Kash Patel Says FBI Kept Out of Savannah Guthrie Case for 4 Days
Kash Patel said the FBI was kept out of the Nancy Guthrie investigation for the first four days after she went missing, a claim that puts early case handling under a brighter light for savannah guthrie and her family. Patel said the first 48 hours are the most critical, making the federal delay the sharpest part of the dispute.
Patel’s four-day claim
Patel said on Sean Hannity's podcast, “For four days we were kept out of the investigation,” and added, “The first 48 hours of anyone's disappearance are the most critical.” He also said, “We have Quantico, best lab in the world,” after criticizing how the evidence was routed.
Nancy Guthrie has been missing since Feb. 1, and authorities in Pima County have said they believe she was taken from her Tucson, Arizona, home. The case has become a fight over who handled the first evidence trail and how fast federal investigators were brought in.
Pima County’s response
The Pima County Sheriff's Office said there was no delay in coordination with the FBI. In its statement, the office said Sheriff Nanos responded to the scene the night of the incident, that a member of the FBI Task Force was present, and that the FBI was promptly notified by both the department and the Guthrie family.
“Sheriff Nanos responded to the scene the night of the incident, providing immediate local leadership and oversight. A member of the FBI Task Force was also notified and present at that scene working alongside our personnel. 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,” the sheriff's office said. It also said, “The laboratory utilized by the Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI Laboratory in Quantico have worked in close partnership from the outset and continue to collaborate in the analysis of evidence,” which directly clashes with Patel’s version of the first four days.
Hair sample to Quantico
The FBI said last month that it had received a hair sample tied to the Guthrie case that was collected in February. An FBI official said the material had been requested over two months ago, but the Pima County Sheriff's Office sent it to a private lab in Florida instead.
“Eleven weeks later, that lab has now transferred an original hair sample to the FBI Laboratory for testing,” the FBI official said. Patel said he had an aircraft ready to move the evidence immediately through the night, and he also said, “That's why you have that image, because the FBI worked with Google to put that image out,” referring to the image of the suspect tampering with the camera at Nancy Guthrie's front door on the morning of her disappearance.
For readers following the case through Savannah Guthrie, the practical takeaway is simple: the fight is no longer just about where Nancy Guthrie is, but about whether the earliest hours and the original evidence path were handled fast enough to preserve the case’s strongest leads.
