Sheriff's office probing Nancy Guthrie vanishing faces intense backlash over social media post: 'tone deaf'
The Pima County Sheriff's Department, which is already facing scrutiny for the way it has handled the high profile missing persons case involving Nancy Guthrie, is facing furious online backlash after a post on X that some users have deemed insensitive.
"Update: Nancy has been located," said a post from 10:50 p.m. on Thursday night.
The sheriff's office made the post in reference to a missing woman named Nancy Radakovich, an 82-year-old who the department had announced was missing 12 hours earlier.
Nancy Guthrie, mother of "TODAY" host Savannah Guthrie, went missing from her suburban Tucson home on Feb. 1. The case, which has not been solved, captured weeks of international attention, and the Pima County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff Chris Nanos continue to face heat for their handling of the probe.
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"Ok now you’re all just being a--holes on purpose.," one X user responded to Thursday night's post. "Thank god she was found but COME ON. Can you be anymore tone deaf???"
"What a miserable tone deaf out of touch police dept," said another. "WTF is wrong with you people? And the post is STILL up with NO EDITS. Morons."
"Are you kidding? So unprofessional! You couldn’t list the last name?" said a third.
"Pima County Sheriff’s Department announces 'Nancy has been located.' Now they're just trolling us," another user said.
Other users said the wording of the post seemed "deliberate," with one user calling the department "evil."
Nanos has faced criticism throughout the Guthrie case for a perceived lack of cooperation with the FBI, along with other investigatory decisions that critics say may have hindered the investigation.
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On Thursday night, Fox News Digital reported that DNA evidence, including test results from a hair sample, have been obtained by the FBI.
Investigators collected the DNA evidence from Guthrie's home and shared it with the FBI.
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The sheriff's department took to X to reiterate that it has been cooperating with the federal law enforcement agency.
"PCSD has worked with the FBI since the beginning of the Guthrie investigation. This is not new information," the department wrote on X. "The private lab we utilize in Florida continues to share information with the FBI lab & other partner labs across the country. DNA analysis remains ongoing."
A glove that was considered to be potential evidence in the case was sent to a lab in Florida instead of the FBI, one law enforcement source told Fox News Digital on Feb. 12.
"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.
A source told Fox News Digital that after the testing in Florida, the FBI would need to retest the evidence anyway.
"It’s just the FBI developed this method and can do it so much better without destroying the evidence," the source said. "I’ve seen so many cases go to Florida and be consumed. Also, they are not as fast, and in this case, time matters."
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Another federal law enforcement source accused Nanos of blocking the FBI from obtaining the evidence, first reported by Reuters and confirmed by Fox News Digital.
"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 Nanos for not requesting help from the FBI earlier in the case.
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Pima County has a contract with DNA Labs International, located in Deerfield Beach, Florida for testing of evidence.
Nanos also faced allegations that the initial search for Guthrie was delayed because he had busted the department’s high-tech search aircraft pilot down to street patrol over a personal dispute, leaving the agency scrambling to get the plane in the air on day Guthrie went missing.
Nanos has been plagued by other personnel scandals, including an independent investigation into bullying and retaliation allegations against the sheriff which found that a "preponderance of the evidence" showed he abused his office for political gain during a close race in 2024 against former PCSD Lt. Heather Lappin.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Pima County Sheriff's Department.