Sheriff acknowledges he 'could have held off' releasing Nancy Guthrie's home to family

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said that, in retrospect, he might have released the crime scene of Nancy Guthrie's home back to her family too early in the investigation into her abduction. 

"The Monday morning quarterback, absolutely, I probably could have held off on that," Nanos said, adding, "But I'll say this, we processed the scene" and "got what we thought was complete."

He was responding to a reporter's question at a news conference Thursday about FBI officers going to the house two days after the Sheriff's Department released the scene. Media representatives have also reported that they walked up to the house freely in the interim.

“Opening access to that property to everyone else, was that something you would do differently, looking back knowing that, you know, federal authorities also conducted a search (Wednesday)?" a reporter asked. 

Nanos had previously told reporters on Tuesday that investigators had processed evidence from the scene, including items submitted for DNA testing, and that, while they were still waiting for some test results and analysis to be returned, "The scene is done. We're done with the residence."

It had been turned back over to the family on Monday, he said then. 

Nancy Guthrie, 84, mother of NBC's "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie, had been reported missing from the home, near North Campbell Avenue and East Skyline Drive, about noon Sunday, and investigators believe she was abducted early that morning.   

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At the news conference Thursday, Nanos said: "I heard your question about, you know, we left, and then others can walk up. When we process a scene, and we're done, we return that scene to, in this case, the homeowners, the family.

"And we don't just go march back in there. We call the family again and get permission to go back to the home. ... Something comes back and (someone) says, ‘Hey, did you check this?’ We're not going to just say 'oops' and not go. In this instance, it really was the FBI just wanting to go and take a look."

Some outside observers have raised questions about potential chain-of-custody issues.

Asked by a reporter if he was worried about any contamination of the scene, Nanos said, "I'll let the courts worry about that. It will certainly be open to the courts about anything that's been removed from the house."

But the sheriff added that his investigators follow rules of law and court orders and "go back and reapply for another warrant" if needed. "We were very careful," he said.

" ... Our (FBI) partners wanted a chance to see it and examine things themselves," he said. "And more importantly, it's just we're constantly following up on things and go, 'Hey, what about this?' So we want to go back and check on some things."

Nanos also noted, "We started this thing (on Sunday, when Nancy Guthrie was reported missing), we weren't sure what we had. And as the day progressed, we realized that there there could be more to this. ... Remember, it was a search and rescue mission the first few hours, and we transitioned that over to a criminal investigation," which later led to bringing in "our partners from the FBI."