Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, the largest of three unions representing the sheriff’s deputies, is detailing what he claims is gross inexperience among the detectives working to find Nancy Guthrie more than six months after her mysterious and disturbing disappearance.
“[The lead sergeant] was placed in [the investigation] nearly immediately. He was promoted to sergeant only in 2023, if I remember correctly, so he very rapidly went inside, from patrol and then was assigned to homicide,” Cross told TMZ in an interview published on Saturday, August 15, describing what he knows of the investigation while clarifying he is in no way in charge of or part of the case.
“I don’t believe he put in for that [assignment] — usually those assignments are made by command,” Cross continued. “So command, for whatever reason despite the fact that he had never been in homicide before, thought he was the right person for that unit.”
When asked to quantify how much homicide experience the detective working to solve the case of Today coanchor Savannah Guthrie’s mom’s disappearance, Cross was clear they all had some experience — just not much.
“They all had some because they were in the homicide unit, but it was very limited,” he claimed to the outlet. “Three years or less — all of them.”
Cross went on to claim that “novice homicide detectives” is a “fair characterization” of the investigators working on the case.
“It was almost unheard of prior to Chris Nanos winning an election, having someone with that little experience in homicide,” Cross continued. “If they were brought in it would be one person being brought in and the rest of the unit would mentor that new detective to show him the ropes and how to be a homicide detective to show him the ropes and how to be a homicide detective.
He added, “You can’t even call yourself a homicide detective until you’ve been through a trial — so it takes time to learn the ropes.”
After detailing the investigators alleged inexperience, Cross was asked to detail what he believes the authorities’ greatest misstep to date has been in the investigation. (More than six months after Nancy was first reported missing in January, there are still no substantial leads in the case and no suspects.)
“The big misstep, in my opinion and the opinion of many of the detectives and people in the community, is just giving up the scene so quickly,” Cross alleged. “I think the next day it was given back to the family, and there was no reason for that.”
Us has reached out to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department for comment regarding Cross’ claims and assessment of the ongoing investigation, but did not hear back at the time of publication.
Sheriff Nanos, who has come under fire for his alleged mishandling of the investigation, including allegations from the FBI that local authorities have not been cooperative with federal agencies, marked six months into the investigation by sharing a message to the Guthrie family directly.
“We’re still here. We’re not going away. If you could just see the team working, you’d see the energy, the concern,” Nanos said in a video shared on August 1. “They’re fired up and we will continue to work this case hard.”
Four months into the case, Nanos addressed the “prolonged” search for the Guthrie family’s matriarch amid public scrutiny.
“These cases are difficult,” Nanos told local Tucson, Arizona, outlet KOLD News 13 on June 1. “Not just this case. A number of our cases come to us where it requires a lot of work from other people. It’s not just a detective who goes out there, talks to somebody, and we can make an arrest.”
Today cohost Savannah, for her part, issued another plea to those who allegedly abducted her mother on the six month anniversary of her disappearance.
“This is our beautiful Mom. Six months ago, someone took her out of her bed in the dead of night,” Savannah, 54, captioned a photo of her mother via Instagram on August 1. “We have lived every moment, every breath, and every heartbeat in agony and despair ever since. Every day, we wake up and try to be strong and go on because that’s what our joyful and resilient Mom taught us to do, but make no mistake — our hearts are in ruins.”
