The United Cajun Navy has claimed that the Pima County sheriff has stonewalled it for nearly a week after it offered dozens of search dogs and drones to help in the search for Nancy Guthrie. The group said it sent Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos a 41-page plan offering assistance in the search, according to the Daily Express US.
Sgt. Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, said that he hopes Nanos will accept the help. “More bodies are always better than less,” Cross said.
Amid the search for Nancy, four detectives and a sergeant from the Pima County Sheriff’s Office have been assigned to a joint task force with the FBI, operating out of the bureau’s Tucson field office.
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“Everybody wishes that we had some hot leads, that the whole department’s working, trying to run down to solve this quickly. So the fact that we’re reducing the amount of manpower working it, I mean, it’s hard to say what kind of sign that signals,” Cross said.
Cross previously acknowledged that there was some friction between local police and the FBI.
“I know (there were) issues between the sheriff and the FBI early on, but now that they’re working on one task force, is that positive? I hope so. I hope it’s a more collaborative effort with the federal agency,” he said.
New update on DNA
Authorities have revealed that DNA on one of the gloves discovered near Nancy’s home has a match to an employee who works at a restaurant across the street. Nanos said in an interview with KVOA that officials always suspected that this might be the case, with scores of random gloves being found near Nancy’s Tucson home.
“There was some talk and discussion that it was police officers out in the field just discarding [the gloves], that is so far from the truth,” Nanos said.
“We knew that at that time, we believed wholeheartedly that those gloves belonged to a restaurant and guess what? The owner of the glove, we found working at a restaurant across the street. It has nothing to do with the case,” he added.
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However, Nanos also explained that other gloves found near the home could have a different DNA match.
“It’s a challenge because we know we have DNA, but now we have to deal with that mixture and how we’re going to separate it,” Nanos said.
The sheriff recently said that authorities are “definitely closer” to tracking down the suspect or suspects in the case.
“I think the investigators are definitely closer,” Nanos said in an NBC interview. “We got a lot of intel, a lot of leads, but now it’s time to just go to work.”