EXCLUSIVE-Arizona sheriff blocks FBI access to evidence in Nancy Guthrie abduction, source says

By Jana Winter

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - An Arizona sheriff is blocking FBI access to key evidence in the investigation into the abduction of U.S. television journalist Savannah Guthrie's mother, impairing its ability to assist in the probe, a U.S. law enforcement official with knowledge of the case told Reuters on Thursday.

The FBI asked Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos for physical evidence in the case, including a glove and DNA from the home of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, to be processed at the FBI's national crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, but Nanos has insisted instead on using a private lab in Florida, the official said.

Outsourcing forensic analysis to a Florida contractor, effectively denying the access of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to crucial evidence in the case, is delaying the FBI ability to assist in the case, according to the official.

A spokesperson for the sheriff did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request by email seeking comment.

In a daily press update released earlier in the day, the sheriff's department said investigators had "recovered several items of evidence, including gloves," adding that all viable evidence is submitted for analysis." The agency did not elaborate.

The Pima County sheriff has primary jurisdiction over the case, and FBI assistance must be officially requested by the county, otherwise the FBI is legally precluded from taking part in the investigation. The official said the county has spent some $200,000 so far to send evidence in the Guthrie case to the the Florida lab.

“It risks further slowing a case that grows more urgent by the minute," the official told Reuters, citing unspecified "earlier setbacks" in the investigation.

The official also criticized the sheriff for not seeking FBI assistance in the investigation sooner.

"It’s clear the fastest path to answers is leveraging federal resources and technology. Anything less only prolongs the Guthrie family’s grief and the community’s wait for justice,” the official said.

Signs of friction between the FBI and sheriff's department emerged as the search for Nancy Guthrie stretched into its 12th day, as investigators intensified their search for clues in the presumed kidnapping for ransom.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen on January 31 when family dropped her off at her home following an evening dinner with them, and relatives reported her missing the following day, authorities said.

The sheriff has said the elder Guthrie had extremely limited mobility and could not have wandered off far from home unassisted, leading investigators to conclude early on that she had been abducted by force.

THOUSANDS OF TIPS

Traces of blood found on her front porch were confirmed by DNA tests to have come from Guthrie, officials said last week. Law enforcement and family members have described her as being in frail health and in need of daily medication to survive.

At least two purported ransom notes have surfaced since Nancy Guthrie vanished, both of them delivered initially to news media outlets and setting two deadlines that have since lapsed. But no proof of life is known to have surfaced following her abduction.

Savannah Guthrie, 54, co-anchor of the popular NBC News morning show "Today," has posted several video messages with her brother and sister, appealing to their mother's captors for her return, pleading for the public's help in solving the case, and even asserting a willingness to meet ransom demands.

In a major break in the case on Wednesday, authorities released video footage captured from the doorbell camera of Nancy Guthrie's home near Tucson, showing an armed prowler in a ski mask and gloves trying to disable the camera. The video was taken at about the time that Guthrie is believed to have been taken from her residence by force.

Investigators were likely seeking to bring facial recognition analysis to bear on the video to produce a composite image of a suspect that they can run against a national database that includes all U.S. drivers with RealID licenses, according to a former FBI agent.

Law enforcement officials said on Thursday that a black latex glove was found discarded on a roadside was recovered and undergoing forensic examination.

The FBI on Thursday doubled the reward offered for information leading to the location of Nancy Guthrie, or arrest and conviction of a suspect in her abduction, to $100,000.