Nancy Guthrie Update Today: Experts Explain How the Case May Be Solved
An expert who worked on the infamous Idaho murders case has explained how digital technology could unearth new clues in the mysterious disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.
“People forget how much their data spreads across devices. So the same thing that makes investigations hard make it hard for criminals to clean up,” Heather Barnhart, a digital forensics expert with the SANS Institute and Cellebrite, told NBC News.
Authorities are pursuing other avenues, of course. For example, the growing field of genetic genealogy could help trace the DNA found at the crime scene, other experts say. And authorities and the Guthrie family are hoping that a $1 million reward could generate tips from human sources. Guthrie disappeared from her home in the early morning hours of February 1. Since that time, news outlets have fielded ransom notes, and authorities released a series of chilling photos of a suspect, but there has been no sign of Nancy Guthrie.
Experts Believe That Phone Evidence & AI Could Help Solve the Case
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Barnhart told NBC News that photo evidence is often crucial in such cases. “Your phone is the silent witness to your life. It knows everything you do,” Barnhart told NBC News. “So forming those patterns and then looking for any anomaly of someone trying to hide their digital footprint is key here.”
Barnhart told Fox News that "cell tower data, Wi-Fi logs and other digital breadcrumbs" could be crucial. "The loudest evidence can be the lack of evidence," she shared with Fox News Digital, which noted that she analyzed the phone and computer of Idaho killer Bryan Kohberger.
"Kohberger literally created bookends around the crime by turning off his device," she said to Fox News. "So in addition to all the clearing and other things that he prepped for to erase his digital footprint, the fact that right before the murder, his phone was turned off, and then within like 40 minutes or so after it was turned back on, kind of gave us that tunnel to look down here."
In the case of Guthrie, however, authorities have not identified a suspect.
Chris Burbank, a former Utah police chief, told NBC News that AI might also be helpful in this case. It could be used to track leads on social media, he told the network, because “most of the time, people involved in this leave some sort of social media trail.”
Genetic Genealogy Is Being Explored in the Nancy Guthrie Case
Authorities have recovered DNA from Guthrie's home and an abandoned glove. According to CBS News, they are exploring whether genetic genealogy could help them crack the case.
That's a technique that was used to apprehend the "Golden State Killer" as well as other murderers throughout the country. Authorities put DNA samples into open-source genealogy databases. They then obtain a comparison to even a distant relative, which gives them the family tree of the suspect, minimally. Authorities use shoe-leather investigative techniques to rule people in the family tree out as possible suspects before obtaining DNA from those who remain through warrants or abandoned DNA.
"If this perpetrator has a relative that is a convicted offender in the database, you build a family tree around it," former deputy chief with the New York Police Department, Emanuel Katranakis, said to CBS News. He also said, "You're throwing a wide net, you're looking for cousins."
In the Guthrie case, though, according to CBS News, "There's concern that the DNA found at the home may not yield a usable profile for comparison in databases."