PHOENIX – Chris Nanos has had a long career in law enforcement, but he admits he isn't used to the amount of scrutiny that has come with leading the investigation into the disappearance of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother.
At news conferences since 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie's apparent abduction from her Tucson-area home, the soft-spoken sheriff of Pima County, Arizona, has tried to walk the line between keeping the public informed while withholding investigation details that only the person who took her would know. He's acknowledged the approach sometimes falls short.
Recommended Videos
“I’m not used to everyone hanging onto my every word and then holding me accountable for what I say,” Nanos told reporters on the investigation's third day.
With the case now in its second week, Nanos has also acknowledged missteps, including that he probably should have waited longer to relinquish Nancy Guthrie's home to her family after his detectives finished combing through it for evidence. Before authorities resecured the scene, journalists had walked up to the front door to photograph blood droplets that the sheriff said were Guthrie’s.
And critics, including a fellow Democrat, called him out for going to a University of Arizona basketball game last weekend while the victim was still missing.
“That does not look good,” said Dr. Matt Heinz, a Democrat who serves on the county’s government board. “I mean, dude, watch the game at home. Read the room.”
Responding to criticism, Nanos told the Green Valley News that no one can work around the clock.
”Even though I want to, I can’t, and to sit back and say, ‘Well, it’s a bad image,’ I guess I’m going to have to live with that image. Because I got to a point where I needed to decompress a little bit and back away from my team a little bit so I’m not on them all the time,” Nanos said.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen at home Jan. 31 and was reported missing the next day. On Tuesday, authorities released surveillance videos of someone approaching her door wearing a gun holster, ski mask and a backpack, marking the first significant break in the case. The videos — less than a combined minute in length — gave investigators and the public their first glimpse of who was outside Guthrie’s home, but they don't show what happened to her or help determine whether she is still alive.
Soon after the images were released, authorities detained a man during a traffic stop south of Tucson. He was questioned and later released.
Nanos, a native of El Paso, Texas, started with the sheriff’s office as a detention officer in 1984 and steadily rose through the ranks to become second-in-command before being appointed sheriff in 2015 when his boss retired.
Before becoming sheriff, he took part in the investigation into one of Tucson's biggest tragedies: the 2011 mass shooting outside of a grocery store that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including then-U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords. At the time, Nanos was leading the agency’s criminal investigations division and, in the days after the attack, was quoted in news accounts as authorities were piecing together a timeline of the attacker’s movements.
As sheriff, Nanos has said his department won't enforce federal immigration law amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown and that he will use his limited resources to focus on local crime and other public safety issues.
Even so, days before Guthrie’s disappearance, Nanos’ office helped investigate an exchange of gunfire between federal agents near the U.S.-Mexico border and a man accused of being involved in a smuggling operation. Authorities say the man, who was shot, had fired at a federal helicopter.
After his appointment as sheriff, Nanos lost the 2016 race to Republican Mark Napier but defeated Napier in 2020. He squeaked by in his 2024 reelection campaign, defeating Republican Heather Lappin by 481 votes in a race that wasn't without controversy.
Just weeks before Election Day, Lappin was placed on administrative leave from her job at the sheriff’s department. In a lawsuit, she alleged Nanos took the action to undermine her campaign for sheriff by raising ethical concerns about how she handled a reporter’s request to reimburse inmates for the costs of outgoing calls. Lappin denied wrongdoing.
Heinz, the county board member, said he thinks the late-in-the-campaign administrative action against Lappin likely affected the race's outcome, given the narrow margin of victory.
As for the Guthrie investigation, Heinz said he understands how law enforcement leaders want to be transparent with the public about investigations. But he also said it’s “equally important not to get out there in front of a bunch of cameras and talk when there’s not really anything actionable or helpful or of interest.”
Others haven't been so quick to knock Nanos' handling of the investigation.
Tom Morrissey, a retired chief U.S. marshal and former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, said he wouldn’t criticize Nanos, saying it can get complicated when trying to inform the public and still trying not to provide information that might help suspects.
“The perpetrator or perpetrators are watching what law enforcement is doing up close and personal, and it does impact their ability to avoid being discovered or arrested,” Morrissey said.
In an interview Friday, Nanos acknowledged his annoyance with an Associated Press reporter’s questions about the case, saying he was being asked about an element of the investigation that was the FBI’s responsibility and questioned whether the journalist was trying to pit him against his federal partners.
He said he’s doing his best to solve the case and demurred when asked to assess how he has handled it.
“I’m going to have people who think I’m doing a good job, and I’m going to have people think I am doing a bad job,” Nanos said. “But that’s what we have elections for.”
___
Associated Press reporter Sejal Govindarao in Tucson contributed to this report.