Nancy Guthrie Update: Why Aren't Savannah and Annie Pushing Back Against Nanos?

It is the silence that people keep circling. Not the grainy surveillance stills, not even the lab talk, but the absence of a family presence that the public has been conditioned by true crime television to expect.

That expectation may be unfair, but it is real, and it has now become part of the Nancy Guthrie update itself.​ The Pima County Sheriff's Department is leading the investigation with FBI assistance, yet recent reporting has framed the relationship between local and federal investigators as tense, even competitive.​​

What can be stated with confidence is narrower than the online speculation. Sheriff Chris Nanos has publicly described DNA recovered from inside Guthrie's home as mixed, meaning it contains more than one person's DNA and is more difficult to process through national databases.

In an interview aired on NBC Nightly News, he said the tech issues could take 'weeks, months, or maybe a year.'​

The Rumored FBI Struggle

Fox News Digital reported, citing a federal law enforcement source and Reuters, that the FBI requested key evidence including a glove and DNA be processed at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia. The same report said Nanos insisted on sending evidence instead to a private lab in Florida and that a federal official warned this could slow the case.​

Fox News also wrote that the FBI can only take part if requested by local officials, and said the sheriff's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. That detail matters for readers outside the United States because the FBI does not automatically seize control of local cases, even high-profile ones, unless jurisdiction and local cooperation allow it.​

The sheriff, for his part, has offered the kind of certainty that plays well on camera and badly with people who want results yesterday. In Fox's account of his NBC interview, Nanos said investigators were not looking into any new names and insisted, 'We're not quitting. We'll find her.' He also acknowledged criticism, saying, 'It's never fast enough for the Sheriff,' while urging patience in a case with no arrests weeks after the disappearance.​

It is also worth saying plainly that parts of this alleged tug of war are not confirmed in any official, on-the-record statement. Even the Fox report leans heavily on unnamed sources, which means readers should keep a grain of salt close at hand.​

The Family's Uncomfortable Quiet

Into that uncertainty steps a different kind of pressure, the cultural demand that families perform their grief publicly. Podcaster Zack Peter has become one of the louder voices arguing the Guthries have not pushed back hard enough, writing that they have been 'virtually absent' with 'No press conferences. No search party.'

Mediaite reported that Peter made similar remarks on The Megyn Kelly Show, where he and Kelly questioned why the family had not been seen conducting search grids, holding prayer vigils or providing daily updates.

This is where the story risks turning sour. Public criticism of a missing woman's family can feel like a hobby dressed up as concern, and it can quickly slip into accusation by insinuation. Mediaite also noted that Nanos has warned against 'cruel' targeting of the family and said they had been 'cleared' of the crime.​

The argument from commentators is basically that visibility equals urgency. But urgency in an investigation is not always measured by how often relatives appear at microphones, and the public does not know what the family has been asked to do, or not do, behind the scenes.​​

Still, the optics are what they are, and in a case entangled with disputes over evidence handling and slow-moving forensics, optics become combustible. A genuinely useful visual for readers would not be another close-up of a backpack but a simple timeline showing Feb. 1, the evidence decisions and Nanos's warning that DNA analysis could take months, perhaps longer.

For now, the loudest voices are arguing over process and presence, while the central fact remains stubborn and grim. Nancy Guthrie is still missing, and the sheriff has said he is still waiting on science that refuses to hurry.