As the Nancy Guthrie case hits the one-month mark, investigators and supporters of Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, Nancy’s daughter, are still scrutinizing the doorbell-camera footage showing the suspect in her disappearance.
And Tracy Walder, a former FBI agent and CIA officer, gave her take on what appears to be an antenna in the man’s pocket — and whether it’s a walkie talkie or a signal jammer or something else.
“I can’t confirm what’s in his pocket,” Walder said on Saturday’s episode of the Brian Entin Investigates podcast. “The walkie talkie makes sense in the fact that … I feel a getaway vehicle is gonna be critical in this case if there’s someone else that helped, and so that would be a way — obviously you wouldn’t want to use a cell phone — that would be a way in a short range to communicate with someone to bring a car to a certain location. That’s why I can get on board with the walkie talkie theory.”
“In terms of the signal jammer, that makes sense as well, but the home, in and of itself — I’m not seeing that he took any devices with him. So I can see the possibility of both. I don’t think we can discredit either.”
Speaking of technology in the Nancy Guthrie case, one expert recently told NBC News that digital forensics may show a trail to those responsible.
“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,” said Heather Barnhart, a digital forensics expert with the SANS Institute and Cellebrite and one of the people who investigated the University of Idaho murders.
“Your phone is the silent witness to your life. It knows everything you do,” Barnhart added. “So forming those patterns and then looking for any anomaly of someone trying to hide their digital footprint is key here.”
Nancy was reported missing from her house in the area of Tucson, Arizona, on February 1. And on Tuesday, the Guthrie family announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the 84-year-old’s recovery.
In an update on Friday, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said the case “remains an active investigation” which “will continue until Nancy Guthrie is located or all leads have been exhausted.”
