Savannah Guthrie and her family should be “irked” by investigators’ fumble with DNA evidence amid their search for their 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, an ex-FBI agent says.
On Sunday, April 19, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in Arizona and the FBI marked their 80th day searching for the Today Show host‘s mother, who has been missing since February 1. However, they have yet to release new information or significant breakthroughs in Nancy’s case.
Now, it’s been revealed that a private Florida lab that works with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department sent a DNA sample to the FBI in recent weeks. The FBI is reportedly now using new “advanced technology” to conduct another analysis of the sample. However, former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer is taking issue with this new piece of information. It comes after a mystery man who claimed he “saw Nancy 5 days ago” offered chilling new proof.
The FBI revealed that the DNA they received from the Florida lab is not new. So, that means that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department initially sent it to Florida instead of the FBI, even though the FBI always had “advanced technology” to analyze it.
“There is no new DNA evidence in the Nancy Guthrie case. The FBI requested this material over two months ago,” an FBI official told ABC News.
“The Pima County Sheriff’s Office sent it to a private lab in Florida. Eleven weeks later, that lab has now transferred an original hair sample to the FBI Laboratory for testing. We remain fully committed to this investigation.”
The fact that the sample wasn’t delivered to the FBI from the start has former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer concerned.
Coffindaffer suggested the FBI would have always had the “advanced technology” and questioned sending the DNA sample to a different lab when the Pima County Sheriff’s Office had the FBI’s resources from the start of the investigation.
“The fact that they’re saying the FBI has this advanced technology, they would’ve always had it,” she told Men’s Journal. “So that should really irk everyone that the sample didn’t go there because they would have always had the advanced technology and expertise.”
Coffindaffer also noted the initial “excuse” as to why the DNA sample was sent to a lab in Florida, saying, “it was based on them having the profiles established and all that, you know, this being imminent in terms of time and urgency and that’s why they kept it – that made a lot of sense, to be honest.”
However, once the “advanced technology” comment was exposed, Coffindaffer said she disagreed.
“But knowing that they had that technology, that should really have the Guthrie family and anybody who cares about justice for Nancy Guthrie upset, because that is not tracking at all,” she said.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department previously addressed the DNA sample being given to the FBI. “PCSD has worked with the FBI since the beginning of the Guthrie investigation,” the PCSD said.
“This is not new information. The private lab we utilize in Florida continues to share information with the FBI lab and other partner labs across the country. DNA analysis remains ongoing.”
Coffindaffer said that the DNA evidence could take months to yield any results.
Earlier in the investigation into Nancy’s disappearance, Fox News spoke to George “Ren” McEachern, a former FBI supervisory agent, about the Pima County Sheriff’s Department’s decision to send the sample to Florida.
On February 16, the sixteenth day of Nancy’s disappearance, Fox News issued an update on the latest developments in the investigation, including the discovery of a glove, which appeared to match the one worn by the subject seen in doorbell footage from Nancy’s Nest camera.
Authorities at the time said they were testing DNA from the glove and planned to run it through CODIS, the FBI-managed Combined DNA Index System, a national database that contains more than 19 million offender profiles.
The process would take about 24 hours. However, what frustrated some at the time was that the DNA was sent to a lab in Florida rather than to Quantico, which has more immediate access to CODIS.
During the episode of Fox News’ Faulkner Focus, Aishah Hasnie spoke to McEachern about the delays that sending the glove to Florida could cause the case.
Hasnie told McEachern, “I hate to bring this up, because I know the sheriff’s department has been getting a lot of criticism, but why are we just now using this system? It’s been there. It’s been a Quantico.
“Why, on week three, are we now waiting for this? Because you’re telling me the system is quick. You put it in, you might get a result in 24 hours.”
McEachern replied, “The way I look at it, the guiding principle in investigation should always be most efficient, highest quality, fastest result, right? If that’s the guiding principle, the FBI lab is the fastest way.
“Now, the lab in Florida, yeah, it is certified, right, there’s evidence that goes there that results in good cases. But the fact that you cannot get immediate access to CODIS delays that identification by 24, 48 hours at a minimum, at a minimum, right? And with a kidnapping case, every second, every minute counts. So, that’s the frustration.”
The glove was found about two miles from Nancy’s Catalina Foothills home in a field near the side of the road, the FBI said. Preliminary findings from a private lab in Florida were received. The FBI said it is “awaiting quality control and official confirmation” of the results before passing them through CODIS.
It comes as the mysterious disappearance of an Air Force general has several chilling similarities to the Nancy case.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
