Many are now fearing one major decision taken inside the very first hours of the search for Savannah Guthrie's mother may have greatly undermined the investigation.

Nancy Guthrie, 84, is missing from her home in Arizona under disturbing circumstances and police are now being questioned for why a specialized aircraft equipped with thermal imaging was not used at once after she was reported missing.

Per the Daily Mail's report, the Pima County Sheriff's Office did not send out its Cessna plane, known internally as Survey 1, until several hours into the search, even though it is capable of detecting heat signatures over large areas of desert terrain.

Multiple sources told the outlet that the aircraft, which carries high-resolution thermal imaging cameras, remained grounded due to staffing shortages within the department's Air Operations Unit. Those same sources said aviators who could have flown the plane had recently been transferred out of the unit.

"This left the department without a crew to respond to the search due to short staffing," a Pima County source told the Daily Mail.

The delay, insiders alleged, may have cost investigators critical time during the most urgent phase of the search.

"If they had somebody who could fly that plane, they could have probably found her instantly if she was out in the desert," the source said, adding, "The most important, crucial hours and minutes right after someone is missing – we've lost those."

Authorities, at first, sent out a helicopter instead of the Cessna, which, according to sources, did not have the same thermal imaging or sensor features. The fixed-wing plane was finally sent out at about 5 P.M. Sunday, almost five hours after Nancy was officially declared missing at 12:03 P.M. local time.

Timeline Of Disappearance Revealed By Sheriff

Sheriff Chris Nanos stated that Nancy left her house a little after 5:30 P.M. on Saturday, January 31, when she took an Uber to her daughter Annie and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni's place. She came back home later that night, with the garage door opening around 9:48 P.M.

A few hours later, at 1:47 A.M. Sunday, Nancy's doorbell camera was disabled. At 2:12 A.M., the software registered that someone had walked past the camera, although no video was obtained.

Further investigation led to the conclusion that the battery of Nancy's pacemaker phone app was low, as it lost connection with the pacemaker at 2:28 A.M.

The next morning, family members got worried and showed up at her Catalina Foothills house at 11:56 A.M. Nancy was officially declared missing a few minutes later and the police got there at around 12:15 P.M.

Evidence, Ransom Note And Growing Urgency

In the days since her disappearance, authorities have confirmed the discovery of a short trail of Guthrie's blood just outside her front door, heightening fears about her safety.

An alleged ransom note was also sent to TMZ and several Tucson-area media outlets, demanding millions of dollars in Bitcoin in exchange for Guthrie's safe return.

As the first deadline outlined in that message passed without incident, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings released an emotional video appeal Wednesday night, urging whoever has their mother to bring her home.

The FBI has since announced a $50,000 reward for "information leading to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance, according to the New York Times.

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