The sheriff leading the search for missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie was suspended eight times during his early career with the El Paso Police Department, including once for allegedly beating a handcuffed suspect so severely the man was hospitalized with severe blood loss, the Daily Mail reported, citing disciplinary records obtained by the Arizona Republic through a public records request.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, 70, now faces a demand from the Pima County Board of Supervisors to provide sworn testimony about whether he misrepresented his work history before joining the sheriff's department in 1984. The deposition order comes as the Nancy Guthrie disappearance case remains unsolved more than two months after the 84-year-old was taken from her Tucson home on the night of February 1.
The convergence of an unsolved kidnapping, a disciplinary record stretching back decades, and an elected sheriff who says he has "no regrets" raises a straightforward question: Is the man running this investigation fit to lead it?
Records from Nanos's time at the El Paso Police Department describe a pattern of alleged misconduct that includes excessive force against suspects, making a false statement to authorities, off-duty gambling, and chronic tardiness. His longest suspension ran 15 days. He received a separate ten-day suspension for lying, dispatcher logs showed he had called in a warrant check on a witness after he allegedly denied ever stopping the man.
The most serious allegation involved the March 1982 incident. A suspension notice described an encounter with an "intoxicated and uncooperative" suspect whom Nanos allegedly struck "several times." The suspect was hospitalized and suffered severe blood loss. The suspect later filed a police assault charge report, but a grand jury declined to indict Nanos.
Not everything in the El Paso file cuts against Nanos. A 1979 document credited him with saving his partner's life by shooting a suspect from a rooftop.
But the record also includes allegations that go beyond use-of-force questions. In June 1980, Nanos received his second-longest suspension after he allegedly used profane language about the wife of a suspect named Wayne Robertson, who had been arrested for public intoxication and refusing to identify himself. Robertson had reportedly declined to give his address because he did not want his wife bothered. Nanos was also disciplined for insulting women with profanity and, in a separate incident, allegedly threatened a witness by saying, "One of these nights I will waste you." Another alleged remark attributed to Nanos referenced taking someone "to the desert and beat the h*** out of him."
By 1982, Nanos was reportedly forced to resign from the El Paso Police Department. Two years later, he joined the Pima County Sheriff's Department. He eventually rose to sheriff in 2020.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors recently ordered Nanos to provide sworn testimony following reports alleging he misrepresented his work history before joining the sheriff's department in 1984. Spokesperson Brittany Abarr said Nanos would comply and offered a statement framing the sheriff's posture as cooperative.
"Sheriff Chris Nanos remains committed to full compliance and will continue to operate with openness and transparency moving forward. His priority remains maintaining public trust and serving the community with integrity."
That language, "openness and transparency", sits uneasily beside a career file that includes accusations of lying to authorities, forced resignation, and an investigation that has drawn sharp criticism from Nanos's own deputies.
Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, told the New York Post there is "a common belief in this agency that this case has become an ego case for Sheriff Nanos." That is not an outside critic lobbing partisan attacks. That is the head of the department's own deputies' union.
Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her Tucson home on the night of February 1. Doorbell surveillance footage later showed a masked suspect appearing to break into her property in the middle of the night. More than two months later, no suspects have been arrested or publicly identified. Pressure has continued to mount on investigators and on whoever took the 84-year-old from her home.
The criticism of Nanos's handling of the case has been specific and sustained. Sources told Fox News that Nanos was accused of stopping the family from issuing a reward, reportedly because he feared an influx of tips could muddy his investigation. Savannah Guthrie eventually issued the reward 24 days into the search.
Two individuals were briefly apprehended, one ten days into the investigation, another at thirteen days, but both were released without charges. Nanos was also criticized for sending evidence to a private lab instead of using the FBI, a decision that raised questions about speed and chain-of-custody standards. Forensic experts have weighed the DNA evidence and blood-trail clues in the case, and the investigative choices matter.
Perhaps most damaging to public confidence: roughly a week into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance, Nanos was criticized for attending a basketball game while others continued the search. When News4 Tucson later asked him whether the search had gone the way he wanted, Nanos answered, "Yes absolutely." Asked whether he had any regrets, his answer was two words: "no regrets."
For the family of an 84-year-old woman taken from her home in the dark, that answer lands hard.
Defenders of Nanos might point out that the El Paso disciplinary records are decades old, that a grand jury declined to indict him in the most serious incident, and that long careers in law enforcement sometimes produce messy files. Fair enough. But the relevance of those records is not merely historical. The Pima County Board of Supervisors is now demanding sworn testimony about whether Nanos was truthful about his past when he joined the department in 1984. If he was not, the deception would have spanned his entire Pima County career, including his ascent to the office he now holds.
The question of honesty matters doubly when the man in question is running a high-profile kidnapping investigation that his own deputies' union president describes as an "ego case." Investigators had been probing a mystery incident at Nancy Guthrie's home even before her kidnapping, adding layers to a case that demanded careful, transparent leadership from the start.
Consider the sequence: a sheriff allegedly forced to resign from one department for misconduct, who then joins another department, possibly without disclosing the full truth, and rises over decades to lead it. He takes charge of a nationally watched kidnapping case. He reportedly blocks the family from issuing a reward. He attends a basketball game during the search. He sends evidence to a private lab instead of the FBI. He declares he has no regrets. And now records surface showing a history of alleged violence, dishonesty, and threats during his early career.
Each item alone might be explained away. Together, they form a record that demands accountability, not a press statement about "openness and transparency."
Blood-stained gloves found in the Arizona desert near the Guthrie home, surveillance footage of a masked intruder, and an 84-year-old woman still missing, these are the facts that should be driving every decision in Pima County. Instead, the sheriff's own past has become a distraction from the case that matters most.
The Daily Mail reported it contacted the Pima County Sheriff's Department for comment. Blood evidence on Nancy Guthrie's porch and the broader forensic picture remain under examination, and the public deserves answers, about the case, and about the man running it.
The Board of Supervisors has taken the right step by demanding Nanos's sworn testimony. But a deposition is only as useful as the follow-through behind it. If Nanos misrepresented his work history, the board must act. If his investigative decisions in the Guthrie case were driven by ego rather than evidence, the public deserves to know.
An 84-year-old woman was taken from her home in the middle of the night. Her family waited nearly a month to issue a reward because the sheriff reportedly objected. The case remains unsolved. And the man in charge says he has no regrets.
Nancy Guthrie deserves better than a sheriff whose longest career pattern is avoiding accountability.
