Nancy Guthrie had been missing less than three days when family members and reporters, and even an Amazon delivery worker, could be seen wandering onto her property, with drops of her blood still staining the front entryway.
It’s been nearly two weeks since the 84-year-old mother of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie was abducted. With no suspects in custody as of Saturday, scrutiny is growing over how authorities have handled the case.
Some questions have focused on Pima County (Ariz.) Sheriff Chris Nanos and his department, which was the first to respond when Guthrie was reported missing from her Tucson home Feb. 1. Since then, Nanos has been the leading law enforcement communicator on the investigation, including after reports emerged of ransom notes demanding millions of dollars in cryptocurrency for Guthrie’s return.
The global spotlight is now on him.
“I’m not used to everyone hanging on to my every word and then holding me accountable for what I say,” Nanos said at a press conference early in the probe. “This is really, for me, pretty new.”
Critics pointed out his department opened up the crime scene a day after Guthrie was reported missing and sent vital evidence across the country to be analyzed for free, and the sheriff was seen at a weekend college basketball game while a ransom deadline still hung over the family.
President Trump has even weighed in on the issue.
“It was a local case originally, and they didn’t want to let go of it, which is fine,” President Trump said when asked about the case at the White House on Friday. “It’s up to them, it’s really up to the community, but ultimately where the FBI got involved, I think, you know, progress has been made.”
Guthrie was discovered missing after she didn’t show up at a friend’s house to watch a church service. She was taken from her home without any of her heart medication, and it’s unclear how long she can survive without it.
Though she initially was considered missing, the urgency to quickly find Guthrie pulsed through the first days of media coverage because of her heart condition. So it came as a surprise to some observers that just a day after she’d been reported missing, Nanos declared the crime scene clear and released the home back to the family.
Forensic workers had processed the ranch-style home for evidence, including DNA and fingerprints, but could not recover images from a Ring camera because the family did not pay for a subscription to back up the recordings, Nanos said.
Afterward, as the home stood unguarded, reporters, photographers and others wandered the property, walking to the front door and capturing video of blood drops along the porch.
The crime scene eventually was closed again so the FBI could conduct its own search, and Nanos told reporters opening the scene up the first time may have been premature.
“Monday morning quarterback. Absolutely. I probably could have held off on that,” Nanos said at a news conference, with top FBI agents flanking him.
Sheriff‘s deputies eventually were stationed outside home, but even so, a pizza delivery driver walked food that had been ordered for someone in the neighborhood up to the door of the Guthrie home. On Friday, a company showed up to service Guthrie’s backyard pool, which was accommodated at the “request of the Guthrie family,” the sheriff’s department said.
Breaks in the investigation have come in fits and starts.
After searching the home last week, FBI technicians have been processing evidence from in and around it. Testing revealed the blood drops outside the door belonged to Guthrie.
Then, a series of ransom notes arrived in the tip boxes of two Tucson television stations and TMZ, seeking $4 million and $6 million in bitcoin, and included details about Guthrie’s home.
The fact that law enforcement announced Guthrie disappeared and then publicly gave credence to reports she was being held for ransom put authorities at a disadvantage, said Adam Bercovici, who has worked multiple kidnappings as the former supervisor of the Los Angeles Police Department’s special investigations unit.
“It is a debacle,” he said. “This kidnapping is one of the worst cases of incompetence I have seen.”
With so much information floating around, Bercovici said, it would be difficult to verify a legitimate ransom demand. Indeed, not long after news about the ransom notes broke, officials said a man in Hawthorne sent an imposter demand to the Guthries. He has been charged with a federal crime.
Much is still unknown about the details inside the investigation and exactly what evidence detectives have collected. Because of this, it will take time to fully assess their tactics and truly understand the complexity of the case.
The first big break in the case came Tuesday, when the FBI released surveillance videos of someone approaching Guthrie’s door wearing a holstered gun, ski mask and backpack. The videos, recovered by Google engineers, provided the first look at Guthrie’s kidnapper and last less than a minute. More than 4,000 tips flooded law enforcement agencies in the 24 hours after the images were broadcast.
By the following evening, sheriff‘s investigators were detaining a 36-year-old man after a traffic stop south of Tucson. Sheriff’s officials announced they obtained a court-approved search warrant for his Rio Rico home, immediately raising expectations among those closely watching the case.
But those hopes soon were deflated.
Surrounded by the throng of cameras and reporters, investigators and FBI forensic technicians swarmed the man’s home. His mother-in-law, under the glare of camera lights, declared him innocent, saying she didn’t know who Savannah Guthrie was, and told them “you won’t find anything here, we have nothing to hide.”
By the next morning, the man was free and his house cleared of investigators. The Times is not naming him because he has not been arrested or accused of any wrongdoing.
“I hope they get the suspect because I am not it,” the man told reporters. “And they better do their job and find the suspect that did it so they can clear my name.”
On Friday night, authorities served a search warrant at a home in Tucson and swarmed a parked Range Rover. In the end, officials said no arrests were made.
Investigators are casting an even wider net to find photos, videos and any other clues. Other people in the area should expect to be detained and questioned, Nanos told local station KOLD.
On Thursday, authorities revealed a series of images of men in the dark with backpacks near cars and homes. About two miles from the Guthrie home, investigators discovered a glove on the ground, then several others farther from the home, the sheriff’s department announced Friday. They’ll all be analyzed for DNA in hopes it leads to the 84-year-old grandmother. The department said other DNA found at the home did not match Guthrie or anyone in close contact with her, and investigators are working to identify who it belongs to.
Meanwhile, the FBI doubled its reward for information this week to $100,000 and released a description of the person seen at her front door.
“The suspect is described as a male, approximately 5’9” – 5’10” tall, with an average build. In the video, he is wearing a black, 25-liter ‘Ozark Trail Hiker Pack’ backpack,” the bureau said. More than 13,000 tips have flowed into the bureau.
On Friday, the sheriff’s department sought to quash rumors that there was a divide between local and federal investigators, centered around the handling of evidence and which lab it should be sent to.
“Our strong partnership is critical, and we remain fully committed to this collaborative investigation. To ensure consistency and streamline testing, evidence requiring forensic analysis is being sent to the same out-of-state lab that has been utilized since the beginning of this case,” the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “This decision was discussed with and agreed upon by local FBI leadership.”
But Nanos himself expressed frustration about the pace of the probe.
“It’s exhausting, these ups and downs. But we will keep moving forward,” he told the New York Times. “Maybe it’s an hour from now. Maybe it’s weeks or months or years from now. But we won’t quit. We’re going to find Nancy. We’re going to find this guy.”
Richard Winton, Hannah Fry
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