Sheriff Refutes Claims FBI Is Blocked From Accessing Key Evidence in Search for Savannah Guthrie's Mom

New details are raising eyebrows in the search for Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother, Nancy Guthrie.

According to a new report, the FBI has been blocked from reviewing critical evidence tied to the case.

On Thursday, February 12, Sheriff Chris Nanos reportedly pushed back after the FBI asked the Pima County Sheriff’s Department to send physical evidence — including a glove and other DNA — to the bureau’s national crime lab in Quantico, Va. Instead, Chris is said to be insisting on using a separate lab in Florida as the search for Nancy, 84, continues.

A retired FBI agent warned that the disagreement could slow things down.

“Friction between the Sheriff’s Department and the FBI will not help matters,” Scott Curtis said.

The Arizona sheriff also admitted he’s “surprised” the FBI hasn’t stepped in to take over the case, even though nearly two weeks have passed since Nancy was reported missing on February 1.

Still, Chris strongly rejected the claims, saying they were “not even close to the truth.”

Speaking with KVOA, the sheriff said he had spoken with the FBI as recently as Thursday morning about where the evidence should be sent for DNA testing.

According to Chris, both the FBI and local law enforcement agreed to use the Florida lab, which has worked with the department for years and is handling the testing pro bono.

“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…” Chris said about gloves recently discovered near Nancy’s Catalina Foothills home in Arizona. “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 [that it] makes sense.”

He added, “When this is all done with, offer your critiques all you want, but right now we have work to do.”

Chris also previously addressed other speculations surrounding Savannah’s brother-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, who is married to her sister, Annie Guthrie.

Former NewsNation host Ashleigh Banfield previously reported that Tommaso is the “prime suspect” in the case.

“We don’t have anybody here listed as a suspect,” Chris said during a Thursday, February 5, press conference.

“Nobody’s eliminated, but we just really don’t have enough to say, ‘This is our suspect, this is our guy, we know — or our gal.’ We don’t know that,” he added, calling the move “irresponsible.” “And it’s really kind of reckless to report that someone is a suspect when they could very well be a victim.”

Meanwhile, some experts believe newly released surveillance footage could be a major break in the case.

Troy Hillman, a retired Phoenix police sergeant who lives about two hours from Tucson — where Nancy lives — pointed to images captured by her Nest doorbell camera as potentially critical evidence.

The FBI released six black-and-white photos and three short video clips. The footage appears to show a possible suspect walking toward Nancy’s home the night she disappeared. The person is wearing a mask, black gloves and a backpack.

“You’ve got a lot of clues just baked in these, what seems to be a short amount of video,” Troy explained.

He then detailed what investigators might be able to pull from the clips.

“They can kind of get biometrics on the facial features,” he said. “There’s just a ton of information, the backpack, the way he wore his gun, what type of holster it is, what type of gun it was. The type of gloves he had on.”