DNA From Glove Found Near Nancy Guthrie’s Home Is Finally Identified—as Investigators Face Increasing Pressure To Crack the Case

To see our latest updates on the Nancy Guthrie case, please click here.

DNA taken from a glove that was found near Nancy Guthrie's Arizona home has finally been identified—with investigators revealing that the item was matched to a restaurant worker at a nearby eatery, who has already been ruled out as a suspect.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos confirmed Wednesday that the glove was no longer being considered as evidence in Nancy's case, as his department faces increasing pressure to make a breakthrough in the missing 84-year-old's disappearance.

Speaking to local news outlet KVOA, Nanos insisted that authorities had always suspected the glove—which was located during a search of the area surrounding Nancy's $1 million home—might not have any ties to her abductors.

"There was some talk and discussion that it was police officers out in the field just discarding [the gloves], that is so far from the truth," he said. "We knew that at that time, we believed wholeheartedly that those gloves belonged to a restaurant and guess what? The owner of the glove, we found working at a restaurant across the street.

"It has nothing to do with the case."

However, Nanos noted that the glove was just one of many discovered near the crime scene after Nancy disappeared in the early hours of Feb. 1, but said that authorities are still struggling to pull out individual DNA profiles from the evidence they are looking at.

"It’s a challenge because we know we have DNA, but now we have to deal with that mixture and how we’re going to separate it," he said.

Anyone with any information about Nancy Guthrie's case should call 1-800-CALL-FBI, 520-351-4900, 88-CRIME, or visit https://tips.fbi.gov/.

Sheriff Nanos has previously admitted that authorities were still trying to separate out cross-contaminated DNA discovered inside Nancy's home, revealing that investigators had run into some "challenges" in their examination of the evidence.

"We listen to our lab, and our lab tells us that there’s challenges with it, and we understand those challenges," he told NBC News.

"But our lab also knows that 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, to allow them to do better with, say, a mixture of that kind of thing."

Because it has not yet been separated out, the DNA has not been able to be submitted to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database used by the FBI to track convicted criminals.

“We believe that we may have some DNA there that may be our suspect, but we won’t know that until that DNA is separated, sorted out, maybe admitted to CODIS, maybe through genetic genealogy,” Nanos added.

Multiple gloves that were found near Nancy's home are still being examined for DNA evidence, and it is unclear which glove the latest update refers to.

However, Nanos previously revealed that DNA collected from one of the gloves found near Nancy's home did not have any matches on the CODIS database.

Officials also confirmed that the DNA on the clothing item did not match what was found inside Nancy's home; however, they have not ruled out that multiple people may have been involved in the 84-year-old's disappearance.

The search for Nancy is now in its second month—and authorities have yet to publicly identify any suspects or persons of interest, but they previously confirmed that they have ruled out Nancy's family members, including her daughter, "Today" host Savannah Guthrie, as suspects.

During an interview with the "Today" show earlier this week, Nanos also shared new information about the backpack worn by a masked, armed intruder who was caught on camera approaching Nancy's front door in the early hours of the morning on the day she disappeared.

It was initially thought that the backpack worn by the unidentified suspect, a black, 25-liter "Ozark Trail Hiker Pack," had been purchased directly from Walmart, where it is exclusively sold.

However, Nanos said that authorities now believe the person may have bought the model from another source, such as a resale website like eBay.

"We’ve now learned that maybe it wasn’t purchased out of Walmart," he told NBC correspondent Liz Kreutz. "That backpack is new, is exclusive to Walmart, but who’s to say I didn’t buy it and put it on eBay? ... That’s what we’re looking at."

Explaining why his department has cut back on its updates about the case, Nanos said this step was taken in order to protect the integrity of the case—and the evidence.

"There’s so much that everybody wants to know, but I would be very neglectful, irresponsible as a police, law enforcement leader, to share that with everybody," he said. "We have information on this case that we think is going to hopefully lead us to solving this case. But it takes time."

Addressing the DNA evidence that was recovered by investigators in Nancy's home, Nanos admitted that cross contamination has made it difficult to extract one single profile, but insisted that work is still ongoing.

He confirmed that authorities are reviewing Ring camera footage that was submitted by two homeowners who live around 2.5 miles away from Nancy and whose security system captured video of multiple vehicles driving on a road that leads directly to the missing 84-year-old's neighborhood.

It has been claimed that the video includes footage of one particular vehicle on the road at 2:36 a.m. on Feb. 1, around the same time that Nancy is thought to have been taken.

Nanos declined to verify these claims, simply stating: "Look, what I would tell you is this: We’re aware of it, and we’re looking into it, just like any other piece of evidence. We’re looking at that vehicle as well as hundreds of thousands of other vehicles that were out driving that time of day."

What is the full timeline of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance?

Sheriff Nanos noted during a media briefing on Feb. 5 that, while times are approximate, his team has pieced together several pieces of evidence that indicate Nancy's movements—and the timeline of her apparent abduction.

Nancy, 84, was reported missing at around 12 p.m. local time on Feb. 1, around 14 hours after she was dropped off at the property following a family dinner. When she failed to turn up at her usual church gathering on Sunday, her friends alerted her family, who found her home was empty.

SATURDAY, JAN. 31

5:32 p.m. Nancy travels to daughter Annie's house in an Uber for "dinner and playing games with the family."

9:48 p.m. A garage door at Nancy's house opens when she was dropped off at the property by her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni.

9:50 p.m. The garage door closes, indicating that Nancy was inside the home.

SUNDAY, FEB. 1

1:47 a.m. Nancy's doorbell security camera is disconnected.

2:12 a.m. Movement is detected on a security camera at the home.

2:28 a.m. Nancy's pacemaker app indicates that the device has been disconnected from her phone.

11:00 a.m. Nancy fails to arrive at the home of a friend, where she had been due to watch a church service livestream.

11:56 a.m. Nancy's family travels to her home to check on her and finds the property empty.

12:03 p.m. The family calls 911 to report Nancy missing.

12:14 p.m. Police officers arrive at Nancy's home.