More than three months after 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson-area home in what authorities have called an apparent kidnapping, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told People magazine that investigators believe they are narrowing in on answers, even as no arrest has been made and no suspect has been publicly identified.

The search hit its 100th day on Tuesday, May 12. One day later, Nanos offered his most forward-leaning assessment yet of where the investigation stands, pointing to ongoing DNA analysis as a reason for cautious optimism.

"Every day, our DNA labs are working with our investigators, and they're coming up with different ideas and different thoughts of how to help them make this DNA work for us," Nanos told People. "How can we do more with what we have? And so that's why I say it is, I think we're getting closer."

That phrase, "getting closer", will land differently depending on whom you ask. For a family that has posted a $1 million reward and publicly pleaded for Nancy Guthrie's return, it may offer a thread of hope. For critics who say the sheriff's department bungled the case from the start, it may sound like another vague assurance from an office already facing a recall effort.

What investigators know, and what they won't say

Nancy Guthrie was last seen January 31 at her home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood directly north of Tucson, Arizona. She is the mother of NBC "Today" show anchor Savannah Guthrie. The disappearance drew national attention almost immediately, and the case has remained in the headlines ever since.

Early in the investigation, authorities determined the crime scene did not "look right" after a preliminary evaluation, USA Today reported. The homicide division was called in. Nanos explained the reasoning in his People interview.

"The reason that homicide was called is because they are the investigative unit in charge of missing person. Search-and-rescue is their operational team that helps assist with these issues."

Blood found on Nancy Guthrie's porch was confirmed to belong to her. In February, the FBI released images showing an armed person at her front door tampering with a security camera before her disappearance. The individual wore a gun holster, ski mask, and backpack, the Associated Press reported, calling the footage the first significant break in the case.

A man was detained during a traffic stop south of Tucson after those images were released, questioned, and later let go. No arrest followed.

As we previously reported, the FBI crime lab continues to test DNA recovered from the Tucson home, and investigators have not disclosed whose DNA, beyond Nancy Guthrie's, was found at the scene.

On May 7, a human bone was discovered roughly seven miles from Nancy Guthrie's house. The Tucson Police Department quickly confirmed the bone was "prehistoric" in nature and unrelated to the case, a dead end that briefly stirred public alarm before being ruled out.

A family's public grief

Savannah Guthrie stepped back from the "Today" show in February and returned in April. On May 10, Mother's Day, she posted a tribute on Instagram that included a video compilation of family photos and clips of her mother.

"Mother, daughter, sister, Nonie, we miss you with every breath. We will never stop looking for you. We will never be at peace until we find you."

The Guthrie family has offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to Nancy Guthrie's recovery. Despite that sum, no public breakthrough has materialized.

Earlier analysis from a former FBI agent suggested that the kidnappers showed no concern for Nancy Guthrie's life and used ransom notes to torment the family. That grim assessment only deepens the urgency surrounding the sheriff's claim that progress is being made.

Sheriff Nanos under mounting political pressure

Whatever Nanos says about getting closer, his own standing has deteriorated sharply. Arizona Republican congressional candidate Daniel Butierez has launched a recall effort against the sheriff, citing what he called a pattern of mismanagement that the Nancy Guthrie case brought into sharp public view.

"He has been an embarrassment to Tucson and to Pima County with this Nancy Guthrie case... Everyone's pretty disgusted, Democrats and Republicans," Butierez told Just The News. He described the effort as bipartisan and claimed Pima County officers had issued a unanimous vote of no confidence against Nanos.

Butierez said he has roughly 120 days to gather approximately 120,000 signatures, with 500 volunteers already working the effort, the Washington Examiner reported. He called the Guthrie case "just the straw that broke the camel's back," pointing to broader leadership complaints including prior no-confidence votes and alleged resume misrepresentations.

Nanos himself has acknowledged the unfamiliar scrutiny. "I'm not used to everyone hanging onto my every word and then holding me accountable for what I say," the sheriff told the Associated Press earlier in the investigation, a remark that did little to inspire confidence among residents watching the case drag on.

One specific criticism has stuck: Nanos was faulted for reopening the crime scene at Guthrie's home early in the investigation, a decision he later said was likely a mistake. For a case built heavily on forensic evidence, including DNA from a glove found near the home that returned no match in the national CODIS database, any early misstep at the scene carries real investigative weight.

Open questions that won't go away

One hundred days into this case, the list of things the public does not know remains far longer than what it does. The armed figure captured on FBI surveillance footage has not been identified. No suspect has been named. No arrest has been made. Investigators have not disclosed what specific DNA evidence found at the home did not belong to Nancy Guthrie or those close to her.

The sheriff says his team is making progress. The DNA labs are working. New ideas are forming. But the gap between "getting closer" and an actual answer remains wide, and for an 84-year-old woman's family, every day that gap persists is a day too long.

Meanwhile, reckless media speculation has at times targeted cleared family members, compounding the family's anguish with public innuendo that investigators themselves have not supported.

Nanos may yet deliver the breakthrough he promises. But accountability does not wait for results. The people of Pima County are watching, and they are running out of patience with assurances that sound the same month after month.

A $1 million reward, FBI surveillance footage, DNA from the scene, and 100 days of searching, and still no one in handcuffs. At some point, "getting closer" has to mean getting there.