Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is publicly disputing FBI Director Kash Patel's claim that his department froze the bureau out of the investigation into the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, a case that has now dragged on for months without a single identified suspect.
Patel, appearing on the "Hang Out with Sean Hannity" podcast, said the FBI offered its help immediately after Guthrie vanished from her Arizona home on Feb. 1 but was sidelined for four critical days. Nanos shot back in a statement posted to the Pima County Sheriff's Department X account on May 5, insisting the FBI was "promptly notified" and that coordination "began without delay."
The clash exposes a fault line that has defined this case from the start: a local sheriff determined to keep control of a high-profile investigation, and a federal agency that believes it could have moved faster and further if it had been let in the door.
Patel's accusation: four lost days
On the Hannity podcast, Patel laid out the timeline as he sees it. He framed the FBI's standard approach to missing-persons cases as cooperative, not adversarial, and said Nanos rejected that cooperation at the worst possible moment.
As HuffPost reported, Patel told Hannity:
"It's a state and local law enforcement matter. What we, the FBI, do is say, 'Hey, we're here to help. What do you need? What can we do?' And for four days, we were kept out of the investigation."
Patel emphasized what investigators know as the golden window. "The first 48 hours of anyone's disappearance are most critical," he said. Four days, in that framework, is an eternity.
The FBI director also took aim at Nanos's decision to send DNA evidence to a private lab in Florida rather than the FBI's own facility in Quantico, Virginia. The New York Post reported Patel's claim that Quantico is "the best lab in the world" and that the sheriff declined the FBI's offer to process the evidence there.
Patel was blunt about the cost of that choice:
"We would have analyzed it within days and maybe gotten better information or more information. Our lab's just better than any other private lab out there, and we didn't get a chance to do that."
He also pointed to the surveillance footage, video from Nancy Guthrie's home showing a masked individual carrying what appears to be a gun on her front steps on the night of the alleged abduction. That footage was not released publicly until Feb. 10, nine days after she vanished. Patel said the FBI, once finally granted access, worked with Google to recover cached doorbell camera footage that might otherwise have been lost. "We could have gotten it days before," he said. "We could have also maybe gotten more data."
The question of how and when the FBI took over DNA testing in this case has been a running source of tension between the two agencies.
Nanos responds: 'coordination began without delay'
Nanos did not let Patel's comments go unanswered for long. In a statement shared on the Pima County Sheriff's Department X account, the sheriff pushed back directly:
"While the FBI Director was not on scene, coordination with the Bureau began without delay."
Nanos said the FBI was "promptly notified by both our department and the Guthrie family." He added: "We remain committed to a thorough, coordinated, and fact-based investigation and will continue working closely with our federal partners as the process moves forward."
The statement was measured in tone. But the subtext was clear: Nanos was accusing Patel of commenting on events the director had not personally witnessed.
What Nanos did not address in detail is the specific four-day gap Patel described, or why DNA evidence went to a private Florida lab instead of Quantico. Those are the questions that matter most, and they remain unanswered.
Criticism from inside and out
Patel is far from the only voice raising concerns about how Nanos has managed the Guthrie investigation. The criticism has come from inside his own department, from former law enforcement leadership, and from federal sources.
Newsmax reported that multiple law enforcement sources told the New York Post the FBI wants to take control of the investigation but is legally unable to do so unless the Guthrie family formally requests it. The FBI doubled its reward to $100,000 for information leading to Nancy Guthrie's recovery or the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
Sgt. Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, told the Post: "It is a common belief in this agency that this case has become an ego case for Sheriff Nanos."
A federal source offered a blunter assessment: "Over two whole weeks into this, the police have made no leads, no progress."
The discontent runs deeper than one case. Nanos has faced broader scrutiny over his professional record, including questions about his resume and prior leadership controversies within the department.
Breitbart, citing the Daily Mail, reported that sources claim Nanos "locked down" the investigation and limited major decisions to himself and two command-level officers. Former Pima County chief Richard Kastigar Jr. told the Mail the case "should have been turned over to the FBI two weeks ago" and criticized Nanos as a micromanager.
"They're keeping everything from the FBI, they just aren't sharing," a law enforcement source told the Daily Mail.
A recall campaign and a case going cold
The fallout has moved beyond press conferences and social media posts. The Washington Examiner reported that a bipartisan recall campaign has been launched against Nanos, led by congressional candidate Daniel Butierez. Organizers need roughly 120,000 signatures within about 120 days.
Butierez said Nanos has been "an embarrassment to Tucson and to Pima County with this Nancy Guthrie case." Among the specific complaints: Nanos reportedly reopened the crime scene at Guthrie's Tucson home, a decision that raised eyebrows among investigators and critics alike.
The recall effort draws on grievances that predate the Guthrie case. Nanos faced a near-unanimous no-confidence vote from responding deputies in 2024, and renewed claims of deputy dissatisfaction have surfaced since. When asked about the recall, Nanos said he would "always honor the will of the people."
Meanwhile, the core facts remain grim. Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC journalist Savannah Guthrie, has been missing since Feb. 1. Three months later, key facts still don't add up, and no suspects have been publicly identified.
Patel's own legal fight
Patel is waging a separate battle on a different front. The Atlantic published an exposé last month claiming Patel is "deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy" and alleging unexplained absences and "bouts of excessive drinking," among other issues. Patel responded by filing a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic and journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick.
The Atlantic called the reported FBI leak investigation into Fitzpatrick "a dangerous new attack on press freedom." MS NOW reported on Wednesday that the FBI had launched a criminal leak investigation into Fitzpatrick.
Whether or not The Atlantic's claims about Patel have merit, and Patel clearly believes they do not, they have no bearing on the factual question at the center of the Guthrie case: Did the Pima County Sheriff's Department delay FBI involvement in the search for a missing 84-year-old woman?
Patel says yes. Nanos says no. But the DNA evidence that was sent to a private lab instead of Quantico, the surveillance footage that took nine days to reach the public, and the months-long absence of any named suspect all tell their own story.
Who pays the price
Fox News reported that once FBI agents were finally granted access, they worked with Google to recover cached doorbell camera footage, evidence that might have been lost entirely without federal intervention. That detail alone raises a hard question: What else might have been recovered sooner if the FBI had been brought in from the start?
Nanos frames this as a jurisdictional matter handled by the book. Patel frames it as a preventable failure in the most time-sensitive hours of a missing-persons case. The people of Pima County, now gathering signatures to recall their sheriff, appear to be drawing their own conclusions.
And Nancy Guthrie is still missing.
In a case like this, the only thing worse than a turf war is a turf war that costs an 84-year-old woman her best chance of being found.
