Three weeks into the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie, the investigation has devolved into a turf war. And the man at the center of it is Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, a Democrat now facing accusations from within his own department that he has turned a missing person case into a personal showcase.

Guthrie was last seen at approximately 9:45 p.m. on January 31, when family members dropped her off at her Tucson home after dinner. She was reported missing around noon the following day after she failed to show up at a friend's house to watch an online church service. No clear suspects or strong leads have emerged. And instead of a coordinated search leveraging every available resource, what the public is watching is a sheriff allegedly blocking the FBI from doing its job.

The evidence controversy

The flashpoint came this week. A federal source inside the investigation told Reuters that Nanos blocked the FBI from accessing a glove and DNA evidence found inside Guthrie's Tucson home. Instead of sending the material to the bureau's state-of-the-art lab in Quantico, Virginia, the sheriff reportedly shipped it to a private lab in Florida.

Nanos has pushed back on the claim that he withheld physical evidence from the FBI, Breitbart News reported. The FBI, meanwhile, reportedly wants to take over the investigation entirely, but Guthrie's family must formally request the transfer.

That detail is worth pausing on. An 84-year-old woman has been missing for three weeks. The FBI wants in. And the barrier isn't legal complexity or jurisdictional statute. It's a sheriff who, according to the president of his own deputies' union, is treating the case as a vehicle for his ego.

His own deputies are saying it

Sgt. Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, did not mince words:

"It is a common belief in this agency that this case has become an ego case for Sheriff Nanos."

Cross went further, pointing to the deeper motivation behind the standoff with the FBI:

"It is widely believed he thinks the FBI cost him his election."

That belief traces back nearly a decade. Nanos was appointed chief of the Pima County Sheriff's department in 2015. Not long after, the FBI began probing the department for misuse of civil asset forfeiture funds. Nanos was never charged. The sheriff at the time was indicted. But the investigation evidently left a mark.

Nanos lost the 2016 sheriff's election. When he finally won the seat back in December 2024, it was by the thinnest of margins: 481 votes out of the entire county, less than one percent. The race required a recount. And it generated its own controversy after Nanos suspended his Republican opponent, Heather Lappin, along with another deputy who supported her. Lappin called the suspension a key factor in the race.

So the picture that emerges is a sheriff who barely held onto his job, who carries a grudge against the federal agency best equipped to solve a high-profile disappearance, and who is now accused of prioritizing that grudge over the search for an elderly woman.

What a serious investigation looks like

In any missing persons case, the first hours and days are critical. Resources matter. Coordination matters. Ego does not.

The FBI lab at Quantico exists for exactly this kind of situation. It is among the most advanced forensic facilities in the world. Sending key physical evidence to a private lab in Florida, whatever the stated justification, raises an obvious question: Was that decision made for the benefit of the investigation, or for the benefit of the sheriff's control over it?

Nanos's early handling of the case drew scrutiny beyond the evidence dispute. The New York Post reported that after initial press briefings, the sheriff shifted to conducting interviews with individual journalists, a strategy that produced conflicting reports and confusion rather than clarity. When the public is desperate for answers, conflicting narratives from the lead investigator are the last thing a family needs.

The cost of institutional ego

This case sits at the intersection of two realities conservatives know well: local elected officials who treat their offices as personal fiefdoms rather than public trusts, and institutional turf battles that sacrifice outcomes for control.

The left loves to talk about accountability in law enforcement right up until the officer in question is a Democrat. Nanos is a Democrat sheriff in a county where he barely survived a recount, who suspended political opponents within his own department, and who is now accused by his own deputies of letting a personal vendetta compromise a missing persons investigation. The national media, consumed with Savannah Guthrie's grief, has been notably slower to interrogate the political dynamics of the man running the search.

If a Republican sheriff had blocked the FBI from accessing DNA evidence in a case this high-profile, the coverage would be wall-to-wall, and the calls for removal would already be trending.

An 84-year-old woman is still missing

Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home three weeks ago. She has not been found. There are no clear suspects. There are no strong leads. And the agency with the resources and forensic capability to change that is reportedly being held at arm's length by a sheriff whose own rank-and-file say the case is about him, not her.

Whatever happened on the night of January 31, whatever answers exist, they will not be found in a turf war. They will be found by investigators who put the missing woman ahead of themselves.

Nancy Guthrie's family can request that the FBI take over. At this point, it is difficult to see why they wouldn't.