Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos gave an update about the Nancy Guthrie case.
A retired Arizona cop noticed something the sheriff didn’t say.
There's a question Nanos has never answered directly – and a law enforcement veteran says the answer changes everything.
The Sonora Mexico Theory That Has Tucson Investigators Divided
Dave Smith spent his career as a lieutenant with the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
He looked at the surveillance footage from Nancy Guthrie's doorbell camera and said one word: Mexico.
The suspect was carrying his weapon "Mexican carry" style – tucked in the waistband without a holster.
It is 60 miles from Guthrie's Tucson neighborhood to the Mexican border city of Nogales.
Cross that border and you're in a Mexican city of 300,000 people where American law enforcement has no jurisdiction and evidence disappears.
"My first thought is always Mexico in a major crime, because it's a great haven, and it's hard for us to follow up on," Smith told Fox News Digital.
Arizona is not random terrain for this kind of crime.
Phoenix has ranked as one of the kidnapping capitals of the country for years, driven by cartel smuggling networks that use the state as a primary transit corridor.
A private investigator who worked cases in the same Tucson area told Border Report the neighborhood sits in a high drug and money transporting zone.
"It has deepened my belief that this is in some way related to a money-making venture by people involved with a cartel," investigator Ray Garcia said.
Kidnap-for-ransom is exactly how cartels generate revenue in the borderlands.
Former FBI supervisory agent James Gagliano worked kidnapping cases involving American citizens as a deputy legal attaché in Mexico City and told Fox News the high-profile Guthrie case fits the profile of targets chosen for ransom value.
Multiple purported ransom notes surfaced after Guthrie's disappearance – including one claiming the sender had seen Nancy alive in Sonora, Mexico.
Then Smith said something that reframes the whole investigation.
"My personal theory is, if Mexico was suspected, that would make it a federal investigation. There seemed to be a great deal of effort to keep the feds out of this case. And the best way to do it was to deny any possibility of interstate or international transport."
In February, Pima County Democrat Sheriff Chris Nanos told reporters there was no firm evidence Guthrie had been taken to Mexico.
Days later, the FBI quietly contacted Mexican authorities.
Nanos said one thing. The FBI did another.
The Federal Kidnapping Law That Makes Chris Nanos Look Indefensible
After the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped and murdered in 1932, Congress created the federal kidnapping statute for one reason.
Local authorities cannot effectively pursue kidnappers across state or international lines.
Federal agents can.
The law presumes that if a victim is not returned within 24 hours, federal jurisdiction applies.
Nancy Guthrie has been missing over three months.
The FBI was locked out for four days while the crime scene – including blood spatter on Guthrie's front porch – was briefly released to the public.
Journalists walked up to those steps.
Delivery drivers walked up to those steps.
Then a critical hair sample was shipped to a private lab in Florida instead of Quantico.
It sat there for eleven weeks.
What Chris Nanos Said Friday and What He Didn't
The FBI lab at Quantico cracked the Gilgo Beach murders using forensic genetic genealogy on rootless hair – the same technology now being applied to the Guthrie sample.
That analysis could have started eleven weeks earlier.
On Friday, Chris Nanos stood outside his Pima County office and said investigators are "closer" to solving the case.
He called the latest developments "really great."
Then he got in his car.
The Mexico question went unanswered.
So did the Florida lab decision.
Savannah Guthrie told Hoda Kotb: "I'm so sorry, Mommy, I'm so sorry."
A Democrat sheriff in a border county just told you he's getting closer – three months after he blocked the FBI, contaminated the crime scene, and shipped the DNA to Florida.
Nancy Guthrie's family deserves better than that.
Sources:
- Michael Ruiz, "Retired lieutenant suggests Mexico ties were downplayed to keep feds off case early," Fox News, May 8, 2026.
- Michael Ruiz, "Sheriff Nanos says 'we are' closer to solving 84-year-old's abduction," Fox News, May 9, 2026.
- "Nancy Guthrie latest updates: Kash Patel says FBI was 'kept out' of investigation," Fox News, May 6, 2026.
- "FBI director questions delays in handling key Nancy Guthrie evidence," AZFamily, May 5, 2026.