The staggering $100,000 cash reward being offered in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is worrying because it indicates investigators have very few leads to go on, a former FBI agent has claimed.
The FBI doubled its initial cash reward for information leading to a breakthrough in the case late Thursday — nearly two weeks after the 84-year-old vanished from her Tucson, Ariz., home.
“When I see the FBI is offering more money for information that tells me that the FBI doesn’t have the information,” retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer told Newsweek.
“When you see a case quiet, where there’s no big amount of money offered, that means they are running leads, they really don’t need the public’s help. They need the public’s help right now.”
Coffindaffer warned, though, that offering up such big rewards often triggered an influx of “completely bogus” tips.
“You will very seldom see these big reward amounts in comparison to the number of cases the FBI has,” Coffindaffer said. “It’s because they don’t want to get everybody coming out of the woodwork.”
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Nearly 20,000 tips have poured in since Guthrie was reported missing — including 4,000 calls after authorities released eerie surveillance images of the suspect lurking at her doorstep.
Guthrie’s neighbors have since been asked to hand over personal security footage as the frantic search stretched into its 13th day.