In-Depth: Using past cases to help solve Guthrie Investigation

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:01]In depth tonight, investigators continue to sift through thousands of leads desperate to solve the mystery of who took 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie. It's the same process we saw in a different high-profile case here in Tucson decades ago.

[00:00:16]Now, that right there is Brian Levera.

[00:00:19]The Pima County Sheriff's Department dubbed him the Primetime Rapist. His crime spree across Tucson lasted 3 years as he broke into homes burglarizing them and sexually assaulting the women inside. Deputies believe he was responsible for nearly 30 home invasions across Tucson between 1983 and 1986.

[00:00:39]Eventually, Pima County deputies had surrounded his home, but Levera took his own life before he could be arrested.

[00:00:46]The veteran detective who broke that case says the blueprint to finding Nancy Guthrie may already be in the police files in the form of leads. News 4 Tucson's Andrew Capasso brings us a look at the chilling parallels.

[00:01:01]As we close in now on almost 4 months since anyone has seen Nancy Guthrie, one former Pima County Sheriff's detective says the answer to cracking this case is likely already in the hands of investigators. And he says the determination of those on the front lines is likely what could bring the answers this community desperately wants.

[00:01:25]Investigators in the Guthrie case comb through tens of thousands of leads. Some leads you can go through in 15 minutes.

[00:01:33]Some may take 15 days.

[00:01:35]You may have to do surveillance. You may have to do interviews. Robbie Mayer was with the Sheriff's Department and cracked the Primetime Rapist case in 1986.

[00:01:44]>> We ended up with like over 4,000 leads.

[00:01:46]He says the answer to that high-profile investigation was in there.

[00:01:49]>> One of the detectives in the task force had Brian Levera's name as a lead.

[00:01:55]But he hadn't got to it yet cuz he had so many leads up in front of that. And he says the answer to the Guthrie case may already be in their pile of leads, too. I believe the suspects' names are in those 50,000. The question is going to be if they can recognize it when they see it. Being a case like this is being in front of a field with like 100,000 rocks laying in a field, and you know what you're looking for is under one of those rocks, and you just got to keep turning over rocks until you find the one you want.

[00:02:25]It's something neighbors on edge for months say they are relying on investigators to do. Look at everything.

[00:02:31]Double and triple check. Mayor has his own theories about what happened to Nancy Guthrie. He thinks there are several people involved in taking her.

[00:02:39]He also believes an existing theft group, he says, targets wealthy or elderly people may be responsible. That group, he says, was active in Phoenix just 2 years ago.

[00:02:49]Despite all the theories former law enforcement experts have shared on the case, this one neighbor who didn't want to go on camera says that drive to find the answer can't go away. The investigators are doing what they can.

[00:03:01]We need them to keep going.

[00:03:03]Mayor says it's what solved the case decades ago and put a community at ease.

[00:03:08]And while he says the Guthrie case is different, >> This case is so unique. You can't Most of the time we try to find patterns.

[00:03:15]We can't find a pattern in this case.

[00:03:17]These guys came prepared not to leave hair or DNA or fingerprints. Look at how that guy was clothed. They turned off their cell phones. He says the team on it, both at the local and national level, has the drive they need. This is a very high-caliber law enforcement agency.

[00:03:34]And I think the FBI is going to crack this case.

[00:03:38]And now both the Sheriff's Department and the FBI continue to work this Nancy Guthrie investigation. The sheer number of tips they've got going to take some time to sift through. In the meantime, they say they still need your help and welcome any information you could have on this case.

[00:03:54]In the Catalina Foothills, I'm Andrew Capasso, News 4 Tucson.