Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapping case was bungled from the beginning by rookie Arizona cops who rushed to conclude that she had “wandered off,” according to a law enforcement source.
Officers first tasked with searching for the missing 84-year-old stuck with the wrong theory for too long during the investigation’s precious first two days, an anonymous law enforcement insider told NewsNation’s Brian Entin Thursday.
“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,” said the source, who asked not to be named for fear of losing his job.
“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 ill-equipped cops at the scene were not “tenured homicide detectives” and “didn’t have a lot of experience” — which happens when higher-ups give their friends jobs, the source claimed.
Guthrie, the mother of “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was likely snatched from her home in Tucson more than two months ago — but there are still no solid suspects in the case, the source said.
“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.”
He also criticized leadership in the case, claiming one of the detectives in charge had “never investigated a homicide before.”
The Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has faced widespread backlash — and mounting pressure to resign — over the fruitless search for Guthrie, who is believed to have been taken from her home in the early hours of Feb. 1.
The source, however, insisted the police department is dedicated to solving the mystery of her abduction.
“Just because we have an incompetent lead doesn’t mean that we don’t care [or] 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 source said.
Disturbing security footage recovered from Guthrie’s doorbell camera captured a masked man loitering around her doorstep the night police believe she was kidnapped.