Investigators have slapped down a bombshell claim that Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s brother-in-law is a suspect in her mother’s abduction.
Former NewsNation host Ashleigh Banfield said Tuesday that Tommaso Cioni is the “prime suspect” in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance from her million-dollar home outside Tucson, Arizona.
The allegation—made on her true crime podcast, which she marketed as a “stunning new twist”—sent shockwaves around the country, but the Pima County Sheriff’s Department says there is no truth to it.
“At this time, no suspects have been identified,” a spokesperson told the Daily Beast on Wednesday morning. “Detectives continue to speak with anyone who may have had contact with Mrs. Guthrie.”
Cioni, 50, is the husband of Savannah’s older sister, Annie. They have been married since at least 2013, when Annie referred to him as her husband in a blog post about their shared love of poetry. Page Six reports that they have a child together.
A bio on an Italian poetry website says Cioni was born in a small Tuscan town. He adds about himself, on a page that appears to have not been updated since 2010, “I‘ve lived in Tucson, Arizona, since 2006. I write when I get the chance. I study lizards. I play electric bass. I make homemade pasta.”
A since-deleted Facebook post from the charter school BASIS Oro Valley Primary said Cioni was a 6th-grade and AP Biology teacher at the school as of 2015. The school is located 10 miles north of Nancy Guthrie’s home.
Sheriff Chris Nanos told The New York Times that Cioni dropped off Guthrie after she had dinner with Cioni and Annie, making him the last person to see the 84-year-old before she mysteriously disappeared.
Banfield, formerly of CNN, claimed that a law enforcement source told her that authorities towed Annie’s car, which she said had “some connection” to Cioni. However, investigators told TMZ they do not know where such claims are coming from.
“We are not confirming the car being seized,” a spokesperson told the gossip site. “We are unsure where that reporter is getting that information.”
Cioni could not be reached for comment.
Guthrie, a widowed mother of three who lives alone, disappeared without a trace overnight Saturday, leaving behind medication and her phone in her Catalina Foothills home that she has lived in since the 1970s.
Nanos says there are signs of forced entry and evidence that points to Guthrie—who has physical limitations but remains “sharp as a tack” cognitively, according to Nanos—being abducted. A law enforcement source told Fox News that Guthrie’s pacemaker stopped syncing with her Apple devices around predawn Sunday.
Cops have refused to divulge why they quickly labeled Guthrie’s disappearance a “crime,” but a NewsNation video published on Tuesday showed a trail of blood outside the front steps of Guthrie’s home.
Neighbors tell the Daily Beast that homes on Guthrie’s street sit on acre lots and that there are no street lights, complicating law enforcement’s search for video of Guthrie’s potential abductor or abductors.
TMZ received a ransom note on Tuesday demanding millions in Bitcoin for the safe return of Nancy, but authorities have not confirmed the note’s authenticity.
Nanos has said his detectives are chasing down hundreds of leads. The Daily Mail reports that it includes looking into the 54-year-old Savannah Guthrie’s superfans who may be involved.
“There are so many people who reach out and just get a little bit too familiar. So many,” a senior NBC source told the paper. “That’s always been an issue, as long as I’ve been here.”
Some of Savannah’s fans have crossed the line in the past, the source said.
“I don’t think Savannah has more crazies than anyone else, but she has had a few people who just cross the line, too much communication, sending gifts, asking her out, just not knowing boundaries,” the source told the paper.
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