nancy, you know your
- 35:49Speaker 3: mother lives in your home with you. You take care
- 35:51Speaker 3: of her every day. You and I talk about it,
- 35:53Speaker 3: how you bring her breakfast and you check in on her,
- 35:56Speaker 3: and how important that relationship is for the entire your family.
- 36:01Speaker 3: So where does this lead leave the Guthrie family. I
- 36:05Speaker 3: think with huge amounts of dread, anxiety, and despair, not
- 36:11Speaker 3: knowing whom to trust, and having put their whole faith
- 36:17Speaker 3: in the law enforcement system. To have Nanos with draw
- 36:22Speaker 3: all of those talks that he gave at the very
- 36:24Speaker 3: beginning would make them believe that support is being withdrawn,
- 36:28Speaker 3: and that's going to be very depressing for them.
- 36:35Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Gray. Dr Bethany, I want to
- 36:43Speaker 1: tell you what I saw may have even been yesterday.
- 36:46Speaker 1: I feel like every hour on the phone with somebody
- 36:50Speaker 1: in you trying to find out anything new about the
- 36:53Speaker 1: search for Missus Guthrie constantly looking online for any tidbit
- 36:59Speaker 1: of evidence I could dig up, and I put in
- 37:03Speaker 1: keywords and guess what popped up, Doctor Bethany. There is
- 37:07Speaker 1: a whole analysis about how the Today Show got a
- 37:11Speaker 1: slight bump in ratings when Savannah returned from the search
- 37:16Speaker 1: for her mother, and it just I wouldn't even read it.
- 37:19Speaker 1: It just just hit me cold that her disappearance is
- 37:26Speaker 1: being bandied about like it's a ratings bone. I mean,
- 37:35Speaker 1: there's a very very strong possibility that she's dead, and
- 37:40Speaker 1: Savannah is wrestling with that and hoping, still hoping. It's
- 37:45Speaker 1: a horrible limbo to wake up in the morning and
- 37:51Speaker 1: it hits you like a ton of bricks. This horrible
- 37:54Speaker 1: thing has happened. And for a few moments when you
- 37:57Speaker 1: first wake up, it doesn't hit you, but then and
- 38:00Speaker 1: it does hit you, And then you spend the rest
- 38:02Speaker 1: of your day trying to act normally. And then to
- 38:07Speaker 1: have it treated like a bone to be thrown for
- 38:11Speaker 1: a little bump in the writings, it's it's a moral
- 38:16Speaker 1: it's wrong.
- 38:17Speaker 3: I still have hope in human nature. I'm going to
- 38:19Speaker 3: say I blame the journalists for this one. I saw
- 38:22Speaker 3: those articles too, Like Savannah Guthrie returns to the Today Show,
- 38:26Speaker 3: there's a bump in ratings, and why is that in
- 38:31Speaker 3: front and in front of us in the news. It's
- 38:34Speaker 3: because the media, I believe, and you know you and
- 38:37Speaker 3: I are the media too, so you know we're a
- 38:39Speaker 3: part of that community is wanting to put forward something sensational.
- 38:43Speaker 3: On the other hand, the bump Nancy might be that
- 38:48Speaker 3: the world cares about Nancy Guthrie, so they are tuning
- 38:53Speaker 3: in to see what Savannah has to say. Maybe they
- 38:57Speaker 3: care about how is she dressed, what's her affect, what's
- 39:00Speaker 3: her grooming, how does she appear. I just spent a
- 39:03Speaker 3: couple of weeks in France and my friends and colleagues
- 39:08Speaker 3: over there. Their first question to me was, and I
- 39:10Speaker 3: hadn't seen them in a year, was do you think
- 39:12Speaker 3: we're going to find Nancy Guthrie? So the world cares
- 39:17Speaker 3: about this Nancy. The wide world cares. And maybe that's
- 39:22Speaker 3: really why we have the bump in ratings, is that
- 39:24Speaker 3: people are tuning in to see what happens. You know,
- 39:28Speaker 3: Nancy Guthrie is a mother.
- 39:30Speaker 5: She's a good mother.
- 39:32Speaker 3: She has three beautiful children, she has grandchildren, we all
- 39:36Speaker 3: have mothers who we love. You love your mother, she
- 39:38Speaker 3: lives with you. On many shows, you have discussed what
- 39:42Speaker 3: you feed her for breakfast, and you know how you
- 39:44Speaker 3: engage with her throughout the day. And so mothers are
- 39:48Speaker 3: important to all of us. And I'm going to hope
- 39:51Speaker 3: that the bump in ratings is because we love our
- 39:54Speaker 3: mothers and the public wants to know how Savannah is doing,
- 39:59Speaker 3: and there's supporting her with prayers and interest in this case.
- 40:04Speaker 1: And you know Dr bethany Mother's days coming up, and
- 40:07Speaker 1: that's just going to be pure hail for Savannah. But
- 40:11Speaker 1: that said, you're right, I can't go anywhere without people
- 40:15Speaker 1: asking me, where are we going to Financey Guthrie, what
- 40:18Speaker 1: do you know that you're not saying, and so forth
- 40:20Speaker 1: and so on. It's been devastating for them, and this
- 40:25Speaker 1: is just throwing gas on the fire. Dave mac Nano's
- 40:29Speaker 1: perjury what.
- 40:31Speaker 8: Nancy.
- 40:32Speaker 6: This goes back to a deposition that Nanos gave in
- 40:37Speaker 6: December where he was asked a very specific question if
- 40:41Speaker 6: he had ever been suspended as an officer under his position. Okay,
- 40:48Speaker 6: they're getting character assessment here in this hearing or in
- 40:51Speaker 6: this deposition, and Nano's stated he had never been suspended
- 40:58Speaker 6: as a result of disciplinary action while working as a
- 41:01Speaker 6: law enforcement officer. Declared it very specifically, and Nancy quickly
- 41:09Speaker 6: everyone proved it was a lie, not just a little one,
- 41:12Speaker 6: not just a mistake, a big lie. Nanos was suspended.
- 41:17Speaker 6: Nanos actually was suspended so many times in his time
- 41:21Speaker 6: in El Paso, Texas between nineteen six, seventy six and
- 41:24Speaker 6: eighty two. There are twenty six internal allegations about Nanos
- 41:28Speaker 6: and eight separate suspensions, for a total of thirty seven
- 41:33Speaker 6: days of unpaid leave. But Nanos said no, never been suspended. Now,
- 41:41Speaker 6: after being accused of perjury, nanos lawyer says, oh, he
- 41:46Speaker 6: didn't understand the question. He misunderstood.
- 41:50Speaker 8: He thought you were talking about.
- 41:51Speaker 1: Let me ask you something only quickly Dave Matt Did
- 41:53Speaker 1: he say it under oath?
- 41:56Speaker 6: That deposition was not under oath, Nancy, I don't think
- 41:58Speaker 6: it was anyway.
- 41:59Speaker 8: When I was looking over this, actually, I.
- 42:01Speaker 1: Thought all depositions are under oath. If it's a deposition,
- 42:05Speaker 1: it's under oath.
- 42:06Speaker 6: I misspoke that deposition that he should.
- 42:09Speaker 1: Charge you with perjury. So we got to make sure
- 42:11Speaker 1: he was under oath. First, if he's under oath, he's
- 42:14Speaker 1: on the wrong end of a long barrel. Fitzgibbons, you're
- 42:19Speaker 1: joining me from Massachusetts, Is that correct?
- 42:23Speaker 8: Yes?
- 42:24Speaker 1: Do you guys have gnats up there? G n A
- 42:27Speaker 1: T S nats?
- 42:29Speaker 8: We do. They haven't.
- 42:31Speaker 7: They haven't really started biting just yet, but coming in
- 42:36Speaker 7: May that they'll they'll start to be very active here.
- 42:39Speaker 1: Well, in the South, there are biters and then there
- 42:43Speaker 1: are just gnats that are simply very irritating, and you
- 42:46Speaker 1: can hear you just see them. And that is how
- 42:50Speaker 1: Southerners can tell if you're from up north, because if
- 42:54Speaker 1: you're from up north, you go like that. If you're
- 42:57Speaker 1: from the South, you go that said, I don't care
- 43:03Speaker 1: about Nanos's allegipurtury charge. That's like a gnat flying around
- 43:09Speaker 1: my head. All I care about is how all of
- 43:12Speaker 1: his distractions are going to harm the search for Nancy.
- 43:18Speaker 1: How can he focus? And if your leader isn't focused,
- 43:24Speaker 1: then the troops are not as focused as they should be.
- 43:27Speaker 1: If the leader is completely distracted, how is that hurting
- 43:33Speaker 1: the investigation? Thank Heaven, the FEDS are involved.
- 43:38Speaker 8: Yeah, and hey, here's the deal.
- 43:40Speaker 7: We know that all of this public controversy has at
- 43:44Speaker 7: a minimum, done real damage to the Pima County Sheriff's
- 43:48Speaker 7: Office at large. Right the union has taken a vote
- 43:52Speaker 7: no confidence. That doesn't bode well for their effectiveness in
- 43:57Speaker 7: the field. And then you know, when you have the
- 44:00Speaker 7: leader of the public facing leader of this investigation spending
- 44:03Speaker 7: the majority of his time defending his reputation, answering questions
- 44:08Speaker 7: about his past, battling political pressure, it inevitably demoralizes the
- 44:13Speaker 7: detectives on the ground who are doing the actual day
- 44:16Speaker 7: to day work.
- 44:17Speaker 1: If you know or think you know anything regarding the
- 44:21Speaker 1: disappearance of Ms Guthrie, please dial toll free eight hundred
- 44:25Speaker 1: call FBI toll free one eight hundred two two five,
- 44:30Speaker 1: five three twenty four. There is a one point two
- 44:33Speaker 1: plus million dollar reward for information leading to her whereabouts.
- 44:40Speaker 1: A conviction or even arrest is not required. And now
- 44:46Speaker 1: we remember an American hero, Officer Dallas Hinton Thomas Fulle, PD, Alabama,
- 44:52Speaker 1: just twenty five, survived by his grieving fiance, Officer Dallas Hinton,
- 45:00Speaker 1: American hero Nancy Grace signing off and goodbye
- 45:04Speaker 3: Ford m HM