Embattled Sheriff Claims He’s Cleared Guthrie Family of Involvement in Mom’s Disappearance, as FBI Pushes To Identify Masked, Gloved Man

The Pima County sheriff, Chris Nanos, said he’s cleared all relatives of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie as possible suspects in her kidnapping case— including her son-in-law, whom some online sleuths and the legal news personality Ashleigh Banfield had pegged as the suspect behind the woman’s mysterious disappearance from her Tucson home. “The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are the victims in this case,” Mr. Pima said in a statement on X Monday. “To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel,” he said, adding that the family of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie, who is one of Nancy’s daughters, were the “victims plain and simple.”Mr. Nanos did not elaborate on the reasons why he decided to rule out Ms. Guthrie’s family as suspects. When asked by a Fox News reporter if test results of DNA swabs taken of the family helped clear them as suspects, Mr. Nanos responded: “Not going there.”The sheriff, who’s been widely criticized for his public statements, exonerated the family as local and federal investigators were working on identifying the masked, gloved, and possibly armed man seen in security footage tampering with Mr. Guthrie’s doorbell camera just hours before her family reported her missing on February 1. Ms. Guthrie’s son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, who is married to Savannah Guthrie’s sister, Annie, was the last known person to see her alive. He told authorities that he’d dropped her off at her home following dinner at his residence on the night she would vanished.Ms. Banfield, a former CNN personality, was criticized by Mr. Nanos for reporting on NewsNation that Mr. Cioni, a poet and musician, was the “prime suspect” in the case.“I understand the pundits are out there. They’re going to say, well, he’s the last one to see her alive. We understand that stuff. But, my goodness, you’re putting a mark on somebody who could be completely innocent. And more important than that, he’s family,” Mr. Nanos told Daily Mail on Sunday.Meanwhile, authorities confirmed that a glove that was found nearly two miles away from Ms. Guthrie’s home appeared to match those worn by the masked person in the security footage.The FBI is analyzing the DNA in the gloves, which Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz told NewsNation was “a very promising lead.” The glove was sent to a private lab in Florida instead of the FBI’s national crime lab in Quantico — a decision that a law enforcement official close to the case told Reuters was “delaying the FBI’s ability to assist in the case.” A private forensic lab generally cannot upload DNA profiles into FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS — something accredited labs like Arizona’s state crime labs can do. The results from the glove’s DNA test need to be submitted to the Arizona state database first before they can be entered into CODIS. In an interview last Friday with Fox News reporter Matt Finn, Mr. Nanos defended the use of the private lab, saying his office sent evidence — including DNA from the Guthrie family and other DNA swabs collected during the investigation — there from the outset. “We trust the FBI’s crime lab, we’ve used them before, but in this case, we started with that lab. It’s just that simple,” Mr. Nanos told Fox News. The Pima County Sheriff’s office and the FBI have received up to 50,000 leads combined in the Guthrie investigation, Mr. Nanos told an NBC affiliate in Tucson on Monday. Investigators were also consulting with Walmart management about the black 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack the suspect was seen wearing in security footage.“This backpack is exclusive to Walmart, and we are working with Walmart management to develop further leads,” Mr. Nanos told the Associated Press on Monday. The suspect’s clothing may have also been purchased at Walmart, although it isn’t “exclusively available” at the store and “remains a possibility only,” he added.Meanwhile, FBI agents have visited several gun stores throughout the Tucson area, showing employees a list of 40 names and photographs to confirm if any of the people on the list have recently visited or patronized the store, according to NewsNation’s Brian Entin.President Donald Trump on Monday told the New York Post that Ms. Guthrie’s kidnappers would face “the most severe” federal penalties if the woman, who needs daily medication for a heart condition and has a pacemaker, were found dead.

Embattled Sheriff Claims He’s Cleared Guthrie Family of Involvement in Mom’s Disappearance, as FBI Pushes To Identify Masked, Gloved Man

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