Unanswered questions as search for Nancy Guthrie enters a new month

It's been more than a month since the mysterious disappearance of Nancy Guthrie captivated the nation, and yet, more questions than answers remain.

In a case that feels ripped from a true-crime novel, the 84-year-old mother of US television presenter Savannah Guthrie is believed to have been "taken in the dark of night from her bed," her daughter said, after last being seen on 31 January.

The shocking disappearance of the religious mother-of-three has turned her small suburb in Tucson, Arizona into a media circus and prompted more than 3,000 tips to police, tearful pleas from her famous daughter, cryptic ransom notes, Bitcoin demands and widespread speculation from online sleuths.

But each potential break in the case - including photos of the suspected kidnapper and DNA testing of gloves found near the scene - seems to lead to a dead end, with no arrests or even a named suspect.

Officials said early on that drops of the matriarch's blood were on the doorstep of her home and believe her suspected captor - a masked, glove-wearing man - took the front-door-camera that revealed his brief appearance. But those twists and turns have slowed to a trickle, with few recent big developments.

Meanwhile, headlines have moved onto other subjects, including the war with Iran and the continued fallout from files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"If there's nothing to report, nobody's going to watch after a while," content creator Melinda Long, a health and wellness influencer from Long Island, New York, told the BBC.

Long, who has joined so-called "mom detectives" who post videos on social media about true-crime cases, has been invested in the disappearance because her own mother is close to Nancy Guthrie's age. But now, even she is feeling like "hope is starting to fade" with the lack of developments.

Experts familiar with forensic investigations say that the early days of a case are crucial, and the longer she remains missing, the lower the chances are of finding her alive, especially given the 84-year-old's health problems.

"It's not that interest is waning so much as it is hope is waning," forensic analyst Joseph Scott Morgan told the BBC.

But all is not lost, he said.

He explained that even with the lack of updates, law enforcement is still working the case and following tips that could lead to answers. A month, from an investigative standpoint, is not a long time, Morgan added, noting that he doesn't think "this is anywhere close to a cold case".

"It just seems like a long time to those that are not on the inside, that are not working the case and don't have access to the data," Morgan, who teaches forensics at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, added.

Investigators will come forward with the information they have in their own timing, he noted. "Not the timing of the press," he said, "and certainly not the average citizen's timeline."

Guthrie's daughter, Savannah, a longtime presenter who has covered multiple presidents and is a regular on TV screens for the Olympic Games and annual Thanksgiving parade in New York, seems to be resigning to the possibility that her mother may not be alive.

On 24 February, when the family upped their reward for the matriarch's return, the TV host said that they "also know that she may be lost, she may already be gone".

A spokesperson for the Today show announced on Thursday that Savannah Guthrie will soon return to her post leading the morning news programme as the search for her missing mother continues.

Meanwhile, the investigation goes on.

Law enforcement continues to come and go from the neighbourhood. On Thursday, FBI agents went door-to-door chatting with residents.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department has dedicated a team from their homicide unit to work with the FBI on the case, Sheriff Chris Nanos told NBC News this week - the national broadcaster that Savannah Guthrie fronts.

Nanos and his team have maintained that they are operating under the belief that Guthrie is still alive. They are pursuing thousands of leads, he said, adding that he thinks "investigators are definitely closer" to bringing the case to a close.

He added that he thinks authorities have information that could eventually lead to solving the case but the details, if shared with the public, could hinder the investigative work.

"There's so much that everybody wants to know, but I would be very neglectful, irresponsible as a police, law enforcement leader, to share that with everybody," he told NBC News.

The Guthrie family has publicly pleaded with the alleged abductor to return their mother, and has offered money as they seek proof of life and any information about her whereabouts.

The family has also offered a $1m reward for information in the case in addition to the $100,000 (£75,000) reward offered by FBI.

Just over a week into the search, when the FBI released footage of the suspected kidnapper, it seemed that the suspect's capture was imminent.

But so far, the leads seem to have led nowhere.

The two short videos were distributed across the globe. They showed the masked individual - whose eyes were clearly visible - approach the front door of Nancy Guthrie's home, then check the camera before moving away, picking up some vegetation from the ground and using it to cover the camera lens.

After the footage went public, a deliveryman was detained for questioning. But shortly after, he was released after being cleared by authorities.

A California man was also arrested on suspicion of sending fake ransom notes that further complicated the case. He is now facing federal charges but does not seem to be involved in Nancy Guthrie's disappearance.

Earlier this week, the Pima County Sheriff's Department announced that black gloves found about two miles (3.2km) from Nancy Guthrie's home were traced through DNA to a local restaurant employee - a person who also was not suspected in the investigation.

Sheriff Nanos has said that people have the right to question the quality of his investigation and can criticise him all they want.

"But I would tell them this, they haven't a clue what this investigation has entailed," he told the Tucson Sentinel newspaper this week. "They don't know all the efforts we put into it."

The BBC has reached out to the sheriff's office for further comment.

Authorities continue to do lab analysis on other DNA evidence.

But for those who have closely followed the case, it feels like the road is still long and they are hoping for a break that might provide answers to the Guthrie family.

"Nothing's come of it. It's kind of leaving this hopeless feeling, where you almost just think you're gonna check every day and never see anything," Long, the content creator, said. "I really don't think we're ever gonna see anything. So it's transferred from that obsession to like a hopelessness."

"There's a feeling of exhaustion with it now. Everybody that was consumed with it is feeling the exhaustion and feeling a little bit let down."