‘I Fully 100% Believe’: Sheriff Makes Bold Claim as Nancy Guthrie Case Takes Dramatic Turn

More than 100 days after Nancy Guthrie vanished, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said he is no longer personally communicating with the Guthrie family, including Today co-host Savannah Guthrie.

Nanos has led the investigation since Nancy was reported missing on February 1. The Arizona sheriff told People magazine that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now handling conversations with the family.

Former FBI special agent Jennifer Coffindaffer questioned who decided to cut off the communication, whether it was the Guthrie family or Nanos himself.

“I just think this shows a confidence in the family to deal with the FBI and not with the Pima County Sheriff, under the cloud that he, unfortunately, is operating with this investigation,” she told NewsNation Prime on May 17.

Nanos said he remains confident investigators are close to solving the case. “My team, I’ve said all along, they’re gonna solve this,” he said. “I fully 100% believe that.”

The sheriff also revealed that investigators are still working to identify an unknown DNA contributor connected to the case.

“I know we have DNA that is unknown who the contributor or depositor is, but I think they’re getting closer to finding out who that was,” Nanos said, adding that he has “confidence in our labs.”

He said the investigation would only become a cold case if forensic labs reached a dead end. “When the labs tell us, ‘Hey, there’s nothing else we can do,’ well, then maybe we’ve got a problem … we’ve got a cold case,” he said. “But right now, the labs aren’t telling us that.”

The sheriff added that with top investigators across the country working on the case, he believes answers will come, even if it takes time. Nanos also acknowledged growing public frustration surrounding the investigation.

“There’s frustration because people want to know,” Nanos said. “But this is just like any other case. Sometimes you solve them within hours or days. Sometimes it takes a long time.”

Nanos, who has faced accusations of mishandling the investigation into Guthrie’s disappearance, will remain in his position for the time being.

Arizona’s Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to keep the sheriff in office despite mounting criticism over his handling of the high-profile case.

During a May 13 meeting, board members stopped short of removing Nanos after weeks of national scrutiny surrounding the investigation, according to NewsNation.

“We’ve been talking about this issue for weeks and weeks, and separate and apart from the handling of the most recent high-profile investigation, we as the board have had a lot of concerns with the sheriff’s performance in many regards,” board member Matt Heinz said during the meeting.

Instead, the board unanimously voted to refer multiple perjury allegations to the state attorney general.

“We have limited powers,” Heinz added.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen on January 31 following a family dinner with Annie Guthrie and Tommaso Cioni.