A local sheriff is impeding FBI access to key evidence in the Nancy Guthrie abduction probe, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case has said. Guthrie, the mother of TV journalist Savannah Guthrie, went missing on February 1 from her residence in Arizona’s Catalina Foothills.
The official says the FBI asked Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos for physical evidence, including a glove and DNA from the home, to be processed at the FBI’s national crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. However, Nanos has instead insisted on using a private Florida lab, effectively denying the FBI access to crucial evidence, the official said.
A spokesperson for the sheriff did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. In a press update released earlier in the day, the sheriff’s department said investigators had “recovered several items of evidence, including gloves,” adding that all viable evidence is submitted for analysis.
The Pima County sheriff has primary jurisdiction over the case and FBI assistance must be officially requested by the county, otherwise the FBI is legally precluded from taking part in the investigation. The official said that the county has spent some $200,000 so far to send evidence in the Guthrie case to the Florida lab. “It risks further slowing a case that grows more urgent by the minute,” the official said, citing unspecified “earlier setbacks” in the investigation.
The official also criticized the sheriff for not seeking FBI assistance in the investigation sooner. “It’s clear the fastest path to answers is leveraging federal resources and technology. Anything less only prolongs the Guthrie family’s grief and the community’s wait for justice,” the official said.
