Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is reacting to a recall effort over his handling of the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy Guthrie.
“We’re aware of the recall, and it’s the right of the people,” Nanos said in response to the recall effort, which 13 News confirmed was launched on Thursday, March 12. “We’ll always honor the will of the people, and that’s what makes democracy.”
Among those gathering signatures to remove Nanos, an elected Democrat, from office is Republican congressional candidate Daniel Butierez, NewsNation reported. Butierez claimed on Tuesday, March 17, that the way Nanos navigated the Guthrie case “was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“It’s a shame that crime has risen to this point in our community, and I can’t blame just Nanos,” he said during an interview on Katie Pavlich Tonight. “We have failed leadership in Pima County.”
Nancy, 84, was reported missing on February 1 by a family member who called 911. She was last seen the prior night while with daughter Annie Guthrie. (Nancy shared daughters Annie and Savannah and son Camron with late husband Charles Guthrie, who died in 1988.)
Amid the ongoing search for Nancy, Savannah and her siblings have appeared in several emotional videos and pleaded for the return of their mother. In February, they increased the reward for information to $1 million.
While the FBI has released black-and-white images and videos of a masked intruder outside Nancy’s home and other pieces of information, Nanos shared earlier this month that authorities haven’t shared everything with the public.
“My guess is we only know a small percentage of what law enforcement knows,” Troy Hillman, a retired homicide sergeant with the Phoenix Police Department, shared in Us Weekly’s latest cover story.
Hillman noted that authorities “have triaged thousands of leads” and that “a multitude of interviews of anyone who had contact with Nancy leading up to … her abduction have been conducted.”
According to Hillman’s perspective, there were a few issues with how the case was handled — including the decision to make the crime scene available to the Guthrie family the same week of Nancy’s disappearance.
“This created some possible tainting of evidence issues when they had to re-secure the crime scene,” Hillman said.
Nancy’s neighbor, meanwhile, shared that police activity in the area has scaled back.
“I have not had the police come to speak with me again. I have not seen or heard of investigators at any neighboring properties in a few weeks now,” the neighbor said. “I really don’t know what else they are doing.”
