Nancy Grace has called for the resignation of Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos over his department's handling of the investigation into the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie from her Tucson, Arizona, home on 31 January 2026. The TV legal analyst made the demand on Sean Hannity's podcast on 31 March, accusing Nanos of critical failures at the crime scene that have hampered the search for Savannah Guthrie's mother.
Guthrie was last seen entering her secluded Catalina Foothills property around 9:45 p.m. after dining out with family. She failed to show for an online church service the next day. A welfare check uncovered blood splatter trailing from her bedroom to the outside.
Clear signs pointed to a violent abduction. A masked figure lurked on her porch, caught by the doorbell camera in the early hours of 1 February. No arrests have followed two months on.
Grace Demands Sheriff's Resignation
Grace did not mince words during her exchange with Hannity, placing the blame firmly at the top. 'I don't like attacking the actual men and women that are doing the work. The fish stinks at the head, Sean,' she said. 'It's [Chris] Nanos. He stinks. He's gotta go.'
Her frustration boiled over what she sees as amateur-hour decisions. Like handing the house back to the family within a week of the snatch. "By destroying the crime scene and by releasing the crime scene too early, they destroyed a lot of evidence," she fumed. Nanos's team allegedly stonewalled the FBI from key items. Feds had to loop in Google just to grab the Nest cam footage locals could not recover.
What irks her most is the soft-pedalling of these blunders as 'missteps.' 'That's certainly putting perfume on the pig, isn't it? They're screw-ups. The feds wouldn't have done that,' Grace shot back. Experts note that a scene like that should be secured for weeks, not days, especially with blood present and a phantom intruder involved.
Yet Nanos defends his team, telling KVOA last week, 'I have no regrets about my team's efforts. I don't regret we let the crime scene go too soon or any of that.' Ex-Pima Sheriff Richard Carmona calls it straight-up 'corrupted.' Once a scene is tainted, it can ruin forensic evidence..
Heat Builds on Nanos Amid Probe
This is mot just Grace venting. Nanos is under pressure from all sides. NewsNation reported inconsistencies in his CV. As a rookie in Texas, he allegedly kicked a suspect, Carlos Urias, in the head hard enough to hospitalise him. Assault charges followed, but a grand jury declined to indict.
He resigned before any further action. He later inflated his resume to claim two extra years on the force, a fact deputies say he concealed for decades. That history has become fuel for a recall petition in Pima County, linking his past conduct to the Guthrie case mishandling.
The family clings to hope amid heartbreak. Savannah Guthrie has increased the reward to $1 million. She admitted on air that her mother 'may be dead' but pleaded for tips, prompting over 750 new leads in recent days.
She gave a Dateline interview last week, her first major appearance since the disappearance. Volunteers, including cartel widows, have scoured the desert scrub and urged locals within two miles to check dashcams for footage from late January. With Nanos dug in and no suspects named, the clock continues to tick cruelly.
Pima's leadership could use old territorial law to remove Nanos if he refuses sworn testimony, and a no-confidence vote looms. Grace calls it a distraction from finding Nancy, but public outrage is understandable. When the top officer's record suggests cover-ups and the evidence trail has gone cold due to rushed decisions, trust disappears quickly. Guthrie's blood calls from that porch, and Nanos's excuses sound increasingly hollow.
