The pair of men who were arrested and then released in connection with Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance aren’t in the clear, embattled Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said.
The persons of interest were detained in separate traffic stops: one on February 10 about an hour south of Guthrie’s home, and another on February 13 near her neighborhood near Tucson.
Both were released after questioning and not charged in the disappearance of the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, who vanished on February 1.
Apparently those men are still on investigators’ radar, Nanos said in an interview with ABC 15, released on Thursday.
“Because we didn’t make an arrest, or released some people, doesn’t mean they’re cleared. It just means that we don’t have enough to hold you,” the bumbling sheriff said when asked about the two men.
Cops questioned delivery driver Carlos Palazuelos in the town of Rio Rico, near the Mexican border, for eight hours on February 10 and searched his home.
They stopped another, unnamed man and impounded a gray Range Rover in an overnight operation in Pima County on Feb. 13. The same night, officers raided a house and questioned the three people inside.
Nanos emphasized that investigators had “evidence” that led to the search warrants, and that evidence remains viable even if the court ordered them released.
“The evidence we’ve obtained, who knows, maybe a day from now, a month from now, a year from now, somebody might call in and say, ‘Oh you missed this.’ And guess what? We’ll go back,” Nanos told the outlet.
When asked if detectives are still actively investigating the two men, Nanos declined to comment.
The comments contradict earlier statements from the sheriff’s office that implied the men detained — plus three other people questioned at a house police raided — were totally in the clear.
This Saturday will mark six months since Guthrie vanished with few clues and no official suspects — despite security camera footage of a masked man at her door and DNA evidence reportedly found in her home.
Nanos vowed on Tuesday he’s “still positive” the case will be solved – even after six months with few leads.
The comment was a response to Savannah Guthrie’s latest, tearful plea to the abductors on Monday, asking for them to “do the right thing.”
“We have so much DNA to sort through,” Chris Nanos, the Pima County Sheriff, told NBC.
“We have so much in terms of video evidence to look at. So I’m still positive that we’re going to resolve this case.”
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