Pima County Sheriff Faces Mutiny Claims As Search For Nancy Guthrie Hits Day 32

A retired SWAT commander with nearly three decades inside the Pima County Sheriff's Department has gone public with a damning indictment of Sheriff Chris Nanos, alleging deep internal dysfunction at the very agency tasked with finding an 84-year-old woman believed to have been abducted from her Tucson home on 1 February 2026.

The case, now in its fifth week, concerns Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. She was last seen at her Catalina Foothills residence after being dropped off by her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, at approximately 9:50 p.m. on 31 January.

Sheriff's Own Veterans Turn On Him

The most pointed criticism has come from inside Nanos' own ranks. Bob Krygier, a retired Pima County Sheriff's lieutenant who spent 25 years on SWAT operations and served one and a half years as the department's full-time SWAT commander, appeared on the Surviving the Survivor podcast and delivered a sweeping condemnation of his former employer's leadership.

'I'm pissed off and sad,' Krygier told Radar Online separately. 'This is an organisation in which I take pride. I care about its reputation. And I truly hate what it has become.' He targeted Nanos' conduct at press briefings specifically, arguing the sheriff's erratic and emotional delivery has complicated rather than aided the investigation.

Krygier went further, revealing the results of an internal morale survey that he alleged took place a couple of years ago. 'Ninety-eight per cent of the department gave a vote of no confidence to the sheriff for various reasons,' he said. 'Think about that number. This isn't Mayberry. We need to do better.' He alleged that Nanos dismissed those findings without seeking to address the concerns behind them.

Also speaking out was former Pima County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Richard Carmona, who drew a clear line between the department's working deputies and its senior leadership. 'All those detectives that are working tirelessly, the deputies that are out there, traffic control — everyone is focused on this mission,' Carmona said.

On a separate occasion, Krygier wrote an opinion column published in the Arizona Daily Star arguing that 'when investigations falter publicly, it is rarely because of a lack of dedication or competence among the deputies doing the work. More often, it reflects failures in leadership, decision-making, and communication at the top.'

A History of Internal Conflict

The criticism of Nanos did not emerge with the Guthrie case. His 2024 re-election campaign was so divisive that deputies staged public protests, with Sgt Aaron Cross, then president of the Pima County Deputies Organisation, photographed on a street corner carrying a sign reading 'Deputies Don't Want Nanos.'

Nanos placed both Cross and his Republican challenger, Lieutenant Heather Lappin, on administrative leave in the final weeks before the vote. The move prompted the Pima County Board of Supervisors to unanimously vote for an independent investigation into potential criminal wrongdoing by the sheriff during the election; that matter was referred to the Arizona Attorney General's office, which ultimately brought no charges.

Nanos won that election by just 481 votes, out of nearly half a million ballots cast, in a result so narrow it required a full recount. Lappin subsequently filed a notice of claim seeking £1.57 million ($2 million), alleging she was subjected to five retaliatory investigations after she declared her candidacy for his office. That claim names Nanos, Corrections Bureau Chief Scott Lowing, and two other senior department figures. Nanos and the department declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Within the investigation itself, a serving deputy alleged to Radar Online that the department's most experienced homicide investigator has only three years in that unit, a state of affairs the source attributed directly to Nanos bullying veteran officers out. Nanos has also faced scrutiny over the decision to send DNA evidence to a private Florida laboratory rather than the FBI's own forensic facilities.

He defended the choice to Fox News as a matter of evidence consistency but acknowledged 'mixed DNA' issues at the external lab had complicated analysis. During a 17 February interview with Fox 10, Nanos pushed back on claims he had blocked evidence, describing such allegations as 'just crazy,' and insisted his agency maintained a 'great working relationship' with the FBI.

Forensic Stalls and a Shifting Investigation

The evidentiary picture in the Guthrie case remains deeply incomplete. Doorbell camera footage released by the FBI on 10 February shows an armed, masked individual at Nancy Guthrie's front door in the early hours of 1 February. Investigators described the suspect as a male between 5 feet 9 and 5 feet 10, with an average build, carrying a black 25-litre Ozark Trail Hiker backpack.

By 3 March, Sheriff Nanos told NBC News that authorities were reassessing earlier assumptions about where that backpack was purchased, having initially believed it was exclusive to Walmart. 'That backpack is new, is exclusive to Walmart, but who's to say I didn't buy it and put it on eBay?' he said. 'That's what we're looking at.'

DNA recovered from a glove found on a road roughly two miles from Guthrie's home returned no match on the FBI's national CODIS database and did not match DNA from the crime scene. Separately, the FBI confirmed it had received more than 23,600 tips by late February, and on 27 February relocated its command post from Tucson to its larger satellite office in Phoenix, a move attributed by a law enforcement source to operational efficiency, given that most assigned agents are Phoenix-based.

Specialised investigative squads and evidence recovery teams remain assigned to Tucson. The sheriff's department simultaneously announced it was 'refocusing resources' on a tighter team of homicide detectives.

The United Cajun Navy, a Louisiana-based volunteer search-and-rescue organisation, deployed personnel to Tucson with thermal drones, scent-tracking dogs, and trained search teams, formally submitting an operational proposal to both the sheriff's department and the FBI. Incident Commander Josh Gill told CNN the group was left in a 'holding pattern,' saying the sheriff's office 'essentially ignored their operational plans.'

Brian S. Trascher, the Cajun Navy's vice president, confirmed that neither the agencies nor the Guthrie family formally requested the group's assistance, and the sheriff's department asked all volunteer groups to give investigators space on 21 February.

For Nancy Guthrie's family, the politics of the sheriff's office are a secondary concern; thirty-two days on, they are still waiting to bring their mother home.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI or the Pima County Sheriff's Office at (520) 351-4900.