Sheriff: Signs point to abduction in Nancy Guthrie case (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: I want to go out front now, as promised, to the Pima County Sheriff, Chris Zanos. And Sheriff, I appreciate your time very much. And that's just shocked and saddened to be speaking to you about this. I know you say that Nancy Guthrie has been abducted. What makes you say that?

[00:00:21] Speaker 2: You know, there's first and foremost, we know that Ms. Guthrie has got every, just like we said, sharp as a tack, her widths are about her. This isn't somebody who wandered off. This is an elderly woman in her mid-80s who suffers some ailments that makes her mobility, her ability to walk around, very difficult. The family told us she couldn't go 50 yards. And that in and of itself is a concern. But then we also have some things at that scene that indicate to us that she was removed from that scene against her will. I can't go into all those details. It's not it's not that I'm trying to be secretive. I get that everybody wants to know and they all want to help. And we appreciate it so much. But there is a case that we need to to protect that integrity and continue working with our investigative leads.

[00:01:24] Speaker 1: But you are confident, Sheriff, just to be clear, that it was an abduction.

[00:01:30] Speaker 2: I, you know, I've been doing this for 50 years. I have a gut feeling. But, you know, it came to me that yesterday in the early afternoon that she was that she was abducted. We didn't know who she was, but we knew that we had this middle aged this this mid 80s woman missing from her home. And so we have our search and rescue team out there who does great work all the time, and they are out all the time. I mean, it's almost daily. They just are. But something that they told me about that scene made me believe that there's more than just than just a missing person. So we we wanted to continue with that search and rescue mission. We today we still hope she's alive and we we continue with those missions of search and rescue. But our efforts have to we can't you just can't ignore what you're seeing at that scene and and and put that off. Time is of the essence. And so we also initiated our homicide, our criminal investigation team out there to start their investigation.

[00:02:40] Speaker 1: And so when you say it's your gut on things at the scene, is there anything you can share that that led you to that gut without sharing too much about the scene, as I know you're unable to do?

[00:02:51] Speaker 2: No, I really can't at this time. You know, we we have people in the field right now doing some things with, of course, canvassing the neighborhood. Our search teams are backing out, are back out there just just to make sure we didn't miss some areas. Those are standard procedures. But what we also know is there's some evidence that we're trying to retrieve and whether it's from cameras or digital evidence from cell phones, those that technology that's so critical to us, our LPRs, our license plate readers, all of that, we think that once we get those things downloaded to us and have a look at them, we'll be in a better position.

[00:03:30] Speaker 1: So I know you would ask people for ring cameras or any other kind of information. Is that what you're referring to? I mean, have you been able to look at any of that to see? I mean, you know, whether she was taken in a car or truck or a van or are you able to ascertain any of that from video footage that you have at this point, or is that still unknown?

[00:03:49] Speaker 2: It's still unknown. We're getting a lot of leads and a lot of that information is coming in. And we are looking at some some cameras, but but there's nothing specific to us. We're looking. Our priority right now is the home had some cameras that we need help in in the download of. They're not they're not cloud based. There may be on a server somewhere. But, you know, I'll be honest, we've been getting great help from not just our law enforcement partners, the FBI, the the local law enforcement agencies and our state law enforcement partners, but even private businesses, Google, Apple, name them. They're made up. They've all been offering up assistance and help, and we greatly appreciate it. This is this is a case to this community because it's not often that never really that we see somebody in the middle of the night in their safe home environment and bed all of a sudden disappear.

[00:04:46] Speaker 1: So you mentioned and I don't know if I I'm just making sure I heard you correctly. You said when you first found out about this, you didn't know who she was. And I think the first thing people wonder is, well, was this a kidnapping for ransom because her daughter is is is who she is? Do you think this is a kidnapping for ransom? Do you have any I mean, any kind of a ransom note or anything that would indicate that? Or at this point, do you not know if that's the case?

[00:05:13] Speaker 2: No, we we've been working with Miss Guthrie's Savannah Guthrie's security team and researching any any potential threats there or anything. But no, we're not hearing anything like that. We've not seen that. We'd never rule it out. But no, we're not. We don't. That's not the direction we're going in right now.

[00:05:33] Speaker 1: Well, so so do you think I mean, and I guess, again, I know a lot of this is your gut at this point, so I know, you know, you'll you'll know it, you know, and you know it. But I mean, do you think this could have been random?

[00:05:46] Speaker 2: Anything is possible. You know, like I say, I I go with gut instinct sometimes and sometimes I'm wrong. You know, so so we just got to be careful and follow our protocols, our procedures and just kind of systematically work our way through this. The view of the media has been tremendous help in getting us leads that we're able to chase down and and work on. And and and this community has always, always supported us. When we come out and ask for help, they're right there. And so it is a. You know, Miss Guthrie's Savannah is a member of this community, even though she may not live here. She's a strong part of our family, if you will. And this reaches out and. There are there are part of this case as well.

[00:06:40] Speaker 1: Sheriff, do you believe that Nancy was hurt when she was taken? I mean, I know it was against her will. So, I mean, do you think we know we heard Jenna talk about her needing her medication? I mean, do you know anything about her condition?

[00:06:56] Speaker 2: I. We know, and of course, we don't want to get into her medical history, but we know that she, like I said, sound mind capable, all of those things. She just had some physical ailments that that that limited her ability to move to get around. But my goodness. We just know that. Without getting into too much, we just we are it is our belief she was removed from that home against her will, we hope we're racing the clock here, you said that earlier. Her meds are important. And the family has told us 24 hours without those meds could be fatal. And here we are at. 30 plus hours or more that we really need if somebody knows something, they just call us, just let her go. We'll come get her if that's the case. We just hope, you know, we never give up hope. We'll always be hopeful that we find her safe and sound. But there is a side of this that we have to. We just can't ignore when we see things in front of us. We would we would not be doing our job if we did that.

[00:08:20] Speaker 1: You know, as people try to I mean, everybody, of course, anybody who knows anything would would call you. Do you know? I guess what state she would be in as to whether she was hurt in that instant. Maybe you were obviously able to see evidence when you were in her home. But any kind of an injury that you might have thought she sustained in her abduction?

[00:08:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, I I just can't really speak to that right now.

[00:08:47] Speaker 1: Yeah. All right. I understand. Is there anything else, Sheriff, that you want people to know about this, about her that might help people be able to help you find her?

[00:09:00] Speaker 2: You know, yeah, if you see someone or take a look at that pictures, the photos we put out there, if you see someone that you think even resembles that, you know, get your phone out and videotape, take a quick picture, send that to us. We're right now putting up a link, I think, that will allow anyone across the country to lock in and deliver us any kind of link they may have. Every every piece of information is important. Do not. We hear all the time. I didn't want to bother police. It didn't seem that important. Let us be the ones to dismiss that information. Share it with us. We'll we'll go through it and prioritize it and decide whether it's valid or not. But again, this is a great community. I am so blessed to to be able to to be a part of this community. And they always they always come through for us. And I I really believe that we'll find her. My team is solid, good young men and women. They never let us down. They this this case, we will get there.

[00:10:06] Speaker 1: All right, Sheriff, I appreciate your time very much. And one last question before you go, just so people know, it sounds like you don't know the necessarily the way in which she was abducted. Right. So is it safe to say that she could be anywhere? I mean, we know Border Patrol was involved. Does that mean you think a border could be involved? Obviously, Tucson's right along the Mexican border.

[00:10:29] Speaker 2: No, no. Let me let me. First of all, I do not I do not want this to be a political piece. This is about a elderly woman who lives in our community and went to bed in her safe home and is missing, removed from her home. That is it. Border Patrol helps us all the time when we have missing hikers or they have some dogs that do tremendous work. And that's what they did. They came out with their dog team to help us.