Nancy Grace Slams Sheriff Over “Bad Judgments” in Nancy Guthrie Disappearance

​Television host Nancy Grace criticized the handling of the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, accusing local authorities of making several ‘bad judgments’. She also called out Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department over how the case has been handled.

​The former prosecutor also said she does not believe the Guthrie family was responsible for the abduction.

​Grace spoke about the missing-person case during the opening keynote conversation at Variety’s True Crime Summit at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas.

When Dea Lawrence, publisher and co-president of Variety, asked how the case remains unsolved despite the availability of modern forensic tools, Grace said she has been wondering the same thing since the very beginning.

​“I’ve been asking that question since Day 2 of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance,” Grace said, citing her experience prosecuting violent crimes. “I’ve been wondering, how is this happening?” Daily Express U.S. reported.

Grace criticized Nanos, saying he had “knowingly hurting the investigation” and that there have been many bad judgments in the case.

​“I believe that they were advised by law enforcement not to jump on a ransom, that they thought law enforcement could solve it organically by the sheriff who runs Desert Justice, a reality show. So that’s another big problem — waiting so long to call in the feds,” Grace said.

​“Nanos has had a lot of putting perfume on the pig, missteps, translation, F-ups. There’s a big difference between an accident or a misstep and knowingly hurting your investigation. I don’t really care about his posturing, his reality show, or his making it about me. I don’t care about that,” Grace said.

​“I only care about how it’s affecting the investigation, and there have been a lot of bad judgments. The feds have the power, the technology that local law enforcement does not have, and that’s no knock on them. And I hate to detract from the men and women out there working and doing a great job as best as they can. They simply do not have the expertise that the feds have,” she said.

Grace also said she does not suspect any members of the family, including Today anchor Savannah Guthrie, in the case. “For one reason, and one reason only, I do not believe the Guthrie family is responsible, because although it was many years ago that I first met Savannah Guthrie, she is, I’d like to assure you, not a fake TV person,” Grace said.

Grace also addressed rumors that Tommaso Cioni, the brother-in-law of Savannah Guthrie, may have been responsible for the abduction. “She’s real. She is real, just like she is on TV. She’s super-smart. She’s a trained lawyer, and I find it not just difficult but impossible to believe that Savannah Guthrie would drape her arm around (a family member) if she suspected he was involved,” Grace said.

“All your true crime, legal aficionados would say you look at the family first. Of course you do, because statistically, that’s who did it. But I don’t think that’s who did it in this case,” she added.

Grace said her own family has also been touched by violent crime. Her fiancé, Keith Griffin, was murdered in 1979 when she was 19.

​“I remember the smell of the carnations at my fiancé’s funeral — the smell makes me sick even now. I can’t stand to smell it. It’s such a moment in your life that you never forget,” Grace said.

​Grace said she understands what the Guthrie family may be going through. “When you’re in the middle of it, it’s like you’re Alice. Everything’s upside down. Nothing makes any sense. I remember after my fiancé, Keith, was murdered, I would ask my mom for days, ‘Is Keith dead?’ I couldn’t take it in for a really long time,” Grace said.