Dominic Evans ‘scared to death’ after internet trolls unfairly accuse him of being Nancy Guthrie suspect
An Arizona couple says they’re living a nightmare and are “terrified” after internet watchdogs say the husband is being targeted as a suspect in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie.
Fifth-grade teacher Dominic Evans, 48, said his family has been living in their Tucson home with no lights on and is always afraid of being followed since his name was linked to Guthrie’s initially mysterious case, the New York Times reported.
“He’s going through hell and it’s worse,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said of the lies told by the married father of three.
“And I don’t know what to tell him except that he must be talking to some lawyers and falsely accusing some of these people.”
Evans said the false allegations exploded online after novice investigators realized she was playing in a band with Guthrie’s son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, who was the last person to see the grandmother alive before she disappeared on Feb. 1. Guthrie’s entire family has been wiped out by the authorities.
True crime buffs also thought Evans resembled a masked man with a backpack and a gun caught interfering with Guthrie’s door camera in photos released by authorities days after his disappearance.
And arteur sleuths credited Evans’ previous arrest for drunkenly stealing a calculator from a bar in 1999 to bolster the idea that he was somehow involved in the case.
From there, the teacher’s address was quickly bombarded on the Internet and dozens of people began flooding into her home overnight as she tried to force the kidnapping of Savannah Guthrie’s mother on her.
Evans and his wife Andrea, who is the principal of a neighboring school district, told their teenage son not to come home and they did not feel safe gathering their two young boys at their grandparents’ house in case they were followed.
“I was looking out the window all night, trying not to let the light out at home,” said Andrea, adding that she was “terrified” by the ordeal.
As speculation mounted, Evans was forced to take a leave of absence.
He was later interviewed by the FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department as they investigated Guthrie’s case – but was never named as a suspect.
Evans, who said he only met the grandmother who disappeared once in 2011 after knowing the family for nearly 20 years, has recently been able to return to work amid the saga.
Investigators have not identified any suspects or persons of interest.
The Guthrie family increased the reward for information leading to Nancy to $1 million on Tuesday – more than three and a half weeks after the elderly woman disappeared from her home.
