The Nancy Guthrie case has brought back chilling memories of another high profile case in Tucson. From 1983 to 1986, Brian Larriva, a man the Pima County Sheriff’s Department dubbed The Prime Time Rapist, targeted women across Tucson, burglarizing their homes and sexually assaulting them.
Larriva targeted more than 90 victims, and over 30 home invasions were reported, per KVOA. Some of these homes are in Nancy’s neighborhood near Campbell and Skyline.
When police surrounded Larriva’s house, he took his own life. Much like in the Larriva case, investigators reportedly have tens of thousands of leads in Nancy’s case.
Robbie Mayer, a former detective with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department who solved the infamous Prime Time Rapist case in 1986, recently opened up about the Guthrie case, as reported by News 4 Tucson.
“We ended up with more than 4,000 leads,” Mayer recalled of the Prime Time Rapist. “One of the detectives had Larriva’s name as a lead, but he hadn’t gotten to it yet because he had so many leads in front of that.”
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He said of Nancy’s case, “I believe the suspect’s names are in those 50,000. The question is if they can recognize it when they see it. Being in a case like this is like being in a field with rocks and what you’re looking for is under one rock. You just have to keep turning.”
Mayer called Nancy’s case “unique.”
“Most of the time we try and find patterns. We can’t in this case,” he said. “These guys came prepared not to leave hair or DNA. Look at how that guy was clothed. They turned off their cell phones.”
He added that this is a “high-caliber investigation,” and said he believes that the FBI will eventually solve the case.
Here’s the latest
No suspects have been identified even months after Nancy’s disappearance. Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has reportedly said while providing a DNA analysis on the case that information on whose blood was found on the missing woman’s property could soon be revealed. Nanos told People that the Forensics Department, particularly those working on the DNA analysis, are getting closer to identifying whose blood was found.
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Nanos also pushed back on claims that the Guthrie case has become a “cold case.” He suggested that it could only become a cold case after the labs tell them that they could not ID the blood evidence.
