Pima County SheriffChris Nanosdenied claims Thursday that he has blocked evidence from the FBI, thereby slowing the investigation into the suspected kidnapping ofNancy Guthrie. "Not even close to the truth," hetold NBC affiliate KVOA.
Reuters earlier quotedan unidentified U.S. law enforcement official who said the sheriff's insistence on sending evidence to a crime lab in Florida instead of the FBI's facility is impeding progress.
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Door-cam images emerged of an armed masked person with gloves at Nancy Guthrie's Tucson-area home, and authorities have recently discovered gloves in the area that they hope are tied to the alleged abduction.
Nanos told the station that he spoke with the FBI early Thursday about submitting the gloves to the bureau's lab, but talked the agency out of it.
"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," he told KVOA. "... 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, makes sense."
The anonymous official in the Reuters article, however, sang an entirely different tune.
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"It's clear the fastest path to answers is leveraging federal resources and technology," the person said. "Anything less only prolongs the Guthrie family's grief and the community's wait for justice."
Ina separate interview with 13News, Nanos said authorities had some "good leads" in the case but still had no sign of Guthrie.
Guthrie, the mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie, has not been seen since the night of Jan. 31.
HuffPost has reached out to the FBI for comment.
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