TUCSON, Ariz. — The hunt for Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mom Nancy has been doomed by Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos’ ego and his vendetta towards the FBI, in line with a rising refrain of critics.
The high-profile case has seen missteps like leaving Nancy Guthrie’s home unguarded within the hours after the crime, baffling press interviews and a protracted investigation that to this point has yielded no clear suspects or robust leads after greater than two weeks.
The FBI is determined to take over the investigation, however can’t until the Guthrie household particularly asks, a number of regulation enforcement sources advised The Put up.
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“It’s a frequent perception on this company that this case has grow to be an ego case for Sheriff Nanos,” stated Sgt. Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Group.
Doomed from the beginning
From the second the “At this time” present host’s mother was reported lacking from her million-dollar Tucson house, Nanos — the highest cop in Arizona’s second-most populous county — took heart stage internet hosting press briefings with an enthralling, down-to-earth demeanor.
Nanos has been the first supply of knowledge within the case, granting a number of interviews to information shops throughout the nation, and persevering with to carry court docket with rambling press briefings within the aftermath of Nancy’s Feb. 1 disappearance.
His choice to maneuver away from basic briefings to cozy chit-chats with particular person journalists has led to conflicting studies, confusion and a basic sense that the sheriff is extra interested by “harm management” than in readability, as one regulation enforcement supply put it to The Put up.
“The sheriff turned a severe investigation right into a rolling spectacle, from questionable choices to shifting narratives and a disastrous media cleanup tour that raised extra questions than it answered,” the supply stated, talking on situation of anonymity.
“Management in moments like this requires self-discipline, not harm management,” the supply added.
Betsy Brantner Smith from the Nationwide Policing Affiliation stated that Nanos’ failure to offer common press briefings has added to the confusion.
“That is Public Info Officer 101. I used to show these lessons. As a regulation enforcement group, you must talk with the media,” she stated.
“You may’t simply cease speaking to them or piecemeal out data.”
Right here’s the most recent on Savannah Guthrie’s lacking mother
Nanos didn’t reply to a listing of questions from The Put up Wednesday — or to earlier makes an attempt to talk with him.
One outspoken critic of Nanos has been Cross, of the sheriff’s deputies affiliation.
Cross, who has twice sued Nanos in federal court docket, accused the sheriff of badly mishandling the communications facet of the case.
“In case you’re going to spend all day speaking to media, as an alternative you are able to do a one-hour press convention with somebody able to talking clearly and professionally,” Cross advised The Put up.
FBI feud
On the heart of Nanos’ obvious unwillingness to relinquish management of the case seems to be a long-running feud with the FBI relationship again to 2015 when he was appointed chief of Pima County Sheriff’s Division.
That very same yr, the FBI started investigating the division for misuse of civil asset forfeiture funds. Nanos was by no means charged however the sheriff on the time was indicted, and Nanos misplaced the next 2016 election for sheriff.
“It’s extensively believed he thinks the FBI price him his election,” Cross stated.
Nanos was visibly livid in 2016 as he hit again on the FBI over its overspending allegations towards his division, calling the claims “complete BS” in an interview with KGUN9.
“You may simply see him seething with rage towards the FBI,” Cross stated, referring to the clip.
“That’s the true Sheriff Nanos — the indignant, vindictive man. That’s who we expertise contained in the division. The ‘aw shucks’ kinda persona that he portrays is form of the character that he places on.”
Nanos was lastly elected sheriff in 2020.
Election controversy
Nanos is within the job after profitable reelection over his Republican challenger, Heather Lappin, amid controversial circumstances and a slim margin in 2024.
The Democrat gained by fewer than 500 votes, after a bitter marketing campaign that noticed him place Lappin, then a lieutenant on the Pima County Jail, on administrative depart simply weeks earlier than the election.
Cross was additionally positioned on administrative depart on the time.
Lappin filed a lawsuit towards Nanos, claiming that after she determined to run for workplace, “Sheriff Nanos and PCSD management waged a retaliatory marketing campaign towards Lieutenant Lappin’s profession with a view to undermine her candidacy.”
Each Cross’ and Lappin’s circumstances are ongoing.
Shortly after Nanos’ victory, the Pima County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted for an unbiased investigation into whether or not Nanos was accountable for prison wrongdoing throughout the election.
The case was referred to Arizona’s Democratic lawyer basic, however no costs have been ever introduced.
One member of the Board of Supervisors advised The Put up that they, too, have been “deeply pissed off” with how gradual the case had been progressing.
FBI needs to step in: ‘They might if they might’
Greater than two weeks into the case, and the FBI is “rising pissed off,” a federal supply conversant in the case advised The Put up.
“Over two complete weeks into this, the police have made no leads, no progress,” the supply stated.
“They have been by no means assured within the glove,” the supply added, referring to the latex glove that rendered no DNA matches.
“The press conferences should not going effectively. Giving press conferences with out saying something. It’s not useful.”
The timeline of the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mother:
The supply additionally famous Nanos’ conflicting statements — complicated the media and the general public.
“One minute he exonerates, the following he doesn’t exonerate,” the supply stated, referring to hypothesis that Nancy’s household was in some way concerned, till he lastly cleared them this week.
Cross stated the FBI ought to’ve been the lead on the probe from the get-go.
“They [the FBI] ought to have taken the case over inside the first few days. We’ve been treating this as a kidnapping, and the FBI is the premier company to take care of kidnappings on the planet,” Cross stated, including that Pima County has 400 commissioned deputies and detectives.
“The FBI has far more assets than that, far more personnel. They need to have taken the lead, in my view, and the opinion of many. We must always have gone via a supporting position.”
If the FBI had been accountable for the case from the beginning, the bureau would have been in a position to ship DNA taken from the glove discovered 2 miles from Nancy’s home to its personal laboratory in Quantico, Va., as an alternative of 1 in Florida picked by the sheriff’s workplace.
As an alternative, the search has been “haphazard,” with authorities “getting fortunate” with the invention of surveillance footage exhibiting a masked suspect.
“If I have been a sheriff and had no forensic functionality, I’d use the FBI,” the FBI supply stated.
“Authorities occurred to get fortunate with the surveillance video, as a result of there was no video backup. The FBI is making an attempt to backtrack and it’s difficult,” the FBI supply stated.
On the identical time, a number of regulation enforcement and FBI sources reiterated that the bureau can solely take over the case with the expressed permission of Nancy Guthrie’s household.
“The FBI can’t take over a case simply because it will get nationwide consideration,” one other exasperated regulation enforcement supply advised The Put up. “Imagine me, they might if they might.”
For his half, Nanos has denied that he hasn’t cooperated with the FBI, telling Inexperienced Valley Information that the bureau hasn’t picked up something that was not already discovered by his detectives.
“We’re devoting every part we’ve bought to it,” Nanos stated.
Scene give up
Certainly one of Nanos’ early strikes, which baffled many specialists, was his choice to give up Nancy Guthrie’s house simply days into the investigation.
“In my skilled opinion, I consider they launched the crime scene too early. And that was on Sheriff Nanos,” Brantner Smith, a former cop, advised The Put up.
Within the complicated first few days of the investigation, reporters and web “true crime” sleuths descended on Nancy Guthrie’s dusty Catalina Foothills neighborhood exterior Tucson — and located to their shock that they have been in a position to stroll straight as much as her entrance door.
“Each reporter I’ve spoken with that’s right here on the bottom couldn’t consider that they have been allowed to stroll as much as the door the following day,” Cross stated.
“I feel it was utterly predictable that we must return on the market once more,” he stated, including that the home ought to have been locked down with crime scene tape and safety.
“It seems unprofessional. It seems amateurish to need to repeatedly go on the market,” he stated. “It doesn’t look good for our division once we’ve had reporters strolling up and primarily contaminating the scene.”
Nanos has denied that his division had relinquished the crime scene too early.
“To begin with, we didn’t launch the crime scene too early. We completed. We accomplished our crime scene. Finished. Ask my investigators. I don’t go on the market and do this. They did it they usually felt assured they retrieved every part,” he advised Inexperienced Valley Information.
Airplane mistaken
Nanos has additionally confronted criticism for not instantly launching his division’s high-tech plane when Nancy went lacking, delaying the aerial seek for hours throughout the essential first day of the investigation.
The obvious holdup in deploying the Cessna airplane, often called Survey 1, was as a result of a staffing scarcity, in line with insiders, who’ve blamed the sheriff for the snafu.
Pima County’s most skilled and skilled search and rescue deputy was moved out of the unit in September 2025 “with out alternative, merely for simply being there too lengthy,” in line with Cross.
The week earlier than Nancy went lacking, one other pilot tasked with flying Survey 1 was additionally moved out, reportedly as a result of workers shortages.
“Shifting the pilot out the week earlier than left us with out our airplane to right away reply to this lacking individual,” Cross stated.
“It was only a matter of time earlier than one thing horrible occurred, and it uncovered the self-imposed weak spot that Nanos created,” Cross added.
Good cops below unhealthy management
Behind the scenes, many Pima County deputies reportedly share the frustrations of the FBI and specialists on Nanos’ dealing with of one of the crucial bewildering kidnapping circumstances of our time.
“These officers are being referred to as the Keystone cops, and advised they don’t know what they’re doing,” Brantner Smith, who served in regulation enforcement in Chicago for 3 many years earlier than shifting to Pima County, advised The Put up.
“And it’s very irritating as a result of these are excellent law enforcement officials. They’re simply not working below the perfect management,” she added.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Division dealt with 12 homicides in 2024 and solved all of them. Deputies police the county of greater than one million.
“[Nanos] will not be a very good communicator. And in my view, that’s fueling a lot of this consternation and hypothesis, in addition to the pointless abuse of our Pima County Sheriff’s Division,” Smith added.
“The detectives are embarrassed by the press conferences,” Cross added.
Nanos beforehand hit out towards his critics over their assaults, singling out Cross straight.
“Aaron Cross is simply being Aaron Cross. He’s manipulative and he’s a liar, OK? He finest watch out as a result of the additional this goes for him, the deeper he’s digging himself,” Nanos advised Inexperienced Valley Information.
Further reporting by Caitlin Doornbos
