Ashleigh Banfield made a bombshell claim that Savannah Guthrie‘s brother-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, is a suspect in Nancy Guthrie‘s disappearance.
The journalist pointed fingers at Cioni during the February 3 episode of her “Drop Dead Serious” podcast, titled Stunning New Twist: Savannah’s Sister’s Car Seized, Cameras Smashed.
“They have towed Annie Guthrie’s car. And there is some connection to Annie Guthrie‘s car and Nancy Guthrie’s son-in-law — that would be Annie’s husband, Tommaso Cioni, age 50 from Tuscon, Ariz., married to Annie P. Guthrie, Savannah’s sister,” she claimed.
Ashleigh added, “And my law enforcement source tells me that Tommaso Cioni is the prime suspect in this case. Again, law enforcement source tells me that Nancy Guthrie’s son-in-law, married to Annie Guthrie, Savannah’s sister, is — may be, may be a prime suspect in this case. At the very least, let me tamp that down, because sometimes it’s the first person you’re looking at, not ‘prime’ as in there’s no one else, OK? So, let’s be really mindful of that. Families are always looked at first as well.”
In response to Ashleigh’s report, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said they “don’t have anybody here listed as a suspect.”
“Nobody’s eliminated, but we just really don’t have enough to say, ‘This is our suspect, this is our guy, we know — or our gal.’ We don’t know that,” he said during a February 5 press conference, adding the move was “irresponsible.”
The sheriff added, “And it’s really kind of reckless to report that someone is a suspect when they could very well be a victim.”
Although the sheriff pushed back on her allegations, the former Banfield host repeatedly held firm.
She told Status newsletter she is sticking to her reporting, while a podcast producer informed The Hollywood Reporter that Ashleigh “stands by her reporting” and her “ironclad source.”
On Ryan Gorman‘s “The Ryan Gorman Show” podcast, Ashleigh said a high-level source close to the investigation also thinks Tommaso may be a suspect in the case.
She explained, “I know that the sheriff is pushing back today and they haven’t named publicly a person of interest. But that doesn’t mean that within the departments, all of the departments that are working on this, that that’s not who they may be looking at at this time.”
“So just the fact that somebody has targeted or think someone may be a prime suspect does not mean there’s going to be an arrest that’s imminent,” Ashleigh pointed out.