Nancy Guthrie Case: Retired Homicide Sergeant Reveals How Police May Have Jeopardized Investigation From the Start

Investigators made mistakes early on in Nancy Guthrie's case, according to a former homicide sergeant.

The 84-year-old mother of of Today star Savannah Guthrie has been missing for six weeks, with her disappearance reported on February 1. She was last seen the night before entering her secluded Tucson, Ariz. home, and authorities believe she is the victim of a "targeted kidnapping."

In an article published on Tuesday, March 17, retired Arizona homicide sergeant Troy Hillman expressed concern that "too much information was put out in the first couple of days", and feared the crime scene was released to the family too soon.

Troy told Us Weekly that the choice to make Nancy’s Catalina Foothills home available to her family the same week she vanished "created some possible tainting of evidence issues when they had to re-secure the crime scene."

He also weighed in on accusations that Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos blocked the FBI from accessing key evidence, which the sheriff has denied.

"When you have multiple agencies communicating up and down different chains of command, it can create snags in information filtering," Troy explained.

The sheriff has faced intense public scrutiny over his handling of the investigation.

Chris recently came under fire for giving mixed messaging in an interview last week, telling NBC News that while investigators believe Nancy was targeted, the suspect could strike again.

"It would be silly to tell people, 'Yeah, don't worry about it, you're not his target,'" he said, warning others to "keep your wits about you."

Former FBI agent Jason Pack criticized the sheriff's remarks in an interview with an outlet published the following day.

"From my experience as a crisis communications practitioner, where it gets complicated is when, in that same interview, he suggests the suspect could strike again," Jason told Page Six. "Once you put that out there, every person watching wants to know who’s at risk and what they ought to do about it."

He continued, "If you can’t answer those questions, you probably shouldn’t lead with that statement. A warning without context doesn’t necessarily protect people. It worries them. And it sits a little uneasily alongside the 'targeted attack' framing he’s also offered.”

The expert added, "Those two ideas need to fit together before they go out the door. I just think a little more discipline at the podium, coordinated closely with FBI leadership, would serve everyone better as this moves forward."

Since Nancy's disappearance, the FBI released security footage of a masked suspect captured on her front porch and revealed DNA evidence was discovered at the scene, though it's still being analyzed.

Savannah, 54, recently admitted her mom may be dead, but said the family is still praying for her "recovery," and announced that the reward for information leading to Nancy's return had been raised to $1 million.