Nancy Guthrie Case: Sergeant Reveals Family’s Early Shocking Belief, Acknowledges Probe Missteps

As the search for Nancy Guthrie continues, an officer involved in the investigation has spoken out about potential mistakes made early in the probe. With Guthrie missing for more than three months, several people have criticized the Pima County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) for its handling of the case.

However, Aaron Cross, a PCSD sergeant, has revealed that the investigators should not be the only ones blamed. He said Guthrie’s family initially insisted the 84-year-old had walked away from her home rather than being kidnapped.

“It’s hard to blame the searchers because the family was pretty insistent that this was a walkaway as well. And so what they were trying to do [was] searching [and] looking for Nancy,” Cross said in an interview with investigative journalist Brian Entin.

The sergeant added that Nancy’s family realized she had gone missing only after searchers were unable to find her in her neighborhood and blood drops were discovered on her front porch. “I believe it got to the point where once they didn't find her in the area, combined with the blood on the stoop, that's when everybody kind of decided, all right, we have something else here,” Cross said.

Entin pointed out that earlier reports indicated the family opposed the walkaway theory, but investigators did not address their concerns. Cross then clarified it was not the case. “That's not the information that I gathered today…Just that the family believed that she was out there, you know, that she'd walked away,” Cross said.

When asked why the family would have come up with the theory, Cross replied that they were probably under a lot of stress and were hoping for the best. “It's hard to say when people are under stress,” he said.

Cross continued, “You know, they're obviously very worried about their mother, I imagine. And so, you know, maybe they were hoping for the best that she was just nearby and be on the next neighborhood over or street over or something.”

During the interview, Cross acknowledged that the early days of the investigation were chaotic, with little coordination among PCSD detectives, let alone between the PCSD and the FBI. “It was described to me as, frankly, a s— show,” Cross said.

“If our own detectives aren’t speaking to each other about which witnesses they’ve already spoken to, what chance is there for agencies that aren’t even located inside the same floor in the administration building?” he added.

Cross, who serves as president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, also acknowledged that leadership failures created obstacles in the investigation. According to him, Sheriff Chris Nanos did not like working with the FBI and was apprehensive about sharing information with them.

Critics argue that Nancy, or her kidnappers, might have been tracked if the PCSD had managed the investigation more effectively in the early days. Meanwhile, Nanos has defended his department, saying he was in contact with the FBI from the very beginning.