nancy guthrie

Nancy Guthrie Update: Teacher Targeted as ‘Suspect’ by Online Sleuths Speaks Out

Dominic Evans is in a rock band with Nancy Guthrie’s son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni. He says he was falsely accused and has nothing to do with her disappearance.

Key Points

Online sleuths falsely accused Dominic Evans in Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance due to band connection.
Evans and his family suffered harassment despite no evidence or suspicion from authorities.
“There are innocent people that get hurt,” Evans said, describing the ordeal’s impact.

Dominic Evans is a 48-year-old elementary school teacher, a father, and a drummer in a band with Tommaso Cioni, the son-in-law of missing Arizonan grandma Nancy Guthrie.

That connection made him a target of online sleuths who accused him of being a suspect in Guthrie’s disappearance. To be clear, authorities have not accused Evans or any specific person of being a suspect in Guthrie’s disappearance. Evans says he has nothing to do with Guthrie’s abduction and has been falsely accused.

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Evans spoke about the ordeal at length to The New York Times, which described how people “descended” on his Tucson neighborhood, thinking Evans “might be the man who had abducted Nancy Guthrie.” The sheriff of Pima County, Chris Nanos, previously cleared Guthrie’s kids and their spouses, including Cioni, as suspects in the case. They have also been targeted by online commentators. Guthrie vanished from her home in the early morning hours of February 1. Since that time, news outlets have received multiple ransom notes, but there has been no sign of Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of TODAY Show co-host Savannah Guthrie.

Dominic Evans Told The New York Times That ‘There Are Innocent People That Get Hurt’

The Times called what happened to Evans a “real-life nightmare,” saying that Evans and his wife “hid in their bedroom with the lights off” and feared they were followed.

Evans said he spoke to investigators for about 40 minutes and “hasn’t heard from them since.”

“I feel like someone’s taken my name,” Evans told The Times in an interview. But for what reasons? “I don’t know — monetary, clickbait, to be relevant, entertainment — but there are innocent people that get hurt.”

The sheriff expressed empathy for Evans to The Times. “He’s going through hell, and it is horrible,” Nanos told The Times. “And I don’t know what to tell him except he probably should be speaking with some attorneys and sue some of these people for libel.”

Dominic Evans Belonged to a Rock Band Called Early Black With Tommaso Cioni

Evans’ link to the Guthrie family is the rock band Early Black, which he joined along with Cioni. He told The Times he met Nancy Guthrie once in 2011 when she held an Easter egg hunt at her house.

He said he learned about Guthrie’s disappearance from Instagram. He messaged Cioni to offer support, The Times reported, which added that Internet sleuths put photos of Evans alongside pictures the FBI released of the masked suspect at Guthrie’s door. That suspect has not been identified.

His wife, Andrea Evans, told The Times she was “scared numb” by it all. Evans told The Times that sheriff’s officials asked him “about his band, his friendship with Mr. Cioni, and his whereabouts on the night Ms. Guthrie was taken.” He told them he was at home with his family.

The Italian-born Cioni is married to Guthrie’s daughter, Annie. Sheriff’s officials have previously revealed that Annie and Cioni were the last people to see Guthrie before she was abducted, as Nancy went to dinner at their house. A family member then dropped her back off at home.

Nancy guthrie suspect
Nancy Guthrie suspect.FBI

“I was born in San Giovanni Valdarno on June 18, ’75. Since 2006, I have been living in Tucson, Arizona. I write when it happens. I study lizards. I play the electric bass. I make homemade pasta,” an old bio for Cioni says.

Savannah Guthrie has announced a $1 million reward for information in the case.