An Arizona sheriff involved in the hunt for Nancy Guthrie has blasted FBI Director Kash Patel over his claims the bureau was initially “kept out” of the investigation.
Guthrie, 84, is the mother of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie. She disappeared from her house in Tucson, Arizona on February 1, and has yet to be found. No suspects have been officially named or charged.
During an interview on Sean Hannity’s podcast Hang Out released on Tuesday, Patel claimed the Pima County Sheriff’s Department sidelined the FBI for days.
The Fox News host asked Patel about the investigation, telling the FBI chief he was “frustrated,” as his sources told him “they were trying to keep you guys out.”
“They did,” Patel told Hannity. “The first 48 hours of anyone’s disappearance are the most critical.”
The beleaguered FBI director said the disappearance was a joint “state and local” law enforcement matter.
“What we, the FBI, do is say, ‘Hey, we’re here to help,’” Patel continued. “What do you need? What can we do? And for four days, we were kept out of the investigation.”
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos disputed Patel’s claims on Tuesday, pointing out that a member of the FBI Task Force was present and worked along with local law enforcement on the night Guthrie disappeared.
“The FBI was promptly notified by both our department and the Guthrie family,” Nanos said in a statement that noted the sheriff was “aware” of Patel’s comments.
“While the FBI Director was not on scene, coordination with the Bureau began without delay,” Nanos added.
During his Hannity interview, Patel said the FBI was responsible for accessing the doorbell camera footage that was released. The images show an armed, masked individual tampering with the camera around the time she went missing, in the early-morning hours of Feb. 1
Patel also discussed a showdown over FBI access to evidence in the case, which flared up in February when his bureau asked Nanos to provide DNA from Guthrie’s home, along with a black glove found around a mile away, to be processed at the FBI’s national crime laboratory in Quantico.
However Nanos sent the evidence to a private lab in Florida, with an unnamed FBI source telling Reuters at the time, “It risks further slowing a case that grows more urgent by the minute. It’s clear the fastest path to answers is leveraging federal resources and technology.”
A puzzled Hannity asked Patel during their Tuesday interview, “Why wouldn’t they want your help? Why did they send the DNA to a lab in Florida, not Quantico?”
Patel said they had a plane ready to send evidence “immediately through the night” to the FBI’s research center in Quantico, but Nanos’ office sent evidence to a private Florida lab instead.
“It’s a state and local matter, so it’s their call on where to send the DNA,” Patel said. “We have Quantico, best lab in the world... And they said, ‘We’re sending it to Florida.’ They have jurisdiction, so it’s their call.”
When Hannity said it was a “bad call,” Patel said, “That’s for the American public to decide... we would have analyzed it within days and maybe gotten better information or more information. Our lab’s just better than any other private lab out there and we didn’t get a chance to do that.”
“So, I understand everybody’s frustrations on that,” Patel added.
In his statement, Nanos said, “Decisions regarding evidence processing were made on scene based on operational needs. The laboratory utilized by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI Laboratory in Quantico has worked in close partnership from the outset and continue to collaborate in the analysis of evidence.”
He added, “We remain committed to a thorough, coordinated, and fact-based investigation and will continue working closely with our federal partners moving forward.”
Nanos previously admitted there had been “challenges” with DNA found at Guthrie’s home during an interview with NBC in February.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the FBI for comment.
Meanwhile, child safety activist and ABC commentator Elizabeth Smart has said there is still a chance Guthrie could be alive.
Smart was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City in 2002, when she was 14, and found nine months later by police officers on a street in Sandy, Utah.
“She absolutely still be alive,” Smart told Erin Burnett on CNN on Tuesday.
“There are cases that span many more years than mine does and they came back alive, and we’re talking years and years. Until we know, we have to keep looking. She deserves, either way, to be brought home.”
