Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said investigators are closing in on identifying whose blood was found outside missing Arizona woman Nancy Guthrie's Tucson home, telling People that fresh DNA work in the case has produced an 'unknown' profile that forensics specialists are now trying to match.
Guthrie vanished from her home in late January, setting off a frantic search that quickly spread across Tucson and beyond. Days after she was reported missing, images of detectives examining her front porch circulated widely, alongside a short clip appearing to show blood outside the door. That trail has now become the most concrete clue in a case that has othe
Forensic Clue Grows
Nanos said laboratory teams have recovered DNA from the blood at Guthrie's property that does not match anyone in the current sample pool.
'I know we have DNA that is unknown, who the contributor or depositor is, but I think they're getting closer to finding out who that was,' the sheriff told People.
For weeks, online speculation has swirled around the blood spray on the tiles near the front door, with theories ranging from Guthrie herself to a possible attacker or even a third party. Nanos's update confirms that the stain has produced a usable DNA profile, but it has not yet been tied to a named person.
Pressed on suggestions that investigators had hit a wall, Nanos rejected the idea that the case has slipped into cold case territory.
He said that depends on what the laboratories can still do with the blood evidence. 'When the labs tell us, "Hey, there's nothing else we can do", well, then maybe we've got a problem... we've got a cold case... but right now, the labs aren't telling us that,' he said.
The message is measured rather than dramatic. There is no confirmed suspect and no suggestion of an imminent arrest, only a forensic process that may still produce a name. Until that happens, the update is progress, not resolution.
Blood Trail At Centre
The blood outside Guthrie's Tucson home first came into public view on 3 February, when NewsNation broadcast footage from the property. The video appeared to show a dark line and spatter on the brown porch tiles and along the path to the entrance, turning an otherwise ordinary house into the centre of a national mystery.
Former FBI special agent Maureen O'Connell, now retired, later reviewed the images and said the pattern suggested Guthrie likely did not walk out of the home on her own. 'So, let's say the pattern of the blood is concentrated here, but the sphere is this big, it's round, you would have a void here from one foot or from another foot or from something,' O'Connell said. 'There don't appear to be any voids.'
She said the absence of gaps in the pattern pointed away from a mobile victim and towards someone who may have been carried out. 'In my mind, she's wrapped up in something and they're carrying her out,' O'Connell added.
Law enforcement in Pima County has not formally endorsed that interpretation, nor has it publicly disputed it. Nanos's latest update sticks to what the laboratory evidence can support: there is an unknown DNA contributor, analysts are still working the profile, and the case remains active.
That leaves the public in a narrow space between forensic fact and conjecture. The blood is real, the pattern was captured on video, and the DNA has been logged for analysis, but it is still unclear whether it belongs to Guthrie, an alleged attacker, a bystander or a contaminated trace.
For now, the sheriff is signalling that investigators are not ready to give up. As long as the unknown profile remains in play, the office believes a name, and possibly the outline of what happened on that Tucson porch, may still emerge from a few drops of dried blood.
