Arizona sheriff in Guthrie case pushes back on allegations he is blocking FBI access to evidence

An Arizona sheriff in the missing persons case of Nancy Guthrie pushed back on allegations that he is blocking the FBI's access to evidence.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said Thursday that the FBI agreed with his decision to send newly discovered evidence to a private lab in Florida, which has worked with his office for years, Reuters reported.

An anonymous U.S. law enforcement official with knowledge of the case told the wire service that the FBI asked Nanos for physical evidence in the case, including a glove and DNA from Guthrie's home, to be processed at the FBI's national crime laboratory in Quantico, Va., but that he insisted on sending it to the private lab.

The official said that outsourcing the forensic analysis to a Florida contractor effectively denies the FBI's access to crucial evidence in the case, and is delaying the bureau's ability to assist.

Nanos denied the allegations, calling them "not even close to the truth" in an interview with NBC affiliate KVOA. He told the outlet that he discussed the matter with the FBI on Thursday morning.

"Actually, the FBI just wanted to send the one or two they found by the crime scene," Nanos explained. "I said, 'No, why do that? Let's just send them all to where all the DNA exist, all the profiles and the markers exist.' They agreed, makes sense."

The sheriff's department said in a press update earlier Thursday that investigators had "recovered several items of evidence, including gloves," adding that all viable evidence is submitted for analysis."

The department has primary jurisdiction over the case.

The U.S. official said Pima County has spent roughly $200,000 to send evidence in the Guthrie case to the Florida lab.

“It risks further slowing a case that grows more urgent by the minute," the official told Reuters on Thursday, citing unspecified "earlier setbacks" in the investigation.

Nanos said that the lab's DNA analysis in the Guthrie case was pro bono.

The U.S. official also criticized Nanos for not seeking FBI assistance sooner in the investigation.

"It’s clear the fastest path to answers is leveraging federal resources and technology. Anything less only prolongs the Guthrie family’s grief and the community’s wait for justice,” the official said.

Guthrie, 84, was reported missing around noon Feb. 1 after she did not show up for virtual church services. She was last seen the previous night, around 9:45 p.m., after having dinner at her daughter Annie Guthrie's home in Tucson.