Authorities trying to solve the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie say they might tap DNA genealogy databases, the same step that police took to unravel a decades-old series of murders in California and the fatal stabbings of four college students in Idaho.
The strategy could be fruitful: If unidentified DNA evidence can be connected to someone — even a distant relative — in a common genealogy database, it would give investigators more information and possibly lead to a suspect in Guthrie’s kidnapping in Arizona.
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A member of the Pima County sheriffs office remains outside of Nancy Guthrie's home, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Jeff Robb, a Seattle resident wintering in Tucson, signs a banner supporting Nancy Guthrie in Tucson Ariz., on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
People hang yellow ribbons in their neighborhood around Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
A Pima County sheriffs official stays outside of Nancy Guthrie‘s home on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty O'Neil)
“It’s a fantastic tool,” said Ruth Ballard, a geneticist in California who specializes in DNA and has testified in hundreds of court cases. “If it’s a good quality sample and they’re able to get a profile, they could find a hit on that fairly quickly.”
The sheriff's department in Pima County, Arizona, said DNA collected so far in the investigation has not turned up any matches in a national criminal justice database known as CODIS, which has DNA profiles from convicted criminals and, in some states, people arrested for certain crimes.
“Investigators are currently looking into additional investigative genetic genealogy options for DNA evidence to check for matches. CODIS is one option of many databases that are available,” the sheriff's department said Tuesday.
The department said Wednesday that biological evidence from Guthrie's Tucson-area home was being examined and that DNA profiles were at a lab for analysis.
Guthrie, the mother of NBC “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, has been missing from her home since Feb. 1. The FBI said gloves found about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away appeared to match those worn by a masked suspect who was recorded on a porch camera.
Genealogy sites Ancestry, 23andMe and MyHeritage say they can be asked to comply with court orders seeking information. Another site, GEDmatch, said its policy is to ask users if they want to opt in to allow police to look at their data. The Associated Press e-mailed the companies, asking if they have a role in the Guthrie investigation.
GEDmatch has been credited with helping solve the case of the so-called Golden State Killer. Police used DNA from crime scenes to find a distant relative and build a family tree that led to Joseph DeAngelo Jr. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to 13 killings and dozens of rapes in California in the 1970s and '80s. He is serving life in prison without possibility of parole.
Barbara Rae-Venter, an expert genealogist who worked on the DeAngelo case, said patience often is needed in high-tech sleuthing.
“I’ve solved cases in less than eight hours where people shared a lot of DNA with the suspect. Other cases, you’re still working on them two years later. This could take awhile,” Rae-Venter told CNN, referring to the Guthrie effort.
In Idaho, DNA from a knife sheath helped point to Bryan Kohberger in the killings of four University of Idaho students in 2022. Investigators used genealogy sites to build a family tree and pulled trash from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger's parents to make a connection. Kohberger pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
Ballard said the source and quality of the DNA evidence held by police can be factors when trying to find matches on genealogy sites.
“It does require a much better sample than CODIS searching does,” she said.
And there can be other hurdles.
“There are a lot of unknowns when you go into these databases,” Ballard said. “The databases are not equal in terms of ethnic distribution. It’s comparatively easier to find a Caucasian because more have uploaded their data and there are more family trees to mine.”
A member of the Pima County sheriffs office remains outside of Nancy Guthrie's home, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Jeff Robb, a Seattle resident wintering in Tucson, signs a banner supporting Nancy Guthrie in Tucson Ariz., on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
People hang yellow ribbons in their neighborhood around Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
A Pima County sheriffs official stays outside of Nancy Guthrie‘s home on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty O'Neil)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A general strike in protest against Argentine President Javier Milei’s flagship overhaul of the South American nation's labor law disrupted public transport, hospitals, ports and schools across Argentina on Thursday. The nationwide strike intensifies a standoff between the libertarian leader and long-powerful workers' unions as the bill faces an uncertain passage through Congress.
Most bus lines and subways ground to a halt, factories paused production, banks closed, airlines canceled hundreds of flights and public hospitals postponed all but emergency surgeries. Uncollected garbage lined streets and shopping areas.
One week after Argentina’s Senate gave initial approval to the labor reform bill in a 42-30 general vote, the lower house began debating it Thursday.
The show of force from the General Confederation of Labor, or CGT, Argentina’s largest trade union group, comes as frustration simmers over an uneven economic recovery under Milei. His government has brought fiscal stability to a nation once plagued by runaway inflation but struggled to address stubborn unemployment, stagnant wages and lagging growth.
Milei considers the reform of Argentina's half-century-old labor laws crucial to his efforts to lure foreign investment, increase productivity and boost job creation in a country where about two in five workers are employed off the books.
Unions argue the law will weaken long-standing protections for workers, including by reducing traditionally high severance pay, curbing the right to strike, making it easier for companies to dismiss employees and extending the legal working day to 12 hours from the current eight.
“Members of Congress, hear this message: Voting against working people does not come without consequences,” CGT wrote on social media alongside photos showing Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires deserted because of the strike. “Jobs are not up for negotiation; hard-won gains are not raffle prizes to be given away.”
Fierce union backlash has derailed previous government attempts at shaking up Argentina’s archaic labor code, widely seen as among the most costly to companies in Latin America.
The fate of the labor reform marks the first big test of Milei’s political strength since his upstart libertarian party, La Libertad Avanza, won Argentina’s midterm elections last year — with backing from key ally U.S. President Donald Trump. In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Treasury offered Milei a $20 billion lifeline ahead of the midterms to shore up market confidence in Milei and boost his electoral prospects.
Milei, who was in Washington Thursday for the inaugural meeting of Trump’s Board of Peace initiative, seemed unconcerned with the unrest back home. He looked ebullient as Trump called him out in front of the crowd, saying, “I endorsed him. I'm not supposed to be endorsing people, but when I like people ... I endorse foreign leaders.”
Even if the labor overhaul clears the lower house after Thursday’s debate, it must be sent back to the Senate next week for a final vote before becoming law.
That’s because a clause added at the last minute, which halves salaries for workers on leave due to injury or illness unrelated to work, generated outrage among opposition lawmakers and forced the government to make an amendment to the version of the bill that passed the Senate last week.
Roughly 40% Argentina’s 13 million registered workers belong to labor unions, according to union estimates, and many are closely allied with the social justice-driven populist movement known as Peronism that led the country’s previous government and dominated the political scene for decades.
CGT decided not to organize a mass demonstration, and Buenos Aires was mostly calm throughout the afternoon.
But smaller, more radical unions marched toward Congress as the debate on the bill got underway, beating drums and carrying giant banners emblazoned with popular symbols like the face of Eva Perón, the venerated wife of Peronist movement founder Juan Domingo Perón.
Most shops and offices remained open across the city but traffic was light as plenty of workers who did not strike stayed home because of the breakdowns in transportation — something that Milei’s chief of staff and government spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, denounced as “pretty perverse.”
“In the end, if they cut off your transportation, no matter how much you want to go to work, you can’t do it,” he told a local streaming channel. “So there’s nothing more extortionate and nothing more against freedom and democracy than what the unions are doing.”
Travelers look at an information board listing canceled flights during a union strike against President Javier Milei’s proposed labor reform bill in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
People sleep near the closed entrances of Constitucion railway station during a union strike against a proposed labor reform bill in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
A customer waits to be attended at a greengrocer's stall in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
People wait inside the Constitucion railway station that is empty due to a union strike against a proposed labor reform bill in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Workers protest after tire maker Fate announced it would shut down operations at its factory in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A woman sits at a bus stop during a union strike against a proposed labor reform bill in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
