Human Bones Turned Up Near Nancy Guthrie’s House and the Sheriff Still Has Explaining to Do

Searchers have been combing the Tucson desert for three months looking for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie.

Now human remains have turned up less than five miles from her home.

What investigators determined about those bones tells you everything about how this case has gone.

Nancy Guthrie Update: Bones Found Near Her Home Ruled Out

A YouTube livestreamer searching a desert wash near River Road and Craycroft Road discovered what appeared to be human remains Thursday – and the Nancy Guthrie investigation held its breath.

Police cordoned off the area, confirmed the bone was human, and then issued their ruling: prehistoric, at least 50 years old and possibly ancient.

The University of Arizona's Anthropology Department was called in to assist, and the Tucson Police Department told KVOA the matter was strictly an anthropological inquiry – not a criminal one.

Not Nancy.

But the discovery landed against the backdrop of a case that has been defined by investigative failures and a turf war between local law enforcement and the FBI – and every new development only deepens the question of why an 84-year-old woman abducted from her home in view of her own security cameras is still missing after three months.

Kash Patel Calls Out Sheriff Nanos in the Nancy Guthrie Investigation

FBI Director Kash Patel went on Sean Hannity's podcast Tuesday and named the man he holds responsible for what went wrong.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos kept federal investigators out of the case for four critical days after Nancy vanished the night of January 31.

"For four days we were kept out of the investigation," Patel said.

In missing persons cases, the first 48 hours are when evidence is fresh, trails are warm, and the chances of finding someone alive are still real.

Nanos burned through two of those windows before letting federal agents fully in.

The DNA evidence compounded the problem.

When Nancy's blood was found on her front porch and samples needed to be processed, Patel said his office had a plane on the ground ready to fly everything to Quantico overnight.

"I had a fixed-wing aircraft on the ground ready to move it immediately through the night," Patel said – and explained the FBI's lab would have produced results within days.

Nanos sent the DNA to a private lab in Florida instead.

That lab reported what Nanos described as "challenges" with the mixed, partial samples.

The FBI ultimately received the evidence anyway – weeks later.

Nanos' department denied blocking anyone, saying a task force member was on scene the night Guthrie disappeared and that the FBI was "promptly notified." His office called the Florida lab decision an operational call made on scene.

But a sergeant inside Nanos' own department described the first week of the investigation to NewsNation as a profanity-worthy disaster – and from the outside, that tracks.

Nancy Guthrie DNA Evidence Mishandled While a Trail Went Cold

The physical evidence picture is just as grim.

Approximately 16 gloves were collected by investigators near Nancy's home – because searchers from the official effort were reportedly dropping their own rubber gloves on the ground as they worked.

The same type of gloves the masked suspect was wearing in Nancy's doorbell camera footage.

Civilians walking the area after official search teams passed through found scattered items the trained investigators missed.

One glove recovered two miles from the home initially yielded a DNA profile that appeared to match the suspect's gloves from the surveillance video – only for investigators to eventually trace it back to a local restaurant worker with no connection to the case.

Thursday's bone discovery was the latest in a string of heartbreaking near-misses.

Three months in, Nancy Guthrie is still missing, no suspect has been identified, and no motive has been confirmed.

Sheriff Nanos is still issuing statements saying his department did everything right.

Kash Patel named him on national television anyway – and Savannah Guthrie's family deserves the same accountability Patel was willing to demand.

Sources:

• Alex Oliveira, "Human bones found near Nancy Guthrie's home — but police make a quick ruling," New York Post, May 7, 2026.
• "Nancy Guthrie: FBI director slams local authorities on handling of case," NewsNation, May 6, 2026.
• "Sheriff Nanos Under Pressure as Sergeant Calls Out Guthrie Investigation," Newsweek, May 8, 2026.
• "FBI Chief Kash Patel Says Pima Sheriff 'Kept FBI Out' As Vital 48-Hour Window In Guthrie Case Closed," IBTimes UK, May 6, 2026.
• "Glove found near Guthrie home with traces of DNA appears to match those worn by masked suspect," PBS NewsHour, February 15, 2026.