The Arizona sheriff’s department leading the investigation into the disappearance of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother is blocking the FBI from gaining access to a glove and DNA found inside her home, a federal source has claimed.
Investigators combing through the desert surrounding Nancy Guthrie’s $1 million home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona found a black glove on Wednesday that looks similar to the one her abductor wore in the doorbell camera footage.
Federal officials have since reportedly asked Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos for the glove and DNA samples found inside Nancy’s home so they could be processed at the FBI’s national crime lab at Quantico, Virginia, a federal law enforcement official told Reuters.
But Nanos has denied the request, instead sending the evidence for testing at a private lab in Florida, the source said.
‘It risks further slowing a case that grows more urgent by the minute,’ the official said, claiming that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has already spent roughly $200,000 on sending evidence to the Florida lab, with which the department contracts.
He also derided the department for ‘earlier setbacks’ in the investigation, and criticized Nanos for not requesting FBI assistance earlier.
‘It’s clear the fastest path to answers is leveraging federal resources and technology,’ the official said. ‘Anything less only prolongs the Guthrie family’s grief and the community’s wait for justice.’
Nancy Guthrie, the mother of television host Savannah Guthrie, was abducted from her home in Tucson, Arizona in the early morning hours of February 1
A chilling masked figure was seen outside Nancy’s home on the day she went missing
In the meantime, federal agents have revealed new information about the man who was caught on Nancy’s surveillance footage from the night she was taken in hopes that ‘this updated description will concentrate the public tips we are receiving.’
Federal agents said they Thursday more than 13,000 tips have been received since the mother-of-three went missing in the early morning hours of February 1.
Chilling surveillance footage from that night showed a masked man wearing thick gloves as he tried to obscure a Nest doorbell camera on Nancy’s front porch.
Federal authorities now say the suspect is a male who is approximately five-foot-nine-inches to five-foot-ten-inches with an average build.
He was seen wearing a black, 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack at the time.
‘We hope this updated description will concentrate the public tips we are receiving,’ the FBI said in a statement, noting that it has already received more than 13,000 tips since the mother-of-three went missing.
Anyone who provides tips that lead to Guthrie’s location or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her abduction can now receive a $100,000 reward, an increase from the $50,000 reward the bureau was previously offering.
At the same time, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department is expanding its request for security video from Nancy’s neighbors in the Catalina Foothills, asking people to check for any video taken from 9pm to midnight on January 11 – nearly three weeks before Nancy went missing.
They have also requested footage from 9.30am to 11am on January 31, hours before Nancy’s abduction, saying a suspicious vehicle was spotted in the area around that time.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is reportedly blocking federal agents from gaining access to a glove and DNA found inside her home.
Federal authorities now say the suspect was seen carrying a black, 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack like the one pictured
Investigators temporarily erected a white tent outside the house on Thursday
On Thursday, four officers were seen arriving at Guthrie’s home in an unmarked black vehicle and carrying a bag into a tent set up at the property, while others brought in additional equipment.
The large tent, which blocked the entrance to Guthrie’s home and the front porch where investigators previously found blood that matched her DNA, was then taken down about an hour after being erected.
It now remains unclear what authorities were looking for, but forensic tents are typically erected when investigators want to conceal a body, weapon or other critical pieces of evidence.
Yet the front porch has been routinely trampled on by authorities and family members throughout the investigation. It was left exposed to outdoor elements, with the blood found splattered on the ground having been dried out by the sun.
One Pima County Sheriff’s source even told the Daily Mail: ‘This is amateur hour.’
Still, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department insists that it is combing through thousands of tips with hundreds of detectives and federal agents assisting in the investigation.
Law enforcement agents check vegetation areas around Nancy’s home on Wednesday
Investigators were also spotted on Wednesday combing through the mail at daughter Annie’s mailbox
Some federal agents were seen on Wednesday carrying out an extensive search of the rugged scrubland around Guthrie’s home, while other investigators emerged from Guthrie’s eldest daughter’s home with a paper grocery stack and a white trash bag.
One, still wearing blue protective gloves, also took a stack of letters from Annie Guthrie and her husband, Tommaso Cioni’s, roadside mailbox. They then drove away without speaking to reporters.
Annie and Cioni were the last people to see Nancy, who showed up at their house for dinner the night before.
She was then reported missing the next day after she failed to show up to a friend’s house to watch virtual church services.
Nancy has not been seen or heard from since as her children repeatedly pleaded with the public for any help finding their mother.
Her three children have repeatedly asked for the public’s help in finding their beloved mother ever since, and on Thursday, Savannah shared another heartbreaking video tribute to her mom.
‘Our lovely mom,’ the television host wrote. ‘We will never give up on her. Thank you for your prayers and hope.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department for comment.
