Pima County sheriff leading Nancy Guthrie search resigned in lieu of termination from prior department, records show

The sheriff overseeing the search for Nancy Guthrie, the missing 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, resigned in lieu of termination from the El Paso Police Department in 1982. That's two years earlier than his own resume indicated.

Documents obtained by The Arizona Republic and revealed late Monday show that Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos was ordered to resign or be terminated after an argument with supervisors. His publicly posted resume had listed his departure from El Paso as 1984. By Tuesday afternoon, the Pima County Sheriff's Department acknowledged "two clerical errors" in the resume and said it had been updated.

The man responsible for finding a missing elderly woman can't keep the facts of his own career straight. And when pressed on it, he didn't clarify. He mocked the question.

A resume that needed correcting

Nanos started his career as a police officer in El Paso in February 1976. Records cited by The Arizona Republic show he was named Officer of the Year for the Western Region by the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas in 1980, after saving his partner's life during an incident in 1979. That's a commendable early record.

But it didn't stay clean. Over a five-year period, Nanos accumulated 26 allegations on his internal affairs history record. He was suspended or placed on leave without pay for a total of 37 days. In March 1982, he was suspended for 15 days without pay after allegedly injuring a robbery suspect during an arrest. A grand jury declined to indict him, according to local news reports cited by The Arizona Republic, as Newsweek reports.

Six years after he started, Nanos was out. The records show he resigned in lieu of termination in 1982. His resume said 1984. The department now says that was a clerical error. So was the listing of his promotion to captain, which the resume placed in 2009 rather than the correct year of 2007.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department offered this explanation to Newsweek:

"Both date discrepancies were administrative in nature and were not intended to mislead or misrepresent Sheriff Nanos' work history."

Two separate dates, both wrong, both in ways that happened to polish the record. One pushed his departure from a department that forced him out two years later, past the gap in his employment history. It's unclear what Nanos did between resigning from El Paso in 1982 and starting as a corrections officer at the Pima County Sheriff's Department in 1984.

Two years, unaccounted for, on the resume of the man running a nationally watched missing persons case.

The sheriff's response

When The Arizona Republic asked about the discrepancy on Monday, Nanos declined to discuss it. Instead, he wrote to the newspaper in an email:

"That's your 'urgent' request? You sure you don't want to go back to my high school and ask why I got swats from the principal?"

He followed that with four words: "Good luck with your hit piece."

That's not how a public official handles questions about verified factual errors on his own resume. It's how someone handles a question they hoped would never come. Deflection dressed up as toughness.

Nanos has conceded that the national spotlight hasn't been comfortable. During a news conference last month, he said something revealing:

"I'm not used to everybody hanging on my words and then trying to hold me accountable for what I say."

That sentence deserves a second read. The chief law enforcement officer of Pima County, who oversees a multimillion-dollar budget, nearly 1,400 employees, and more than 400 volunteers, is telling the public he isn't accustomed to accountability.

The case that brought the scrutiny

Nancy Guthrie was reported missing on February 1, one day after she was last seen at her Tucson home. Her daughter, Savannah Guthrie, has repeatedly pleaded for her safe return. The case has drawn national attention, and Nanos oversees the agency's search along with federal partners.

Former FBI agents have criticized Nanos for insisting investigators were "definitely getting closer" to solving the case, though those agents are not named in reporting and their specific critiques are not quoted. What is clear is that the sheriff's public posture has generated skepticism from people who have done this work at the highest level.

When scrutiny arrived, Nanos responded by reciting his statutory authority. He pointed to A.R.S. § 11-441, listing his responsibility for "preserving the peace and safety in the 9,187 square miles of unincorporated areas of the county," custody of the jail, serving court orders, collecting delinquent taxes, and coordinating search and rescue operations "involving the life or health of any person."

Nobody questioned whether the sheriff has authority. The question is whether he's exercising it competently. Citing the statute that gives you the job is not the same as demonstrating you're doing the job well.

Accountability isn't a hit piece

The Pima County Sheriff's Department mounted a defense that leaned entirely on biography. Officials told Newsweek:

"Sheriff Nanos has dedicated more than four decades to law enforcement and public service."

They praised his "steadfast commitment to professionalism, accountability, and the safety of the communities he serves." They described his 39-year tenure with the department and noted his prior roles as chief deputy and chief of the investigative bureau.

None of that addresses the substance. A long career doesn't explain why two dates on a resume were wrong in flattering directions. Longevity is not an answer to a factual question.

What we have is a pattern:

• A resume with two errors, both corrected only after journalists discovered them
• A two-year employment gap that the original resume conveniently erased
• A forced resignation from a prior department, repackaged by omission
• A sheriff who responds to legitimate questions with sarcasm and hostility
• A public admission that he isn't used to being held accountable for his words

Meanwhile, an 84-year-old woman is still missing. Her family is still waiting. And the man leading the search treats questions about his own record like personal attacks.

Accountability isn't a hit piece. It's the minimum the public is owed when someone holds power over a case this serious. If Nanos can't handle scrutiny over his resume, the people of Pima County should wonder how he handles the pressure of finding Nancy Guthrie.