Nancy Guthrie sheriff denies claims he blocked FBI analyzing evidence

The blundering Arizona sheriff tasked with investigating Nancy Guthrie's abduction has denied allegations that he has withheld evidence from the FBI.

Federal officials requested that Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos turn over gloves and DNA samples that were found in Nancy's homes 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, federal investigators have claimed.

He 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.

Nano's defense appears to center on what was done with other gloves found on roads outside the house. 

He did not directly address claims about the glove and DNA sample said to have been found inside Nancy's home. 

The sheriff also revealed that 'quite a number' of gloves were recovered during the search and that at this time officials 'don't even know the true value' of them.

Nanos has been condemned for failing to find Nancy, 84, after she vanished from her $1 million Tucson home 12 days ago. 

He has also come under scrutiny amid the ongoing investigation - including from sources within his own department who alleged he made a series of missteps that slowed the search in its crucial first hours.

Federal and local officers have been going door-to-door in Tucson 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 have recovered and are analyzing several pieces of evidence.

Authorities on Thursday briefly put up a tent in front of Nancy's entryway where her blood was discovered 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 looking to identify a truck that may be connected to Nancy's abduction and is reviewing local camera footage that may have spotted it.

But there is a possibility that the so-called getaway car was not clearly recorded on traffic cameras, Fox News reported.

The City of Tucson and Arizona Department of Transportation both said they have traffic cameras in the area around Nancy's home but that 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. 

Officials have asked neighbors and local businesses with cameras to turn over footage to police.

FBI and SWAT teams also swarmed the brush around the home of Nancy's daughter Annie Guthrie and her husband Tommaso Cioni on Tuesday night, despite investigators having previously searched it. 

Two investigators emerged from Annie's home Wednesday with a paper grocery sack and a white trash bag. One, still wearing blue protective gloves, also took a stack of mail from the roadside mailbox. 

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.

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 has admitted he is not used to the amount of scrutiny that has come with leading the investigation into the disappearance of Today show host Savannah Guthrie's mother. 

At news conferences since Nancy's apparent abduction, the soft-spoken sheriff has tried to walk the line between keeping the public informed while withholding investigation details that only the person who took her would know. 

Nanos has acknowledged the approach sometimes falls short.

'I'm not used to everyone hanging onto my every word and then holding me accountable for what I say,' Nanos told reporters on the investigation's third day.

With the case now in its second week, Nanos has also acknowledged missteps, including that he probably should have waited longer to relinquish Nancy's home to her family after his detectives finished combing through it for evidence. 

Before authorities resecured the scene, journalists had walked up to the front door to photograph blood droplets that the sheriff said were Nancy's.

Critics, including a fellow Democrat, have also called him out for going to a University of Arizona basketball game last weekend while the victim was still missing.

Responding to criticism, Nanos told the Green Valley News that no one can work around the clock.

'Even though I want to, I can't, and to sit back and say, "Well, it's a bad image," I guess I'm going to have to live with that image. Because I got to a point where I needed to decompress a little bit and back away from my team a little bit so I'm not on them all the time,' the sheriff said.

Nanos has said he is doing his best to solve the case and objected when asked to assess how he has handled it.

'I'm going to have people who think I'm doing a good job, and I'm going to have people think I am doing a bad job,' he added. 'But that's what we have elections for.'

Nanos, a native of El Paso, Texas, started with the sheriff's office as a detention officer in 1984 and steadily rose through the ranks to become second-in-command before being appointed sheriff in 2015 when his boss retired.

Before becoming sheriff, he took part in the investigation into one of Tucson's biggest tragedies: the 2011 mass shooting outside of a grocery store that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. 

As sheriff, Nanos has said his department won't enforce federal immigration law amid President Donald Trump's crackdown and that he will use his limited resources to focus on local crime and other public safety issues.

But days before Nancy's disappearance, Nanos' office helped investigate an exchange of gunfire between federal agents near the US-Mexico border and a man accused of being involved in a smuggling operation. Authorities say the man, who was shot, had fired at a federal helicopter.

After his appointment as sheriff, Nanos lost the 2016 race to Republican Mark Napier but defeated Napier in 2020. 

He squeaked by in his 2024 reelection campaign, defeating Republican Heather Lappin by 481 votes in a race that wasn't without controversy.