Understaffed Homicide Unit Hindered Guthrie Investigation

The president of the Pima County deputies' union has alleged that the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, mother of "Today" show coanchor Savannah Guthrie, was hampered from its outset by a homicide unit left understaffed and inexperienced due to an unrelated internal personnel dispute. Sgt. Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization, detailed his account in an interview published on August 15, claiming that key detectives were reassigned out of the homicide unit before Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Tucson home in early February.

According to Cross, two senior homicide detectives had been working on a separate case and were building probable cause for an arrest when a commander pressured them to make the arrest prematurely. When they declined, they were reassigned to the Cold Case Unit. Cross stated this reassignment, which predated Guthrie's disappearance, left the homicide unit short of experienced personnel just as the high-profile case began. He asserted that the sergeant placed in charge of the Guthrie investigation had only been promoted to that rank in 2023 and had no prior homicide experience. Cross described the detectives...