Three weeks into the search for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of TV anchor Savannah Guthrie, a key piece of physical evidence has hit a dead end.

DNA recovered from gloves found near Guthrie's Pima County home was submitted to a lab in Florida, uploaded to CODIS, the FBI's national DNA database, and came back with nothing. No match. No suspect. No closer to bringing her home.

The Pima County Sheriff's Office confirmed the result on Tuesday, adding that additional DNA recovered from the residence is still being analyzed. Guthrie was reported missing on February 1 after authorities believed she was abducted from her home during the late night or early morning hours. Surveillance footage captured a masked person near the property, described as between 5 feet 9 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall with an average build.

According to News8, the FBI is offering up to $100,000 for information leading to Guthrie's recovery or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved.

A trail that keeps going cold

Every detail that has emerged in this case raises more questions than it answers. Two ransom deadlines have passed. Ransom notes were sent to the media in the early days of the case. TMZ received four separate emails from someone offering information in exchange for money, though the identity, affiliation, and credibility of that individual remain unknown.

Meanwhile, investigators have not publicly confirmed whether the suspected kidnappers have communicated directly with the Guthrie family. That silence is conspicuous. In a case this high-profile, with a victim this vulnerable, the gap between what investigators know and what they are saying publicly may be strategic. Or it may reflect how little they have to work with.

The FBI's activity, however, suggests the investigation is broader than the public picture lets on. NewsNation reporter Brian Entin reported that FBI agents visited gun stores in the area, carrying a list of roughly 40 names and photographs, asking whether any of those individuals had recently been in the stores or purchased a weapon. Forty names is not a fishing expedition. That is a curated list, suggesting investigators have a universe of persons of interest even if they lack the evidence to name a suspect.

Family cleared, but the clock keeps ticking

On Monday, investigators publicly stated that Guthrie's family, including the spouses of family members, had been cleared in the investigation. The sheriff's office reiterated on Tuesday that no family members have been identified as suspects at this point. That language matters. In abduction cases involving elderly victims, law enforcement typically works from the inside out, clearing the closest circle first before expanding. The fact that this step has been completed and publicly announced suggests investigators are confident the threat came from outside the family.

That is both clarifying and unsettling. An abduction by a stranger or loosely connected individual is harder to solve, harder to predict, and harder to negotiate. The masked figure on surveillance footage remains unidentified. The gloves that might have carried a name through CODIS carried nothing.

The grim reality of a pacemaker search

One detail stands out for its quiet desperation. Investigators are using a device to try to detect a signal from Guthrie's pacemaker. Nancy Guthrie is 84 years old. She depends on a medical device to keep her heart beating, and the people tasked with finding her are now trying to locate that device's signal as a means of locating her.

That is where this investigation stands. Not interviewing a suspect. Not closing in on a location derived from a ransom call. Scanning for the electronic pulse of a pacemaker inside a woman who has been missing for nearly three weeks.

What comes next

The additional DNA still under analysis represents perhaps the most significant remaining forensic lead. If the gloves were left by the perpetrator, other biological evidence at the scene may corroborate or expand on what investigators already suspect. But DNA analysis takes time, and CODIS only works if the person's profile is already in the system. A negative hit does not mean the evidence is useless. It means the suspect, whoever they are, has not been cataloged.

The FBI's $100,000 reward and the gun store canvassing suggest a case that is active and resourced, even if the public-facing updates have been frustratingly thin. Anyone with information is urged to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI or the Pima County Sheriff's Department nonemergency line at 520-351-4900.

Nancy Guthrie has been missing for three weeks. Two ransom deadlines have come and gone with no resolution. The forensic evidence, so far, has pointed nowhere. Somewhere, an 84-year-old woman's pacemaker is still sending a signal. The question is whether anyone can find it in time.