Nancy Guthrie Case Could Be Resolved by 'Armchair Sleuths and True Crime Fans,' Claims Private Investigator 

Former NYPD detective Herman Weisberg strongly advocates crowdsourcing, believing that true-crime fans and armchair sleuths could hold the missing piece needed to crack the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case.

He emphasizes that a single, observant citizen noticing an out-of-place vehicle or a suspicious detail could provide the crucial "7,001st tip" needed by law enforcement to break the stalemate.

“You’ve got to have a lot of patience when you’re dealing with that because you might just be on your 7,000th call and your 15th cup of coffee that day, but the 7,001st call could be the one that’s really got a piece of valuable information in this,” the private investigator told Fox News Digital. “The 7,001st call could be the one.”

Weisberg notes that modern cases, like the abduction of Elizabeth Smart, are increasingly won by online sleuths who look out their windows, notice unusual things — like a car with out-of-state plates parked too long — and alert the authorities.

“Crowdsourcing wins cases these days, you know, all the armchair sleuths and the true crime fans that are out there,” Weisberg said. “Maybe one of them is like what I always say, is the one that looks outside their window and said, ‘That’s strange, that car’s been parked out there too long. It’s got Arizona plates.’ You know, it’s a stolen car. Get the police to come.”

He previously labeled the case "extremely complex and extremely rare," pointing out that an 84-year-old grandmother being abducted from her bed by non-familial perpetrators is highly unusual.

Weisberg suspects this was a crime that "went very wrong from the beginning" and did not play out as the perpetrator intended, often leading to mistakes the public might notice.

Despite the public stalemate, he highlights that investigators — such as the FBI and local sheriffs — could be much further along with digital forensics and leads than they are publicly letting on.

Guthrie, the mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie, was abducted from her Tucson, Ariz., home on February 1.

Herman said he’s surprised that the digital forensics in the case haven’t helped solve it yet.

“Actually, I’m pretty shocked that this case didn’t come down to technology,” he said.

“A perfect example is that Kohberger case in Idaho. Technology was the case breaker for them, but anything can happen in a case like this. I think the old expression, three can keep a secret if two are dead. If this was a solo perpetrator of this crime, we lose a big advantage of somebody else being able to point the finger here,” he noted. “Whatever it is, my personal idea on this is it was a crime that went very wrong from the beginning. We didn’t have some of the advantages, some of [the] investigative opportunities there because this didn’t play out the way that the perpetrator intended it to.”

Despite that, Herman believes the investigators on the case are farther along than people think.

“They could be working on a lead right now,” he said.