Overview
- FBI Director Kash Patel, in a Tuesday podcast interview, said the bureau was kept out of the Nancy Guthrie investigation for four days and faulted the decision to send DNA to a private Florida lab instead of the FBI lab in Quantico.
- Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos disputed that account in a statement Tuesday night, saying the FBI was notified promptly, an FBI task force member was on scene, and evidence-routing decisions were made based on operational needs with both labs collaborating.
- Once involved, the FBI worked with Google to recover cached data from Guthrie’s Nest doorbell, leading to the Feb. 10 release of images showing an armed, masked man on her porch after video that was not saved by subscription settings was pulled from residual systems.
- Investigators say porch blood matched Guthrie while other samples are mixed or partial; a hair collected at the home was transferred from a Florida lab to the FBI for advanced testing and potential CODIS searches, a process that can take weeks or longer with complex DNA.
- The case remains active with no suspect named as authorities report hundreds of tips; KVOA said more than 300 tips reached the 88-CRIME line in the past month, rewards now top $1.2 million, and May 12 will mark about 100 days since Guthrie’s disappearance.