Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is forcefully denying claims that he is blocking the FBI from critical evidence in the high-profile disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie.
The sheriff told Tucson’s KVOA that accusations he is restricting federal access to key items are “not even close to the truth.”
The dispute centers on forensic evidence recovered from Guthrie’s Tucson home, where investigators have said she was likely taken against her will in the early morning hours of Feb. 1. Blood drops matching her DNA were found near the front entrance. Surveillance data showed her doorbell camera disconnecting at 1:47 a.m., motion detected shortly after, and her pacemaker app losing connection around 2:28 a.m. Her cellphone, Apple Watch and life-sustaining medication were left behind.
A federal law enforcement source previously told Fox News Digital that the FBI had requested access to specific items, including a glove and DNA evidence collected inside the home, so they could be processed at the bureau’s national crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. The matter was first reported by Reuters.
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According to the source, Nanos instead pushed to have the evidence analyzed by a private forensic lab in Florida that has worked with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department for years.
Nanos rejected the suggestion that he was sidelining federal authorities. He told KVOA that the Florida lab is already analyzing DNA profiles from the crime scene and that coordination with the FBI is ongoing.
“Actually the FBI just wanted to send the one or two they found by the crime scene, closest to it – mile, mile and a half . . . I said ‘No, why do that? Let’s just send them all to where all the DNA exist, all the profiles and the markers exist.’ They agreed, makes sense,” Nanos told KVOA.
The sheriff added that discussions were held Thursday morning about potentially sending gloves to the FBI lab as well.
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The friction comes as scrutiny of the investigation intensifies. Earlier in the case, critics questioned why the department’s high-tech Cessna aircraft, equipped with thermal imaging, was not deployed until hours after Guthrie was reported missing. Others have raised concerns about repeated entries and exits from the home, arguing that releasing the scene between searches could complicate chain-of-custody issues in a future prosecution.
Federal agents have taken an increasingly visible role in recent days. The FBI recovered previously inaccessible doorbell footage from backend systems, releasing images of a masked, armed individual appearing to tamper with the front camera the morning Guthrie vanished. The bureau has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to her recovery.
Investigators have also executed search warrants at properties south of Tucson, detained and later released a man without charges, and analyzed a Bitcoin wallet linked to unverified ransom notes demanding millions. No proof of life has been publicly confirmed.
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have issued multiple video pleas to the suspected abductors, at one point stating, “We received your message and we understand,” and later saying, “We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her.”
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More than 100 investigators across agencies are said to be working the case. Nanos has maintained that cooperation with federal partners remains intact despite reports to the contrary.
With nearly two weeks passed since Guthrie’s disappearance, and no arrests made, the question of where key forensic evidence is tested has now become another flashpoint in an already tense and nationally watched investigation.
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