Pima County’s Democrat Sheriff Chris Nanos is blocking the FBI from obtaining key evidence in the Nancy Guthrie investigation, a federal law enforcement source confirmed to Fox News on Thursday.
The evidence requested by the FBI includes a glove and DNA found inside Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson home.
Federal officials have asked Nanos for the items so they could be processed at the FBI’s national crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.
However, Nanos has insisted on sending the evidence for testing at a private lab in Florida, according to the source.
“It risks further slowing a case that grows more urgent by the minute,” the official said, citing unspecified “earlier setbacks” in the investigation.
Pima County has reportedly spent roughly $200,000 on sending evidence to the private Florida lab with which the department contracts.
“It’s clear the fastest path to answers is leveraging federal resources and technology. Anything less only prolongs the Guthrie family’s grief and the community’s wait for justice,” the official claimed.
“We had to ask them to help, they didn’t ask us,” the FBI source said. The bureau will have to test the evidence again after getting it back from Florida, which will take more time.
“This is dumb. It’s insane.”
The Pima County Sheriff’s Office is the primary investigative agency in the search for Nancy Guthrie, with the FBI only permitted to take part if requested by local officials.
Nanos disputed the reports Thursday, and told Tucson’s KOLD 13 News the claims are “not even close to the truth.”
“Actually, the FBI just wanted to send the one or two [gloves] they found by the crime scene, closest to it—mile, mile and a half,” Nanos told News 4 Tucson. “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 said “quite a number” of gloves had been recovered in searches during the investigation, but cautioned that investigators “don’t even know the true value of these gloves.”
Nancy Guthrie, 84, vanished from her Tucson home in the early morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 1 and was reported missing later the same day. She is the mother of NBC “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
The FBI announced Thursday that it is doubling the reward to $100,000 for information leading to Nancy Guthrie’s location or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance. The bureau also released an updated description of the suspect seen in doorbell camera footage outside Guthrie’s home.
“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 FBI said.