Nancy Guthrie's son-in-law disappears from public view as quirk in the law could mean his home is being searched without consent
Nancy Guthrie's son-in-law hasn't been seen in a week, but police and the FBI are able to search his home without his consent, even without a warrant.
Tommaso Cioni was said to be one of the last people to see the missing mother of NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie before she disappeared in the early hours of February 1.
He and his wife, the Today host's sister, Annie Guthrie, live in a sprawling $675,000 ranch-style house about four miles from Nancy's home in Tucson, Arizona.
Annie has been a constant presence, appearing with her siblings, including brother Camron, in videos pleading with Nancy's kidnappers to bring her back unharmed.
She was with Savannah when she appealed for more information on Tuesday and shared horrifying new footage showing a masked figure wearing latex gloves outside Nancy's door on the night she vanished.
Only hours later, police detained a man in Rio Rico for questioning during a traffic stop. On Wednesday morning, the man was released.
But Cioni, 50, has not been seen since the Daily Mail spotted him and Annie leaving and returning to their home on February 3.
The Italian schoolteacher is believed to be holed up with his wife and her siblings in a $1.2 million mansion nearby inside a gated, residents-only compound away from prying eyes.
Despite his absence, Pima County Sheriff's deputies have searched Cioni's home multiple times, including a nighttime examination on Saturday.
Every member of the Guthrie family - including Cioni - was cleared as a potential suspect on February 16.
Annie was spotted at the home supervising officers as they again rummaged through the home, but Cioni was not seen.
However, police do not need his permission to search the house, even without a warrant, so long as Annie is there to allow them access.
Two US Supreme Court cases ruled that police can search a shared home - such as a marital residence - if one of its occupants is there and consents.
If another resident was present when police arrived to conduct a search and refused access, officers would have to return with a warrant.
This was determined in the Georgia v Randolph case in 2006 when a couple disagreed about allowing police access to their home.
But if the other resident was not physically present, their refusal would not prevent another occupant from letting the police inside.
A second case in 2014, Fernandez v California, decided this rule after a woman who was beaten in a domestic violence attack allowed police to search their shared apartment.
Her boyfriend refused police access when they first arrived, but was in custody when officers returned to conduct a search.
Pima County and federal records do not show any applications for warrants to search Annie and Cioni's property, indicating they were given permission.
Whether Cioni objected to police searching the house he shares with Annie is unknown, and he may have already told police they could look inside whenever they wanted.
Cioni and Annie have been married since 2006 and have one young child.
'Many of you observed an active law enforcement presence at the Guthrie residences over the weekend,' police said on Monday,
This was after investigators were seen searching Annie's home, including taking photographs inside the property for several hours, though it is unclear what, if any, evidence had been collected.
Drone footage was also released showing investigators removing a floodlight from Nancy’s home amid revelations that a ransom note specifically referenced the fixture.
A security camera was also removed from the exterior of the property on Monday.
Such activity is now expected to continue through Tuesday, the sheriff's department said.
Last week, the Pima County Sheriff, Chris Nanos, said he had not ruled out Cioni or anyone else as a suspect in his investigation into the kidnapping of Nancy.
Obama Accuses JD Vance Of Promoting ‘Blood And Soil’ Politics
Former President Barack Obama rarely mentions Vice President JD Vance by name, but that changed this week with one of his sharpest public attacks since Vance took office.
The comments immediately fueled speculation that Democrats are beginning to focus more attention on the vice president as Republicans look ahead to the post-Trump era.
Speaking Thursday during a conversation with author Malcolm Gladwell, Obama accused Vance of promoting what he described as a “blood and soil” vision of America, despite being married to Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Obama made the remarks while discussing the Reconstruction era and arguing that many of the same debates over citizenship, voting rights and national identity continue today.
“We have a politics now that at least one of our major parties has been captured by politics that is not that subtle about suggesting that ‘We the people’ means a certain kind of people,” Obama said.
“When you have the vice president, current vice president, making a speech that is basically a blood and soil version of ‘We the people,’ that it matters who your parents were and how long they’ve been here despite him being married to a daughter of an immigrant himself.”
The phrase “blood and soil” is historically associated with Nazi Germany and white nationalist ideology.
Obama went on to argue that debates over who belongs in America remain central to the nation’s politics.
“That echoes, then, ideas about who can be a citizen, who belongs, who gets to make decisions,” he said.
Gladwell followed by accusing Vance of hypocrisy, arguing that the vice president was making what he called a nativist argument despite his own family’s immigrant background.
Obama agreed.
“That is progress,” Obama said.
“Listen, hypocrisy is progress. It is, because it means that you feel guilty enough to either lie to yourself or others.”
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Vance’s office for comment.
Obama did not identify the specific speech he was criticizing, but Vance’s most recent nationally televised remarks came during Independence Day celebrations marking America’s 250th birthday.
In that speech, Vance encouraged Americans to reject what he called a “two-dimensional view” of the country focused only on its historical failures.
“So what I’d ask you to do, my fellow Americans, on our 250th birthday, is to reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens and reject the two-dimensional view of your country,” Vance said.
“Reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness.”
He also emphasized that America’s accomplishments were achieved by “a common people working towards a common future.”
Obama has generally avoided making Vance a regular target since the vice president took office.
One notable exception came during the 2024 presidential campaign when then-Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Without naming Vance directly, Obama contrasted Harris’ choice with the Republican ticket.
“When a presidential candidate chooses a running mate, it says a lot about who they are and what kind of president they’ll be,” Obama said at the time, Fox News reported.
Political observers have increasingly discussed Vance as a potential frontrunner for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, though he has not announced any plans to run.
Against that backdrop, Obama’s unusually direct criticism is likely to fuel speculation that some Democrats are beginning to sharpen their message against a politician they view as a likely future standard-bearer for the Republican Party. While no Democratic leaders have publicly described their strategy in those terms, prominent figures often begin drawing contrasts with potential future rivals well before a presidential campaign officially begins.
Whether that proves to be the case remains to be seen, but Obama’s remarks marked one of his most pointed critiques of Vance to date and ensured the vice president once again found himself at the center of the national political conversation.
