An anonymous source alleges that the investigators in the case were inexperienced.

Nancy Guthrie case suffered when authorities rushed ‘to judgement’ she had ‘wandered off,’ source alleges

An anonymous source alleges that the investigators in the case were inexperienced.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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on April 2, 2026 11:59 p.m. ET

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Savannah Guthrie and mother, Nancy Guthrie. Credit:

Savannah Guthrie/Instagram

The Nancy Guthrie case has been bungled from the start, an anonymous source alleged in a Thursday interview with NewsNation.

"Speaking with some people, that actually know the intimate knowledge of this investigation, told me that there was a rush to judgment of what was happening at that scene, and it was that Nancy had somehow wandered off," the source said. "So they rushed to that judgment, stayed with that judgment, and then ran this investigation as if it were a search and rescue issue, as opposed to a possible criminal issue."

The anonymous source also alleged that the people on the scene were not "tenured homicide detectives" and that they "didn't have a lot of experience," which happens when people install their friends into positions.

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The individual said they don’t get the sense that there are suspects.

"The people I've talked to that are still in the know on this investigation tell me that there’s no direct suspect right now," the source said. "No name on the table."

The unnamed source said there was "extremely low" morale tied to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos.

When asked what the department would say to Savannah, the source answered, "Just because we have an incompetent lead doesn't mean that we don't care. That we don't want Nancy to be brought home safely and that we're not with her in this. We are completely with her and her family on this."

The home of Nancy Guthrie near Tucson, Arizona.

Justin Sullivan/Getty

NewsNation had teased that it would deliver a "bombshell" in the Nancy Guthrie case in the April 2 report from correspondent Brian Entin.

A spokesperson for the Pima County Sheriff's Office reached by * *said "the sheriff is not holding media availability and there is no additional information to provide at this time."

Nancy's family, including daughter Savannah Guthrie, who's a co-anchor on NBC's morning show staple Today, reported Nancy missing when they couldn't locate her on Feb. 1.

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The elder Guthrie was last seen on Jan. 31 at her home near East Skyline Drive and North Campbell Avenue outside Tucson, Arizona.

Over the following weeks, authorities declared the area a crime scene, and all the Guthrie siblings — including Savannah's sister Annie and brother Camron — offered a ransom for information about what happened to their 84-year-old mother.

Savannah took a leave from her high-profile *Today* job. Last week, she announced that she will return on April 6.

Savannah noted when she visited the show to sit for an emotional interview with Hoda Kotb that it was "hard to imagine" coming back to a show that's "such a place of joy and lightness” but she thinks it’s her "purpose."

The search for Nancy has been starkly different, with Nanos saying just days after Nancy's disappearance that he thought she had been abducted.

"She didn't walk from there," he told CBS News on Feb. 2. "She didn't go willingly."

He also stressed at the time that she was without the medication that she took daily and that she had limited mobility.

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