Six months after Nancy Guthrie, mother of TV presenter Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing and kidnapped, a Wall Street Journal investigation has raised serious questions about how the Pima County Sheriff's Department, led by Sheriff Chris Nanos, has handled the case. Nancy has still not been found and no arrests have been made, and the report suggests the investigation may have been undermined from the outset by personnel decisions and evidence-handling failures, matters that carry weight given the case's high public profile and the family's continued search for answers.

The WSJ found that Sgt David Stivers, whom Nanos appointed to lead the homicide unit, had been reprimanded just two months before Nancy's disappearance for "poor judgment" over delays securing evidence in an earlier homicide case, which was later dropped for insufficient evidence. On 1 February, detectives reportedly failed to seal off Nancy's property for hours despite dried blood being found on her porch, allowing reporters, livestreamers and delivery drivers onto the scene; the blood was later confirmed by DNA analysis to be Nancy's and is now believed linked to the abduction. Nanos went on to promote Stivers to lieutenant in July, effective September. Separately, former electoral rival Lt Heather Lappin has alleged Nanos sidelined top homicide detectives and other staff who backed her 2024 campaign against him, including demoting the department's senior pilot to patrol duties shortly before the kidnapping, contributing to further delays on the day Nancy vanished.