Savannah Guthrie reportedly told the under fire sheriff investigating the abduction of her mother that she ‘doesn’t need him’.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, who has come under flak over the investigation, told Fox News that he had talked and texted Savannah who responded that ‘she has her own people and didn’t need him’.
The sheriff’s department, with the aide of federal agents, have been hunting Tucson, Arizona, for nearly two weeks after Nancy Guthrie, 84, vanished from her $1 million home in the foothills of the city.
Investigators have been going door-to-door in neighborhoods around Nancy’s house while also looking for clues around her daughter Annie’s nearby home, which she had visited just hours before disappearing.
Investigators briefly erected a tent in front of Nancy’s entryway Thursday. Her blood was discovered there in the early days of the investigation, and where a doorbell camera captured images of a masked person the night she went missing.
Investigators are also looking to identify a truck potentially connected to the abduction, but Fox News also revealed that cameras in the area may not have captured the vehicle.
The City of Tucson and Arizona Department of Transportation both have traffic cameras in the area around Nancy’s home, but officials claim those devices do not record cars.
Pima County does have cameras that record, but officials note they are imperfect and may not actually capture license plate details.
Investigators have been hunting for Nancy, seen here with her daughter Savannah, for 12 days after she disappeared from her home
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, pictured here last week, has headed the investigation along with federal officers
As the investigation drags on Nanos made another flip-flopping evidence confession by claiming investigators did not recover a glove from Nancy’s property.
‘We have no glove. We never found a glove on that property,’ he told Fox News correspondent Matt Finn on Friday.
Reuters reported Thursday that Nanos blocked the FBI from examining a glove and DNA that were found inside the residence so they could be processed at the FBI’s national crime lab at Quantico, Virginia.
Nanos denied the request, instead sending the evidence for testing at a private DNA lab in Florida, a law enforcement source told the outlet.
The sheriff was accused of ‘further slowing’ the case by not utilizing federal resources, as well as prolonging the ‘Guthrie family’s grief and the community’s wait for justice’.
But Nanos has hit back at the allegations that he blocked the FBI from accessing evidence, telling KVOA that is ‘not even close to the truth’.
‘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,’ he told the news outlet Thursday night.
Pictured: Guthrie and her two siblings, Camron and Annie, in a video they shared online asking for help
The sheriff was accused of ‘further slowing’ the case by not utilizing federal resources, as well as prolonging the ‘Guthrie family’s grief’, Nancy’s home is seen here
The sheriff, during his Thursday night remarks, claimed ‘quite a number’ of gloves were recovered during the search. ‘We don’t even know the true value of these gloves,’ he added.
The FBI has already analyzed the videos from Nancy’s doorbell camera, which gives close-up view of the armed suspect trying to cover the camera – first with a gloved hand and then with part of a plant ripped from the yard.
The FBI released more details about the suspect Thursday, him as a 5-foot-9-inch or 5-foot-10-inch male with an average build.
The bureau also shared photos from multiple angles of a black, 25-liter ‘Ozark Trail Hiker Pack’ backpack, which the agency said is the brand and model the suspect was wearing.
FBI Phoenix also announced it has hiked its reward to $100,000 for information on Guthrie’s disappearance.
Multiple sources close to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department previously told the Daily Mail how Nanos allegedly mishandled the crime scene and issued contradictory messages to the public.
The 84-year-old was last seen at the home she has lived in for more than 50 years
A masked figure on Nancy Guthrie’s doorstep in the early hours of her disappearance
According to those insiders, a vital search-and-rescue aircraft was grounded in the initial hours of the investigation when it was needed most.
The alleged delay in getting the surveillance aircraft airborne was not caused by mechanical issues or weather, but by staffing shortages that left the department without qualified pilots to fly the plane – a shortage sources blame directly on Nanos.
In multiple press conferences, the sheriff has apologized for delays and walked back statements made during television interviews.
At one briefing, he said Nancy was ‘harmed at the home’ and taken from her bed, before later saying he had misspoken.
In another press conference, he failed to instill confidence when asked about potential suspects and motives, replying: ‘Your guess work is as good as mine.’
Nanos has had a long career in law enforcement, but admitted he is not used to the amount of scrutiny that has come with leading the investigation into the disappearance of Today show host’s mother.
