FBI Director Kash Patel has said that a delay in allowing federal agents to join the investigation into missing woman Nancy Guthrie may have led to the loss of crucial doorbell camera footage. Patel told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the local sheriff's office kept the FBI out of the case for four days, a gap he suggested cost investigators valuable time in the search for Guthrie, whose disappearance is being treated as a suspected abduction.

Patel indicated that the footage may have been erased owing to the elaborate process required to preserve such evidence, meaning the delay in FBI involvement could have had a direct bearing on the material available to investigators. The dispute highlights friction between local law enforcement and federal authorities over jurisdiction and timing in the early stages of the case.