How human remains found in Tucson desert complicate the search for Nancy Guthrie

How human remains found in Tucson desert complicate the search for Nancy Guthrie Chief Medical Examiner Greg Hess has spoken about the challenges created by - Bookmark Nearly seven months after she vanished, the mystery of Nancy’s Guthrie’s disappearance continues. The 84 year-old mom of Today anchor Savannah Guthrie went missing without a trace early this year from her home in Catalina Foothills, Arizona. Pima County Sheriff’s Department last week said there was “no indication” that human remains found 15 miles from her home are connected to the case. However the discovery has raised questions as the search efforts continue. Chief Medical Examiner Greg Hess told CNN remains are often discovered in the area, with many of them being assumed to be migrants, due to the desert’s position near the southern border. But given the nationwide interest in the Guthrie case, he said that any newly found remains attracts particular attention. “Every time somebody found a body in the wash or somewhere else in southern Arizona over the past few months, there’s speculation that it’s the person everybody’s interested in,” Hess said. The latest remains found by authorities are believed to have been lying in the desert area for an “extended period of time,” the sheriff’s department said. However, authorities did not give an indication about the state of the remains. Hess said in a 2024 report by the National Association of Counties that his office holds as many as 500 to 600 remains in boxes, with around 5,000 deaths being reported to his office each year. Migrants account for around 200 of those deaths and are disproportionately represented unidentified cases. Hess told CNN that as many as 150 remains are discovered in Pima County specifically each year, with many being either fully or partially skeletonized. Desert conditions, including monsoons, sunlight exposure, animal activity and heat, all contribute to the acceleration of decomposition. The decay of the remains and the sheer number of those found can hinder cases like the disappearance of Nancy. Monsoon season can also dislodge remains and carry them to places where they are more likely to be found. “Those same reasons explain why there is very low probability those recently discovered remains will turn out to be related to the Nancy Guthrie case,” Bradley Bartos, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, told the network. Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller told CNN that the sheriff’s office saying that there is “no indication” that the remains are linked to Guthrie’s disappearance is very different from publicly ruling out that possibility. “The first requires an investigative judgment based on what they see, but the second requires actual scientific evidence,” he said. “Authorities understand that ruling out a connection before they are certain would only draw more criticism to a case where they have already heard their share.” The ease at which the remains can be identified, though, depends on their condition, with full sets of bones being easier to identify as male or female. DNA testing can be complicated by the fact that the remains are fragile, Dr Molly Kaplan, a post-doctoral scholar at Texas State University, told CNN. DNA testing has previously led authorities to a dead end, though, with Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos telling Fox News Digital that testing on hair found at the crime scene yielded few results. “There’s no DNA,” he said at the end of July. “But does that mean the hair isn’t that of the suspect? “We won’t know that till we have the suspect’s hair,” Nanos added.