FBI Expert Explains Why Annie Guthrie's Car Remains with Police After Nancy Guthrie's Disappearance
One month after Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson home, retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer questioned why Annie Guthrie and Tommaso Cioni's car still hadn't been returned despite family clearances.
Ex-FBI Breakdown: Why Annie's Car Remains in Custody
On February 27, 2026, a true crime correspondent for Arizona's CBS 5, Briana Whitney, reported that the Pima County Sheriff's Department is still holding Annie Guthrie and Tommaso Cioni's car. She revealed that she'd received the following statement from officials on the status of the vehicle. "All we can say right now, the vehicle is still part of the investigation."
Jennifer Coffindaffer is a retired FBI Special Agent and former SWAT Team member who now contributes to NewsNation. On March 1, 2026, she published a video on her YouTube channel, "Break The Case with Jen Coffindaffer FBI," in which she discussed the police not returning the Guthrie family car. In doing so, she expressed that she was going to debunk the idea that the vehicle not being returned yet means that the police suspect Annie Guthrie or Tommaso Cioni.
"I do want to talk about this because a lot of people have been saying this. I want to debunk this right now. 'But Jen, they have their cars or car. They seized the car.'" She also pointed out that officials appear to be holding on to several vehicles related to the case. "Let's talk about the car that they have. We know they have that car because I saw Chris Nanos talk about it. 'Yes, we have the car. We're still looking at it.' I also think they have the Range Rover. At least we have no information that they don't have the Range Rover. How about Nancy's car? I didn't see that pulled back in that garage. They are still processing everything."
Coffindaffer stressed that investigators will process all evidence, including family-related items, but she doesn't believe that they are suspects. Coffindaffer explained she believes that the police aren't looking at Annie Guthrie or Tommaso Cioni because they haven't sought probable cause search warrants.
"Those vehicles are going to be looked at. Are they looking at somebody that they might know? I don't know. But I can tell you what is important... As soon as it was released that it was a consent search, so their searches have been consent searches. In other words, law enforcement didn't have any probable cause to believe they were involved. They got consent. If they had probable cause, I could tell you this as an FBI agent. If I have probable cause, I'm not going to get consent.”
Coffindaffer continued, “Why would I use consent when I know that in a court of law, it's going to be argued that the person was coerced. The person didn't really give the consent. The FBI agent made it up. You know, all the things that can happen. Well, you can't do that with a search warrant because a search warrant is signed off on by a judge, a federal judge, and says you've got probable cause here. So that's always the route you're going to use in this situation if you have it. They didn't have it.”
Ultimately, Coffindaffer theorized that the police could still be holding the car to look for evidence that the kidnapper tracked Nancy from Annie and Tommaso's home.
"Is it possible that they could have been in (Nancy Guthrie's) neighborhood waiting for her to get home? It's possible. But is it also possible that she was tracked from Annie and Tommaso's house? Is it possible a tracker could have been put on there? Is it possible that a person could have interfaced with that car and thus they're looking at fingerprints? They're looking at possible DNA.
In addition to Coffindaffer's analysis, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has publicly cleared the Guthrie family. Still, his plea for the rumors about the Guthrie family to stop makes her commentary a valuable and timely pushback against those still looking for reasons to point fingers.