Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has responded to accusations suggesting he withheld crucial evidence from the FBI in the case of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
“That’s not true at all,” Nanos stated, as reported by NBC Tucson affiliate KVOA on Thursday.
The two-term Democratic sheriff faced scrutiny for his collaboration with federal authorities after a Reuters report indicated that critical evidence from the high-profile case had been sent to a private DNA lab in Florida instead of the FBI’s national lab in Quantico, Virginia.
“Honestly, the FBI preferred to send one or two items from the crime scene to the nearest lab, which is just a mile or so away. I said, ‘No, that’s not logical. Let’s send everything to the place where all the DNA profiles are.’ They agreed; it made sense,” Nanos explained.
Nanos also commented on gloves discovered by FBI agents, which were initially thought to be pivotal to the investigation. However, he suggested they might not carry as much significance as previously believed, noting that several gloves were found along the road close to Savannah Guthrie’s mother’s residence in Catalina Foothills.
“We don’t know how important these gloves are,” he remarked, pointing out the quantity found.
The gloves appeared similar to those worn by a masked figure captured on video outside Nancy Guthrie’s home the night she vanished on February 1.
There were reports that federal agents preferred to manage the evidence themselves instead of handing it over to Nanos’ team.
“The FBI requested physical evidence, including gloves and DNA samples from Nancy Guthrie’s home, to be analyzed at their National Crime Laboratory. However, Nanos insisted on utilizing a private lab in Florida instead,” an anonymous law enforcement source shared.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department reportedly spent around $200,000 sending evidence from Arizona to the Florida lab.
Even though the Sheriff’s Office retains primary control over the investigation, they have the option to seek assistance from the FBI, as direct federal involvement without a request would have been legally restricted.
Following Guthrie’s disappearance, Nanos took on the role of chief spokesperson for the case, capturing national attention.
“Feel free to criticize me later, but for now, I have a job to do,” Nanos told KVOA.
Timeline of Savannah Guthrie’s Mother’s Disappearance:
Nanos claimed in a Thursday meeting that, “We don’t want the media to create divisions among us.” According to KOLD, he was upset after discovering that a senior FBI official was seen watching a University of Arizona men’s basketball game while the search for Guthrie was ongoing.
Guthrie was last seen in her Tucson home on January 31 after being dropped off by her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, and their daughter, Annie, following dinner.
On Thursday, the FBI shared new information regarding the armed individual seen on security footage outside Guthrie’s home on the morning she disappeared. They also raised the reward for information leading to her whereabouts from $50,000 to $100,000.
The unidentified suspect is estimated to be between 5 feet 9 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, of average build, and was spotted with a black 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack in the doorbell video.
Federal authorities increased the reward again, hoping to generate more leads after receiving more than 13,000 reports related to missing elderly women, stating, “We hope this updated description will help focus the public information we are receiving.”
