The investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie has still not made any breakthrough yet. That’s despite the fact that law enforcement began examining what exactly happened at her home in Tucson, Arizona where she was seemingly forcibly taken against her will at the start of February.
With the suspect in the case not identified and Guthrie’s friends and family still looking for answers, there is a lot of clamor from the public to understand exactly what the police know. Now, a retired detective with experience in this type of investigation has explained why law enforcement officers have not made certain evidence, such as 911 calls, available to the public.
Retired Detective Bob Gilliam Says 911 Calls Withheld to Protect the Investigation
According to Bob Gilliam, who previously worked as a detective before retiring, the investigators working on the Guthrie case will likely be holding back some evidence to protect the investigation. This includes some suspicious 911 calls that were made around the time of Guthrie’s disappearance.
Speaking on an episode of “The Interview Room” over the weekend, Gilliam explained that it is not unusual for detectives to not publicly reveal everything they know as keeping some information private can help to pinpoint suspects or provide further evidence of a crime.
âI donât think weâre going to hear the 911 calls for a while and there could be a myriad of reasons for that. Thereâs probably some investigative information in there that the detectives donât want out to the public,â Gilliam said. âSo, donât hold your breath, I think itâs going to be quite a while before we hear anything like that.â
Expert Explains How Repeated DNA Testing Could Impact Hair Evidence
One of the key pieces of evidence in the Nancy Guthrie case appears to be a hair sample that was collected in early February. This hair sample was subsequently examined by the FBI as part of advanced analysis, after it had already been tested by the Pima County Sheriff’s department at a specialist laboratory.
More recently, host Nancy Grace and expert genetic genealogist CeCe Moore discussed the problems with retesting a small sample in an episode of “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.” The host asked Moore how much testing could be done on a hair sample and what this meant for the crucial piece of evidence.
âIf it is one hair, then how can it be used over and over?â Grace asked. âI mean, how much analysis can you get out of one hair?â
According to Moore, a small piece of hair is unlikely to be able to be tested more than once or twice and that multiple testing is a “real issue” that investigators will have to deal with.
That’s because the testing method used to analyse DNA in hair often destroys the sample and makes it unsuitable for further testing. While longer hair can be tested multiple times, as it has more testable material, there is still a finite amount of testing that can be done.
âNo. And I donât believe there could have already been a lot of testing on that hair, unless itâs a very long hair,â Moore explained. âAnd so that leads me to believe that either DNA Labs International did not attempt it, or there was, you know, more hair than we know available to test because it is destroyed and you canât just keep retesting it over and over and over again.â
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