US television journalist Savannah Guthrie, whose mother Nancy has been missing for over two weeks, has renewed her plea for help to find her mother, saying her family "still have hope" she is alive.
In a video posted online yesterday, Ms Guthrie again pleaded for her mother's return and appealed for the public’s help in solving the case.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on 31 January when family dropped her off at her home near Tucson, Arizona, after she had dined with them, and relatives reported her missing the following day, authorities have said.
Investigators have obtained a DNA sample from a glove that was found near Nancy’s home and appears to match the pair worn by a masked prowler seen in doorbell camera footage before she was abducted two weeks ago, the FBI said.
"It's been two weeks since our mom was taken and, I just wanted to come on and say that, we still have hope and we still believe," Ms Guthrie said.
"And I wanted to say, to whoever has her, or knows where she is, it's never too late, and you're not lost, or alone, and it is never too late to do the right thing.
Watch: FBI releases footage of masked man at front door of missing TV anchor's mother
"We are here, and we believe, and we believe in the essential goodness of every human being. And it's never too late."
DNA results from the glove could potentially lead to what forensic experts call a "hit" as early as today, after they conduct a national database search on the DNA specimen, the FBI indicated in a statement.
The preliminary findings from a private crime laboratory in Florida were received by the FBI on Saturday and were awaiting "quality control and official confirmation" yesterday before the results are submitted for comparison with known DNA profiles taken from individuals and crime scenes and stored in the national database, the FBI said.
The process of running a specimen through CODIS - short for the Combined DNA Index System - typically takes 24 hours from when the FBI receives a DNA sample.
The glove is one of roughly 16 collected by investigators in recent days in a roadside field about 3km from the Tucson-area residence of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie.
Most of the gloves recovered by investigators turned out to have been dropped on the ground by searchers in the vicinity, the FBI said.
But the one submitted for DNA analysis is "different and appears to match the gloves" worn by the man in a ski mask seen trying to disable Ms Guthrie's door camera in the early morning hours shortly before she was abducted, according to the FBI statement.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said on Friday he was certain the person in the video, who was also wearing a gun in a holster and an over-stuffed backpack, was the primary suspect investigators were looking for to solve the high-profile case.
Mr Nanos has said the elder Guthrie was extremely limited in her physical mobility and could not have left her home unassisted, leading investigators to conclude early on that she had been taken against her will.
At least two purported ransom notes have surfaced since she vanished, both of them delivered initially to news media outlets. But there has been no known direct contact between Ms Guthrie's presumed captors and her family, or with authorities.
Traces of blood found on her front porch were confirmed by DNA tests to have come from Ms Guthrie, officials said last week.
Law enforcement and family members have described her as being in frail health and in need of daily medication to survive. She also had a pacemaker.
The sheriff said on Friday that DNA not from Nancy Guthrie or anyone close to her had also been collected from her property, but there has been no official word on any lab findings from those samples.
Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor of the popular NBC News morning show "Today," has posted several video messages, along with her brother Camron Guthrie and sister Annie Guthrie, pleading for their mother's return and appealing for the public's help in solving the case.
In one video, they expressed a willingness to meet ransom demands.
Mr Nanos told Reuters on Friday no proof of life had surfaced since the abduction but added: "There's not been any proof of death either."
Acting on a federal court-ordered warrant in connection with the Guthrie case on Friday night, sheriff's deputies and FBI agents searched another house in an affluent area less than 3km from her home, authorities confirmed over the weekend.
