The father of Gabby Petito said he empathized with the family of Nancy Guthrie amid a series of false leads and missteps in the heartbreaking search for the missing woman.
Joe Petito spoke to Fox & Friends about the recent developments on the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie nearly five years after his own daughter Gabby disappeared.
Gabby Petito, 22, went missing in August 2021 while on a cross-country road trip with her fiancé Brian Laundrie. After a frantic, month-long search, authorities found her remains near Grand Teton Park in Wyoming.
On Thursday, it was revealed that the Arizona sheriff’s department leading the investigation into Guthrie’s disappearance was blocking the FBI from gaining access to a glove and DNA found inside her home.
Joe discussed the similarities with his daughter’s case and remembered how false leads and misinformation spread far too quickly, making the search all the more difficult.
‘A lot of outside influence will try to give an opinion,’ the father said about the investigation into the missing 84-year-old.
‘They’re the only ones that have all of the information or as much as possible. So I just hope they’re listening to what they feel is best,’ he said of the Guthrie family.
Joe reflected on drawn parallels between the search for Gabby and the search for Today Show host Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy, and the unimaginable torment of the situation.
Gabby Petito’s father Joe Petito spoke out on the similarities between his daughter’s case and Nancy Guthrie’s
Gabby went missing in 2021 while on a cross country road trip with her fiancé
Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy Guthrie, has been missing for almost two weeks, sparking a frantic search
Gabby’s remains were found near Grand Teton Park in Wyoming, eight days after her parents had officially reported her missing and 19 days after she was last seen.
A notebook belonging to her fiancé were found months later with his confession to murdering Gabby. His remains were found nearby. Officials found he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators combing through the desert surrounding Guthrie’s $1 million home in the Catalina Foothills neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona found a black glove on Wednesday that looks similar to the one her abductor wore in the doorbell camera footage, 11 days after she was reported missing.
‘It can frustrating at times, it can be humbling, but also scary and sad,’ Joe said.
‘Savannah’s mom, from my understanding, needs medicine and care that she might not be getting and that’s got to be weighing on them just the same and that’s an absolute shame, my prayers to them.
‘I hope this ends with Nancy coming home safe and sound and whoever did this behind bars.’
He recalled everything ‘moving so fast’ during the media-frenzied investigation into his daughter’s disappearance.
‘It’s humbling to see so many people try and help your family,’ he said. ‘But it’s also frustrating.’
The father remembered the chaotic information deluge in the aftermath of his daughter’s disappearance.
Petito’s remains were found a month into the search. Police also found a confession to her murder with her fiancé’s remains
Guthrie was last seen on January 31. Her friends alerted her family when she did not show up to watch a church service on February 1
The heavily publicized case has included multiple ransom notes, mounting evidence and thousands of tips from the community
‘If someone does a bad report and doesn’t give accurate information, a lot of times other people just copy and paste it,’ he said.
‘And next thing you know, something’s out there that’s not true at all.’
The Guthrie family and Pima County Police have dealt with their fair share of unresolved evidence and false information.
Federal officials have reportedly asked Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos for the glove and DNA found inside Nancy’s home so they could be processed at the FBI’s national crime lab at Quantico, Virginia, a federal law enforcement official told Reuters.
But Nanos has denied the request, instead sending the evidence for testing at a private lab in Florida, the source said.
‘It risks further slowing a case that grows more urgent by the minute,’ the official said, claiming that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has already spent roughly $200,000 on sending evidence to the Florida lab, with which the department contracts.
The source also derided the sheriff’s department for ‘earlier setbacks’ in the investigation, and criticized Nanos for not requesting FBI assistance earlier.
‘It’s clear the fastest path to answers is leveraging federal resources and technology,’ the official told Reuters. ‘Anything less only prolongs the Guthrie family’s grief and the community’s wait for justice.’
The mother-of-three was last seen by her daughter Annie and son-in-law on January 31.
Guthrie was reported missing the next morning after she failed to show up at a friend’s house to watch virtual church services.
The Guthrie family and police believed the elderly woman was forcibly taken from her home
The 84-year-old’s neighbors were instructed to submit security video to the Pima County Sheriff’s Office
Nancy has not been seen or heard from since, as her children repeatedly pleaded with the public for any help finding their mother.
Authorities believed Nancy was forcibly taken from her home. Police have received 13,000 tips from the community regarding her disappearance.
The media and the family have received multiple ransom notes with deadlines, demands and conditions for her return, but at least one was reported to be fake.
Other sightings of a man lurking near Guthrie’s home and an unmarked white van parked in her neighborhood have thus far gone unresolved.
The elderly woman’s state of health has added another layer of urgency to the investigation.
‘She’s 84 years old,’ Savannah said in a February 4 video plea. ‘Her health, her heart is fragile. She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine. She needs it to survive. She needs it not to suffer.’
The FBI has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to Nancy’s recovery.
Gabby’s grieving father offered his prayers and condolences to the Guthrie family.
‘My prayers to them,’ Joe said. ‘I hope this ends with Nancy coming home safe and sound and whoever did this behind bars.’
