Nancy Guthrie Case: Mystery widens as lab behind Gilgo Beach serial killer’s conviction now linked to probe; details inside

Nancy Guthrie Abduction Case: The long going investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC’s ‘Today’ show host Savannah Guthrie, has now brought the limelight to a Forensics lab located in San Francisco. Notably, the lab Astrea Forensics played an instrumental role in cracking the Long Island serial killer case and is now believed to be involved in the search for answers into the alleged abduction of Nancy in Tucson, Arizona.

The Gilgo Beach serial killings, a series of murders that spanned from the early 1990s through about 2010, have reached a pivotal moment as the accused killer, Rex Heuermann, pleaded guilty earlier this month.

Heuermann admitted to killing eight women between 1993 and 2010, bringing a significant development in a case that has long gripped Long Island and the nation. The plea follows a failed defense effort to counter groundbreaking DNA evidence, including analysis derived from rootless hair samples, which ultimately strengthened the prosecution’s case.


"I am pretty confident that they will want to use the lab that they have been extremely successful with, which is Astrea," said CeCe Moore, one of the nation's leading genetic genealogists at Parabon Nanolabs in Virginia, as quoted by FOX News.

"DLI has been working to refine their own rootless hair analysis, but I haven't seen any successful cases from them yet." She was referring to DNA Labs International, the Florida lab that the Pima County Sheriff's Department initially sent the samples to in the days following Nancy’s alleged abduction.

Now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has taken custody of the materials, Astrea Forensics could be among the specialized private labs under consideration to assist in the case. The lab previously developed a DNA profile from rootless hair evidence in the Gilgo Beach serial killer case, and CeCe Moore said she has personally been involved in six successful cases in which Astrea conducted similar work.

"The FBI used them for the Gilgo case," she told Fox News Digital. "So they have a lot of confidence in Astrea." An FBI official told Fox News Digital on Thursday that among the evidence recovered from inside Nancy’s home is a hair sample that had initially been sent to a private lab in Florida by the Pima County Sheriff's Department in the days following her suspected kidnapping.

"If there’s a chance they can solve Nancy’s case through this lab, I believe without question it should be sent there," said Allison Winter, a social worker and psychotherapist who has been working with the Heuermann family. More than 11 weeks on without answers, the sample has now been transferred to the FBI for more advanced testing. "Sending it to Astrea, where there is a proven track record, is by far the safest option," Moore told Fox News Digital.

Nancy Guthrie vanished from her home in Tucson on January 31, 2026, and was reported missing by her family the following day, February 1, 2026. Despite an intensive investigation into her disappearance and the announcement of rewards by the federal probe agency and her family for information about her whereabouts, no suspect has been arrested so far.