Nancy Guthrie Sheriff Accused of ‘National Embarrassment’ After ‘Catastrophic’ Case Fumble—His Officers ‘Hate’ His ‘Guts’
Jason Pham
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is facing backlash for how he handled Nancy Guthrie’s abduction case.
Paul Huebl, a former Chicago police officer who now works as a private investigator, slammed Nanos in an interview with Radar Online, where he criticized the sheriff’s many missteps during the Guthrie case. Those mistakes included not reporting that Nancy’s blood was found at her doorstep until four days after she went missing, and reportedly allowing two reporters to access the crime scene area, which has since become “grossly contaminated.”
“These guys were really negligent, and it could make evidence admission very difficult at trial,” Huebl told Radar Online. “And they were extremely slow to ask for outside help from the FBI. That could have made a big difference during the early hours of the case.”
When asked about the alleged crime scene fumble on February 5, Nanos told reporters, “I’ll let the court worry about it.”
According to Radar Online, Nanos was also accused of not getting a search plane equipped with high-resolution thermal imaging cameras into the air for three hours on the day Nancy disappeared because he’d clashed with the only deputy capable of flying the machine weeks earlier and had allegedly reassigned the officer to street patrol. Nanos was also criticized for attending a University of Arizona basketball game on February 7, the same day Savannah Guthrie and her siblings, Annie and Camron, shared a video begging for their mom’s return.
“That’s, unfortunately, characteristic of what’s happened to this entire department across the board under Nanos’ leadership,” an anonymous Pima County Sheriff’s deputy told Radar Online. “The most veteran investigator in homicide right now has three years’ experience in that department because he keeps bullying people out.”
Bob Krygier, a former Pima County Sheriff’s lieutenant with 25 years of SWAT experience and one and a half years as the department’s full-time SWAT commander, also slammed the office to Radar Online. “I’m pissed off and sad… This is an organization in which I take pride. I care about its reputation. And I truly hate what it has become,” he said.
Radar Online’s sources also note that Nanos won by a mere 481 votes during the 2024 sheriff’s election bid out of almost half a million ballots. At the time, officers stood on street corners with signs reading, “DEPUTIES DON’T WANT NANOS!”
One of those officers, Sgt. Aaron Cross, a department union leader, has also sued the county claiming that Nanos suspended him for taking part in the protest while wearing a civilian outfit that resembled his official uniform. Nanos was also accused of placing his election opponent, Heather Lappin, a lieutenant and a veteran of the sheriff’s department for 19 years, on forced leaves in the last few weeks of the election. Lappin has since left the department and accused Nanos of subjecting her to a campaign of “torture,” according to Radar Online.
A source from the Pima County Sheriff’s office told Radar Online that the Guthrie case has been a “catastrophe” and a “national embarrassment for the whole department due to Nanos’ leadership. “He’s making us look bad,” the insider said. “The rank and file hate this guy’s guts, and now the whole country sees why – and it’s a tragedy that it has to involve, by all accounts, a good and decent 84-year-old woman who happens to have a famous daughter. That’s the real horror here.”
