A violent home invasion and sexual assault roughly 30 miles from where 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie vanished has triggered an active manhunt in Pima County, Arizona, though the sheriff says the two cases appear unrelated.
Deputies from the Pima County Sheriff's San Xavier District responded to a home in the 12000 block of West Vegas Drive, near Taylor Lane and Ajo Way, shortly after 2:40 a.m. Monday after receiving a report of an assault. A male intruder entered through an unlocked door, physically and sexually assaulted a woman inside, attempted to burglarize the residence, and fled before law enforcement arrived. No arrests had been announced as of Tuesday, and the suspect remains at large.
The crime scene sits about 30 miles from the Catalina Foothills home where Nancy Guthrie, the mother of "Today" co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, disappeared on Feb. 1. That case, now more than five months old, remains under active investigation by both the sheriff's department and the FBI. The proximity between the two incidents drew immediate questions about a possible connection, but Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told Fox News Digital there is "nothing to indicate the cases are related."
Suspect description raises questions despite sheriff's denial
Authorities described the home invasion suspect as approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, either Hispanic or White, with a thin build and gray in his beard. He was last seen wearing an oversized green shirt. The sheriff's department urged residents near the crime scene to review home security or neighborhood surveillance footage and to call 911 or submit an anonymous tip to 88-CRIME with any information.
That physical description has not gone unnoticed. In the Guthrie case, authorities previously described an unidentified person seen outside Nancy Guthrie's home as approximately 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall. Whether any forensic or physical evidence links the two cases beyond that general height range remains unclear. Nanos offered no further detail on why investigators ruled out a connection.
Investigators in the Guthrie case have been reportedly closing in on a masked suspect, but no arrest has been made in that case either. The 84-year-old woman's disappearance has drawn national attention and persistent scrutiny of how local and federal authorities have handled the investigation.
FBI and sheriff's department still at odds over Guthrie investigation
The home invasion comes against a backdrop of open friction between the Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI over the Guthrie case. Fox News Digital previously reported that FBI Director Kash Patel said a four-day delay before the bureau joined the Guthrie investigation may have cost investigators crucial video evidence. Patel accused the sheriff's department of keeping the bureau "out of the investigation" for four days after Guthrie's disappearance.
Sheriff Nanos disputed Patel's account, saying the FBI was notified promptly and worked alongside investigators. The two sides have offered sharply different versions of the early days of the case, a dispute that has played out publicly and raised uncomfortable questions about whether jurisdictional turf battles slowed the search for an elderly woman.
The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment on the home invasion or the broader investigation. That silence leaves the public with competing narratives from two agencies that are supposed to be working the same case.
Beyond the FBI dispute, the sheriff's department has faced criticism from other quarters. A rescue group previously said the sheriff turned away volunteer search teams in the Guthrie case, a decision that struck many observers as difficult to justify when an 84-year-old woman was missing and every hour mattered.
Five months gone, two open cases, and no one in custody
Nancy Guthrie's disappearance has now stretched past the five-month mark. Key facts in the case still don't add up, and the investigation has produced no public resolution. The FBI and the sheriff's department say the case remains under active investigation, but the lack of an arrest, or even a publicly named suspect, speaks for itself.
Now Pima County has a second violent crime demanding the same department's attention: a woman assaulted in her own home in the middle of the night, with the suspect still on the loose. Whether or not the two cases are connected, both test the same agency's ability to protect residents and deliver results.
If Patel's account of the Guthrie investigation is accurate, the sheriff's department burned four critical days before letting the FBI in the door. If Nanos is right, the FBI is rewriting history to cover its own late start. Either way, an 84-year-old woman is gone, a sexual assault suspect is free, and the people of Pima County are left waiting for answers from institutions that cannot agree on basic facts about their own conduct.
Residents deserve better than competing press statements. They deserve closed cases and suspects in handcuffs.
