Nancy Grace says she is as confused as most people regarding the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, and she is openly criticizing local authorities over how the case has been handled, claiming there’s been a lot of ‘bad judgments’ coming from Sheriff Chris Nanos.

The veteran prosecutor turned television personality addressed the case during the opening keynote conversation at Variety’s inaugural True Crime Summit at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Grace spoke with Variety Publisher and Co-President Dea Lawrence about the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today anchor Savannah Guthrie.

Nancy Guthrie has been missing since February 1, when authorities say she was kidnapped from her home in Tucson, Arizona. The case has dominated headlines as investigators search for answers.

Lawrence began the conversation by asking how the case could remain unsolved despite the advanced forensic tools available to investigators today.

Grace said she has been asking the same question almost since the beginning. “I’ve been asking that question since about Day 2 of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance,” Grace said, citing her experience prosecuting violent crimes. “I’ve been wondering, how is this happening?”

While speculation has circulated about whether someone close to the family could have been involved, Grace said she does not believe the crime was an inside job. “For one reason, and one reason only, I do not believe the Guthrie family is responsible, because although it was many years ago that I first met Savannah Guthrie, she is, I’d like to assure you, not a fake TV person,” Grace said.

“She’s real. She is real, just like she is on TV. She’s super-smart. She’s a trained lawyer, and I find it not just difficult but impossible to believe that Savannah Guthrie would drape her arm around [a family member] if she suspected he was involved,” Grace said. “All your true crime, legal aficionados would say you look at the family first. Of course you do, because statistically, that’s who did it. But I don’t think that’s who did it in this case.”

Grace also reflected on her own experience with violent crime. Her fiance, Keith Griffin, was murdered in 1979 when she was a 19-year-old college student. “I remember the smell of the carnations at my fiance’s funeral — the smell makes me sick even now. I can’t stand to smell it. It’s such a moment in your life that you never forget,” Grace said.

She said those memories give her deep sympathy for the Guthrie family as they search for answers. “When you’re in the middle of it it’s like you’re Alice. Everything’s upside down. Nothing makes any sense. I remember after my fiance Keith was murdered, I would ask my mom for days, ‘Is Keith dead?’ I couldn’t take it in for a really long time.”

Grace also took aim at local Tucson authorities, particularly Sheriff Chris Nanos, over the early handling of the case. “I believe that they were advised by law enforcement not to jump on a ransom, that they thought law enforcement could solve it organically by the sheriff that runs desert justice, a reality show. So that’s another big problem — waiting so long to call in the feds,” she said.

She continued with a blunt assessment of the investigation. “Nanos has had a lot of putting perfume on the pig, missteps, translation, F-ups. There’s a big difference in an accident or a misstep and knowingly hurting your investigation. I don’t really care about his posturing and his reality show and his making it about me. I don’t care about that,” Grace said.

“I only care about how it’s affecting the investigation, and there have been a lot of bad judgments. The feds have the power, the technology that local law enforcement does not have, and that’s no knock on them. And I hate to detract from the men and women out there working and doing a great job as best as they can. They simply do not have the expertise that the feds have.”

During the wide-ranging conversation, Grace also discussed the Jeffrey Epstein case and the ongoing fallout surrounding it. “They’re some of the wealthiest people in the world and they’re like pigs at the F-ing trough,” Grace said. “And they had to go to Epstein for money. I mean, that’s like hopping in bed with the devil and liking it.”

Grace also spoke about conversations she has had with Epstein victims and the challenges they face long after the crimes occurred. “I spoke with multiple Epstein victims, now adults. And when people say the word closure, I still roll my eyes because there is no such thing as closure when you are a victim of violent crime. They know who their attackers were. That’s where you’re gonna find your client list. In that, speaking with the victims, if the feds are bothering to do that and combing through every document,” she said.