Nancy Guthrie Case: When the Sheriff Becomes the Story
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
The Nancy Guthrie investigation should be about finding an 84-year-old woman taken from her home in the middle of the night. Instead, the sheriff leading the case has become the story himself.
Former Chief Deputy Richard Kastigar told the Daily Mail that Sheriff Chris Nanos has "great disdain" for the FBI and holds a grudge from a 2015 investigation. The president of the deputies' union says it's become an "ego case." A former lieutenant who ran against Nanos—and is now suing him—calls him "a tyrant."
Nanos says the criticism is political. He says his FBI relationship is great. He says evidence decisions were about consistency, not obstruction.
But the facts tell their own story. The crime scene was released too early—Nanos admitted it. DNA is at a private Florida lab, not the FBI's facility at Quantico, with processing challenges that could stretch months. The county's search helicopter pilot was reportedly disciplined and reassigned during an active kidnapping investigation. And Nanos told reporters he's "not used to everyone hanging onto my every word and then holding me accountable."
Nearly four weeks. No suspects. No arrests. The people who worked with this sheriff for decades are the ones asking whether ego has gotten in the way of justice.
This is the story of what happens when leadership fails under pressure—and who pays the price.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brewski. Here now, Tony Brewski. |
| 0:07.1 | Richard Castigar spent 46 years to the Pima County Sheriff's Department. He rose to |
| 0:12.3 | deputy or chief deputy. He served as Chris Nanos second in command. And when the Daily Mail |
| 0:19.3 | asked him about how Nanos is handling the Nancy Guthrie |
| 0:23.0 | investigation, he didn't mince words. He has great disdain for the FBI, Castagar said. |
| 0:32.0 | They investigated his department in 2016 and he's still pissed. He holds a grudge. |
| 0:39.3 | That grudge, according to multiple current and former members of Nanos' own department, |
| 0:43.8 | may be affecting how this investigation is being run. |
| 0:47.5 | Nearly four weeks, no suspects, no arrest, |
| 0:50.7 | no substantive leads made public an investigation that Sheriff Nanos insists is running smoothly. |
| 0:58.2 | Well, sources inside law enforcement tell reporters a very different story. |
| 1:03.1 | The FBI is involved by playing a supporting role. |
| 1:08.0 | Critics say Nanos should step back and let the Feds lead. He hasn't. And Nancy Guthrie |
| 1:13.7 | is still missing. So here is the big question. At nobody in official capacity seems |
| 1:24.2 | willing to ask out loud. When the people who know a leader best are the ones |
| 1:29.6 | raising alarms, what does it tell us about how this investigation is actually being run? |
| 1:36.0 | Let's talk about who Chris Nanos is. Fifty years in law enforcement started as a detention officer |
| 1:42.2 | in Pima County back in 1984. |
| 1:45.0 | Worked his way up through the ranks, became second in command, got appointed sheriff in 2015, |
| 1:50.0 | when his boss retired, lost the 2016 election, came back in 2020, when re-election in |
| 1:57.0 | 24 by exactly 481 votes out of 487,000 cast. |
| 2:05.0 | That's a margin of less than one-tenth of one percent. |
... |
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