US President Donald Trump has reportedly said he would instruct the Justice Department to seek the death penalty if Nancy Guthrie is not found alive. She has been missing since 1 February.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, was abducted from her Arizona home on February 1. Footage from a doorbell camera captured disturbing images of a masked assailant, but the investigation soon went cold.
The president said the abductors would face “very, very severe — the most severe” federal consequences if Nancy Guthrie is found dead after being abducted, reported the New York Post.
Asked if that meant the DOJ would request the death penalty, Trump replied: “The most, yes — that’s true.”
Earlier, Trump, spending the long Presidents Day holiday weekend at his golf club in Florida, posted on Truth Social that he was watching news coverage of the case, AFP reported.
Praising those “working so hard, with such expertise and knowledge,” the 79-year-old wrote: “Hopefully there will be a positive result!”
Savannah Guthrie, a co-host of NBC’s Today, made an emotional public appeal urging her mother’s kidnappers to “do the right thing,” as the disturbing case continues to puzzle investigators and captivate the country.
Guthrie shared a video message on social media late Sunday, speaking directly to those responsible for her mother’s abduction and pleading for her safe return, as reported by AFP.
“Whoever has her or knows where she is,” Guthrie said, “it’s never too late and you’re not lost or alone, and it is never too late to do the right thing and we are here.”
“We still have hope and we still believe,” she said, as reported by AFP.
Studying DNA
On Sunday, more than two weeks after the kidnapping, investigators told US media that a glove — possibly worn by the individual seen in the doorbell footage — had been found roughly two miles (three kilometers) from the home. A DNA test is currently being conducted on the item, AFP reported.
According to a report by AP, authorities said detectives recovered DNA evidence from Savannah Guthrie’s property that does not match her or anyone known to be in close contact with her. The sheriff’s department added that investigators are now working to determine whose DNA it is.
Evidence requiring forensic analysis is being sent to the same out-of-state lab that has been used since the beginning of the case, the department said, as reported by AP.
The glove is one of roughly 16 collected by investigators in recent days in a roadside field about two miles from the Tucson-area residence of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, the mother of US television journalist Savannah Guthrie. Most of the gloves recovered by investigators turned out to have been dropped on the ground by searchers in the vicinity, the FBI said, as reported by Reuters.
But the one submitted for DNA analysis is “different and appears to match the gloves” worn by the man in a ski mask seen trying to disable Guthrie’s door camera in the early morning hours shortly before she was abducted, according to the FBI statement.
(With inputs from agencies)
