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For eight months, Patty Morin worried her daughter’s killer might never be caught — then a detective pulled her aside and said something that changed her perspective.
Two months later, Victor Martinez-Hernandez was in custody.
Now, 16 weeks into the Nancy Guthrie investigation, Morin has the same message for another family facing agonizing uncertainty.
“Four months and they have nothing — they have nothing that they’ve shared with us,” said Morin, the mom of Maryland mother of five Rachel Morin. “It doesn’t mean that they don’t have anything, especially if they’re working with multiple agencies.”
NANCY GUTHRIE CASE: SHERIFF NANOS SAYS ‘WE ARE’ CLOSER TO SOLVING 84-YEAR-OLD’S ABDUCTION
A photograph of Nancy Guthrie is displayed on a sign where people can leave messages in Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 26, 2026. Law enforcement officials continue to search for Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of journalist and television host Savannah Guthrie, after she went missing from her home on Feb. 1. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Her 37-year-old daughter was killed on a Maryland running trail by a man who fled his native country of El Salvador while suspected of killing another woman.
He went on to allegedly rape another mother and her 9-year-old daughter in a California home invasion, leaving a DNA trail. Police ultimately captured him at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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Rachel Morin was dragged off a hiking trail and murdered on Aug. 5, 2023. (Family Handout)
Monday marked four months since Guthrie’s unsolved abduction. She is the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, and there have been no publicly identified suspects.
MULTIPLE SUSPECTS ARE POSSIBLE IN NANCY GUTHRIE’S ABDUCTION
For Morin, two months before police announced a suspect and an arrest, she said the lead detective quietly inspired confidence when he pulled her aside.
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Speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Patty Morin holds a picture of her daughter, Rachel, who was killed by an illegal immigrant in Maryland in 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)
“By the time it was eight months, we had people saying it was a cold case, and I had networks and associations that wanted to do documentaries on this cold case and give her all that kind of stuff,” she said. “And for him to just say, ‘I understand how you’re feeling, but just have hope. Don’t let your emotions get carried away with you’ — it was really encouraging.”
From that moment, she said, when she didn’t have the answers she wanted, she repeated the line to herself.
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Two photos of the suspect captured on Nancy Guthrie’s porch were taken on different days, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital. (FBI)
“I just need to trust the process and have hope, and lucky for our family, we have an amazing sheriff’s department,” she said. “Everyone that worked on the case, it was multiple agencies, they treated our family like we were their family.”
Now, she’s offering that same advice to the Guthrie family.
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“Just have hope,” she said. “I mean, the process is long. It takes, sometimes it takes up to a year to have DNA returned back to you.“
PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF WARNS IN NBC INTERVIEW DNA TECH ISSUES IN NANCY GUTHRIE CASE MAY TAKE ‘MONTHS’ TO RESOLVE
Investigators are working on at least two DNA samples connected to the Guthrie case, although it’s unclear whether either will lead them to a suspect. There is a mixed sample, which Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said is complicated to untangle, as well as a hair sample that was transferred from a private lab in Florida to the FBI last month.
Law enforcement and news broadcasters are stationed outside Nancy Guthrie’s residence in Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 10, 2026, as searches continue for the 84-year-old mother of journalist Savannah Guthrie. Possible abductors set a ransom deadline of 5 p.m. on Feb. 9 for a $6 million payment after she went missing on Feb. 1. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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Separately, sources with knowledge of the investigation told Fox News Digital last week that the FBI is working on bringing new technology into the investigation, which has already seen the use of a state-of-the-art Bluetooth signal detector and the groundbreaking recovery of surveillance video from a missing Nest doorbell camera.
There is a combined reward of over $1.2 million for information that cracks the case.
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Anyone with information is asked to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI. Anonymous tips can be called into Tucson’s 88-Crime hotline at 1-520-882-7463.
“I would say no tip, nothing is too small to share and you never know if that’s the little linchpin that holds all the stuff together,” Morin told Fox News Digital.