Disagreements between federal and local authorities have deepened in the investigation into the abduction of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie, as officials offer sharply different assessments of where she may be. FBI sources this week indicated she could be in Mexico, while the Pima County Sheriff’s Office insists its evidence points to her still being in Tucson. The divide has fueled criticism that turf battles and early investigative errors have slowed progress in the case.
Guthrie was taken from her Tucson home on Feb. 1. Since then, tension between the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has drawn scrutiny from law enforcement insiders who say the handling of the case may have hindered efforts to locate her.
“[The FBI] should have taken the case over within the first few days. We have been treating this as a kidnapping and the FBI is the premier agency to deal with kidnappings,” Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Association, told The Post earlier this week.
Despite that criticism, Sheriff Chris Nanos has retained control of the investigation. More than a week after doorbell footage surfaced showing a masked man at Guthrie’s front door, authorities remain without a clear lead on her whereabouts.
Questions have mounted about how evidence was preserved and processed in the critical early days. Critics argue the FBI was not brought in quickly enough, even though the high-profile nature of the abduction appeared to demand federal resources.
Concerns were also raised that the crime scene was released prematurely. Reporters and amateur sleuths were reportedly able to approach Guthrie’s home without visible security or crime scene tape in place.
“It looks unprofessional. It doesn’t look good for our department when we’ve had reporters walking up and essentially contaminating the scene,” Cross said.
In addition, investigators initially missed a roof-mounted camera, which was later discovered during a more thorough sweep conducted by the FBI.
“In my professional opinion, I believe they released the crime scene too early. And that was on Sheriff Nanos,” Brantner Smith, a former cop, told The NY Post .
On Wednesday, the Pima Sheriff’s Department said it is “analyzing biological evidence” recovered from Guthrie’s home and may have obtained additional DNA believed to belong to the suspect. So far, however, efforts to develop usable DNA evidence have not produced results.
A wide search in the area surrounding Guthrie’s residence led to the recovery of 17 discarded gloves. Sixteen were later determined to have been left behind by law enforcement personnel during the search.
One glove found along a roadway two miles from the home appeared similar to the black gloves seen on the man captured in Nest doorbell footage, according to authorities.
Instead of sending the glove to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, it was submitted to Florida-based DNA Labs International. That decision became another point of friction between local and federal investigators.
“Nanos has insisted instead on using a private lab in Florida,” an anonymous law enforcement source told Fox News Digital.
County officials said the private lab was selected because of its expertise in forensic genealogy, at a reported cost of about $200,000.
Colleen Fitzpatrick, who has worked with the Florida lab, explained it would generate a multitude of leads.
“If the guy’s from Morocco [for example], you’re not going to find out who he is, but you’ll know he’s from Morocco, which is an investigative lead,” Fitzpatrick told The NY Post.
Authorities later revealed that DNA from the glove did not match unknown male DNA recovered inside Guthrie’s home. Neither sample generated a match in CODIS, the FBI’s national database of DNA from convicted offenders and arrestees.
Officials also confirmed this week that all members of Guthrie’s family have been ruled out as suspects.
Meanwhile, several ransom notes have been sent to media outlets. At least two demanded payment in separate cryptocurrencies to different digital wallets.
The notes contained no proof that Guthrie is alive, and the stated deadlines have passed, leading many investigators to question their legitimacy.
Experts told The NY Post that requesting cryptocurrency payments suggests inexperience, since such transactions can often be traced.
Authorities have also indicated that tracing the email accounts used to send the messages may be difficult.
William Odom, a digital forensics expert formerly with the FBI, said sophisticated criminals avoid common platforms like Gmail or Yahoo and instead rely on “burner email” accounts.
“They’re impossible to trace back because there’s no way to tell where the source is coming from,” Odom told The Post. “It would look like different email addresses coming through every time.”
Odom noted that such disposable email services are frequently hosted on servers outside the United States, including in countries such as Montenegro and Germany.
Investigators also faced challenges retrieving video evidence. It took 10 days to obtain key footage from Guthrie’s Google Nest doorbell camera, which showed a masked, armed man—estimated to be 5’9″ to 5’10” tall, of average build, wearing gloves and carrying an Ozark Trail backpack—tampering with the device in the early morning hours of her disappearance.
The Ozark Trail backpack is sold exclusively at Walmart, and the retailer is now working with authorities to help identify potential purchasers.
The video was recovered only after FBI digital forensic specialists worked with Google. Because Guthrie did not subscribe to a cloud storage plan, the footage would have been overwritten if the suspect had not damaged the device.
Other Nest cameras in the home did overwrite their recordings. Experts told The NY Post that additional footage might still be retrievable, but investigators must sift through vast amounts of stored data.
“It’s the equivalent of a digital landfill at that point, so they’ve got to dig through that. It’s not necessarily that they will find where all of this [data] is. It’s going to take time to figure it out,” Odom said.
Operational setbacks have also come under scrutiny. The sheriff’s aviation unit was not immediately deployed because of staffing shortages, leaving large areas unsearched during the crucial first hours.
Authorities are now employing advanced technology in the search. Helicopters are flying low and slow grid patterns over the Tucson desert using a Bluetooth detection device known as a “signal sniffer,” attempting to locate Guthrie’s pacemaker. The device stopped communicating with her iPhone at 2:28 a.m. on Feb. 1.
The FBI technology can potentially detect a signal from the heart device, but the helicopter must be within roughly 800 feet to pick it up. The device’s inventor told CBS News it would continue to function even if she is deceased.
President Trump criticized the approach during remarks to reporters.
“I didn’t like when they talked about going after the pacemaker before they even started going after it,” he told reporters Thursday.
No charges have been filed in connection with the case. On Feb. 13, authorities detained 37-year-old felon Luke Daley and his 77-year-old mother after FBI agents and a SWAT team raided their home two miles from Guthrie’s residence. Daley was later cleared and released.
Carlos Palazuelos was also briefly taken into custody on Feb. 11 after being stopped while driving toward the U.S. border. The delivery driver was released shortly afterward.
Investigators have not publicly identified a clear motive. Officials have ruled out a burglary that went wrong. Sheriff Nanos has suggested Guthrie may have been taken as “revenge for something,” but provided no further detail.
Online speculation has linked the abduction to Mexican drug cartels, pointing to Tucson’s proximity to the border and a potential financial motive.
Unnamed sources told TMZ that the FBI had communicated with Mexican authorities, though Leon Boyer, a Border Patrol officer and expert on Mexican security, cast doubt on cartel involvement.
“[Cartels] are going to target people in Mexico. They’re not targeting people in the US. Why would they bring attention to themselves?” he questioned, adding that cartel kidnapping schemes typically revolve around local extortion or business disputes.
Authorities have withheld certain information, citing investigative concerns. An Arizona gun store owner said the FBI recently approached him with photographs of roughly 18 to 24 individuals, asking whether he had sold any of them firearms. He said he cooperated out of concern for Guthrie’s family.
Sheriff Nanos, however, denied reports that investigators had narrowed the suspect pool.
“We haven’t narrowed it down to anything other than we have pieces of evidence,” he said on Tuesday.
A reward for information leading to Guthrie’s safe return has climbed to $202,000.
{Matzav.com}
