A Pima County official said Sheriff Chris Nanos scolded her for providing information to the FBI because it created new leads for his department to pursue in its search for Nancy Guthrie.
Pima County Assessor Suzanne Droubie said Nanos seemed stressed and frustrated when she told him that her office had complied with a request for information from the FBI.
The tone of the call was unusual, Droubie said, because she typically had pleasant and cordial interactions with Nanos.
“We're sensitive to the fact that the sheriff is under a lot of stress with all of this, but yes, there was a little bit of a negative interaction,” Droubie said. “It was inferred that we were creating a lot of additional work for the Sheriff's Department, due to us providing this information to the FBI, and then them having the responsibility to follow up on all of those leads that were provided.”
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News of the February phone call came as the search for Guthrie stretched into its 100th day. The FBI has also ramped up pressure on the Democratic sheriff over his handling of the unsolved case.
Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “TODAY” show co-host Savannah Guthrie, has been missing from her Tucson home since Feb. 1.
Nanos
“I felt like there was an insinuation that I had done something wrong by cooperating with the FBI,” Droubie said. “At that particular moment, I felt like I was put in a position where I felt like I almost should apologize, where I know definitely that that was not something that I should be doing.”
Since Guthrie was last seen more than three months ago, the search for the missing woman has turned her Catalina Foothills neighborhood upside down, drawing national media and true crime livestreamers to Southern Arizona.
The case has also exposed a rift between Nanos and the FBI. The county has jurisdiction over the investigation, meaning the FBI cannot take over the case unless Nanos gives the bureau the go-ahead.
FBI Director Kash Patel recently went on a podcast to criticize the way Nanos kept the FBI at arm’s length during the search for Guthrie, something the sheriff denies.
Nanos did not respond to a request for comment.
Nanos is also under fire by the Pima County Board of Supervisors for a separate issue. Supervisors Steve Christy and Matt Heinz were expected to call for Nanos to be put out of a job when they were to meet Tuesday afternoon. Both have called on the sheriff to resign. The board previously voted unanimously to compel Nanos to answer their questions after an Arizona Republic investigation found the sheriff misrepresented his work history in a sworn deposition, on his public résumé and in media interviews.
What happened between the sheriff and the assessor?
Though Nanos assured Droubie that he was working “very closely” with the FBI, the county assessor’s experience seemed to back up Patel’s claim that there is friction between the sheriff and the federal bureau.
In a telephone interview, Droubie said her office fulfilled a request for information from the FBI to aid in its Guthrie investigation. When she called the sheriff as a courtesy to tell him that she had provided the information, Nanos was “definitely frustrated,” she said.
Droubie said the type of information she provided should remain private to protect the investigation. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
“It seemed like he was very stressed, very frustrated,” Droubie said. “I wouldn't categorize it as yelling, per se, as much as kind of scolding and expressing frustration with all of the leads he was receiving, their obligation to follow up on them, and that my office was, was actually being more harm than good by providing more leads that they just had to follow up with.”
The Assessor’s Office identifies, lists and values taxable property in Pima County. That included 440,000 real property parcels and 50,000 personal property accounts in the 2025 tax year, according to a report. The office is led by Droubie, an elected Democrat.
Drubie said she was unsure about the number of leads her data had created because her office’s IT team made the report and gave it directly to the FBI.
Savannah Guthrie and Nancy Guthrie.
“In his mind, it was a lot of additional work that was being created because we handed this information over,” Droubie said of Nanos.
The Sheriff’s Department had signaled in February that it was overwhelmed by tips, according to public statements issued at the time.
The department communications center was receiving hundreds of calls related to the case each day, Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Angelica Carrillo said in a Feb. 20 email. She asked that “only actionable tips be reported to investigators” and that comments or opinions about the investigation not be relayed to the 911 or non-emergency lines.
That dynamic may have contributed to the tense phone call, which was primarily between Droubie and Nanos.
“I didn't appreciate it,” Droubie said. “I thought I was being extremely helpful. So to have that type of a confrontational discussion for doing something that I felt was right was very disappointing.”
Droubie said the call ended when another member of the Sheriff’s Department stepped in and told Nanos to back off and leave the county assessor alone. According to Droubie, the official said Nanos shouldn’t give her a hard time for complying with an FBI request.
The sheriff agreed, Droubie said. He thanked her and told her to have a nice day.
'I am kind of chalking it up a lot to frustration'
Droubie called the conversation an isolated incident.“Up to that point, I had never had a negative interaction with the sheriff at all. I am kind of chalking it up a lot to frustration with, and immense pressure that he has been put under, being thrust into the national spotlight due to this investigation. However, that being said, it was a very uncomfortable, unpleasant conversation,” Droubie said.
Droubie said it is rare for her office to receive a request for information from the FBI. She added that she will always comply with any law enforcement request.
“Our job is to be transparent and help whenever you know it's requested of us for many agencies,” Droubie said. “In this particular case, obviously, being the Pima County assessor, this was hitting very close to home. I was happy to be able to provide whatever we could provide from the data in our office to be able to help the investigation.”
