Kash Patel says FBI 'kept out' out of Nancy Guthrie investigation for first 4 days

6abc Philadelphia
1.2K followers
28 Video Views·May 7, 2026
The FBI was shut out of the Nancy Guthrie investigation for the first four days after the mother of the "Today Show" host, Savannah Guthrie went missing, FBI Director Kash Patel claimed in a new interview.
"For four days, we were kept out of the investigation," Patel said on Sean Hannity's podcast of the FBI's lack of involvement in the initial days of the Guthrie investigation. "The first 48 hours of anyone's disappearance are the most critical."
Nancy Guthrie has been missing since Feb. 1. Authorities in Pima County have said they believe she was taken from her Tucson, Arizona, home.
More than three months since the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie,
FBI Director Cash Patel is speaking out, slamming the Arizona sheriff handling the investigation,
claiming the sheriff excluded the FBI early on in the search.
The first 48 hours of anyone's disappearance are the most critical,
and for four days we were kept out of the investigation.
Patel questioning why Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanno sent
DNA evidence to a private lab in Florida instead of the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia.
We would have analyzed it within days and maybe gotten better information or more information.
Our labs just better than any other private lab out there, and we didn't get a chance to do that.
The sheriff under scrutiny with no suspect named in the case.
We believe somebody out there knows who did this. We need that person to call us.
Last night, the sheriff's department responded to Patel's claims, insisting
the FBI was promptly notified by both our department and the Guthrie family,
while the FBI director was not on scene. Coordination with the bureau began without
delay and insisting the Florida lab and the FBI's lab worked in close partnership from the outset.
Amid those conflicting accounts, local officials insist the search goes on with more than 300
tips in the last month alone, but the only apparent break so far, these images of a
masked man outside Guthrie's home 11 days after her suspected abduction.
Sophie Flay, ABC News, New York.
