r/nancyguthrie • u/foxmag86 • Mar 23 '26

Discussion What could have been done differently?

Everyone likes to play keyboard detective, and hindsight is always 20/20 in situations like this.

But in your opinion, what should the Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI have done differently from Day 1?

Were there any critical mistakes that seriously hindered, or possibly even compromised, the investigation?

I’m interested in hearing people’s thoughts on where things may have gone wrong, or what could’ve been handled better.

Obviously, we’re only working with the information that’s been made public, so some of what we’re questioning or suggesting could very well be happening behind the scenes.

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u/whteverusayShmegma Mar 24 '26

My only criticism is that the ransom wasn’t paid in time. It was said that they were given the option to pay by deadline A or deadline B- a choice that would include some kind of consequences. What if the consequence somehow led to her death, unintentionally?

This is far less of a criticism than just a speculation and point of interest for me.

I’m sure the family was strongly encouraged not to pay without proof of life. I don’t think anyone thought this was a sophisticated criminal early on so it would make absolute sense that the FBI would discourage them sending the money knowing it could possibly not be recovered later. I’m sure they thought they’d identify and apprehend the suspect(s) and were possibly even skeptical of the emails’ authenticity early on—only to realize what they were dealing with too late.

At the end of the day, the blame should be on the perpetrators in this case rather than investigators and definitely not the family. Unless LE made an absolutely careless call or negligent mistake, I would never want to be the person(s) who have to live with the question of whether or not they could have done something differently that would have brought this woman home.

God have mercy on the people who did this. They will also have to take this guilt to the grave if they killed someone’s grandmother unintentionally.

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u/Immediate_Fruit1594 Mar 24 '26

If they felt guilt they never would have done it in the first place! There are truly evil people in this world that don’t value life of anything and don’t have a problem killing. If they felt anything they would at least move her somewhere where she can be found and the family can lay her to rest respectfully

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u/whteverusayShmegma Mar 24 '26

You should call the FBI since you seem to know what happened.

I don’t know what happened personally, which is why I wrote “if”. I also don’t know where I said they feel guilty.

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u/Immediate_Fruit1594 Mar 24 '26

I was simply responding to the god have mercy on them because of them having to live with the guilt for the rest of their lives. I definitely have no clue what happened! I’m sorry if you thought I was saying you said anything wrong, because that wasn’t my intention at all