Guthrie, the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, was last seen on the evening of January 31 entering her home in the Catalina Foothills of Tucson, Arizona. Authorities believe she was taken against her will around 2 a.m. on February 1. Her pacemaker disconnected from an Apple Watch at her home hours later. No suspect has been identified. No arrest has held.
Eighteen days into the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, multiple law enforcement sources are accusing Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos of restricting the investigation to a three-man inner circle and freezing out the FBI.
The man running the investigation, according to those working beneath him, won't let anyone else think.
According to sources within law enforcement who spoke to the Daily Mail, Nanos has confined all decision-making authority to himself, Chief Jesus Lopez, and Captain Juan Carlos Navarro. Sergeant David Stivers is officially assigned to the case, but any information he gathers is passed straight up the chain. The detectives doing the actual fieldwork have no role in shaping the investigation's direction.
One law enforcement source described the arrangement bluntly:
"Everybody else is being told what to do, no one else has a say so or an opinion. It's just three men making the decisions."
Another source echoed the concern, noting that experienced detectives are typically the ones steering a case of this magnitude, with command staff receiving updates through the chain of command. Instead, the chain has been inverted.
"So no actual detectives are steering this, just command staff. This is highly unusual."
That source added a measured caveat: keeping key details under wraps is standard practice, as seen in the Idaho murders case. What is not standard is command staff driving the investigative strategy itself. "It's the tail wagging the dog," the source said.
The friction between Nanos and federal investigators may be the most consequential element of this story. Sources told the Daily Mail that the sheriff's office is not sharing information with the FBI, despite the bureau's involvement in the case.
"It's limited to the thought processes of three men. They're keeping everything from the FBI – they just aren't sharing."
The FBI has reported receiving more than 20,000 tips. The Pima County Sheriff's Department says it has fielded at least 20,000 calls, generating between 40,000 and 50,000 leads. At least 400 officers are working the case. Those are enormous numbers. And yet the agency with the deepest resources, the most advanced forensic capabilities, and the broadest jurisdictional reach is reportedly being held at arm's length.
DNA samples recovered during the investigation were sent to a facility in Florida for testing rather than to the FBI's lab at Quantico. A glove discovered two miles from Guthrie's home was tested against DNA from inside her residence and run through the CODIS criminal database. It matched neither.
One source described the FBI's position in stark terms:
"At this point they really don't know what to do. He's stonewalling them. They're not even sure why."
Another source explained the structural reality that makes this possible: Nanos doesn't answer to the FBI. They are separate agencies. "The FBI's hands are pretty much tied," the source said.
Former Chief Deputy Richard Kastigar Jr., who retired in 2023 after 46 years with the department and once served as Nanos's second-in-command, offered the most pointed criticism. He described Nanos as a "quintessential micromanager" and said the case should have been handed to the FBI two weeks ago.
"All the evidence should have gone to Quantico from the beginning."
Kastigar also pointed to a possible motive for the sheriff's resistance. In 2015, the FBI began investigating the Pima County Sheriff's Department for misuse of civil asset forfeiture funds. That investigation, sources say, may have cost Nanos a reelection in 2016. According to Kastigar, the grudge never faded.
"He has great disdain for the FBI. They investigated his department in 2016 and he's still p****d. He holds a grudge."
If that characterization is accurate, it means a decade-old institutional grievance is now shaping the search for an 84-year-old woman taken from her home in the middle of the night. Kastigar called the arrangement "ludicrous," noting that Pima County lacks the experience and resources for a case that may have gone international.
The investigation has produced activity but not results. On February 12, Pima County SWAT officers raided a home two miles from Guthrie's residence. No one was detained. Around the same time, FBI agents stopped a Range Rover Sport and spoke to its driver. He was released without charge.
A delivery driver named Carlos Palazuelos was arrested in connection with the case and released without charge hours later. He angrily denied any involvement. Guthrie's son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, was publicly cleared by authorities after unfounded online speculation. The department called family members victims in the case.
Sources told the Daily Mail that the sheriff's team has gotten "lucky" in certain moments, including finding surveillance footage, but luck is not a methodology. It is not a substitute for the institutional heft of the FBI's behavioral analysts, forensic specialists, and kidnapping protocols.
The reward for information has climbed to $202,500, including an initial $50,000 that was doubled on the twelfth day and an anonymous $100,000 donation confirmed last Wednesday.
Sheriff Nanos has repeatedly denied any breakdown in cooperation with federal partners. In previous comments to the Daily Mail, he insisted reports that the FBI has been blocked from forensic material are "not true."
"I was so upset when they started saying, well, we're not playing well with the FBI and the sheriff's blocking evidence."
He also claimed an FBI agent told him not to "let the media divide us," though no FBI official has been quoted confirming that statement. Nanos characterized the working relationship in glowing terms:
"We value the FBI. The FBI values us. But, you know, more important than that, our community values all of us."
The Pima County Sheriff's Department did not respond to the Daily Mail's latest requests for comment.
There is a version of this story where a local sheriff, deeply familiar with his jurisdiction, makes a defensible call to keep a sensitive case close. Law enforcement turf disputes are as old as law enforcement itself, and not every disagreement with the FBI reflects incompetence.
But that version requires results. It requires a sheriff whose own people aren't going to the press to describe an investigation bottlenecked by three men. It requires an explanation for why DNA went to Florida instead of Quantico. It requires more than platitudes about community and partnership while the bureau's hands are tied behind its back.
One source captured the suspicion that has settled over the investigation:
"It's not just ego. It's as if he's maybe dragging this out for some reason they can't figure out."
Meanwhile, Savannah Guthrie posted a video to Instagram on Sunday night, speaking directly to whoever may be holding her mother:
"It is never too late to do the right thing. And we are here. And we believe in the essential goodness of every human being, that it's never too late."
Nancy Guthrie is 84 years old. She has been missing for eighteen days. And the people searching for her cannot agree on who should be in charge of finding her.