Sheriff in charge of Nancy Guthrie investigation is caught watching BASKETBALL game in latest blunder while devastated Savannah is forced to make desperate video plea

As he led the massive operation to bring kidnapped Nancy Guthrie home alive, he choked back tears as he publicly said ‘we’ll find her’.

But while his detectives continued to work through the weekend, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos took time off to watch the college basketball game, as revealed in an exclusive photo from the Daily Mail.

The sheriff was spotted at the basketball game on Saturday afternoon and also shared a heartbreaking video of Savannah Guthrie with her siblings pleading for their mother’s return.

The Today Show host called out the people who allegedly kidnapped his mother and said he would ‘pay’ his family’s ransom demands.

Nanos, whose face has been in the national media for the past six days, was seen wearing a khaki hoodie in the crowd watching the top-ranked Arizona Wildcats defeat Oklahoma State 47-84 at McKale Memorial Center in Tucson.

But for co-host Savannah Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC’s Today show, the decision to pause the game didn’t go over well with the clock ticking down and deputies hunting for clues.

“It’s tone deaf with Nancy still out there,” a senior source in the sheriff’s department told the Daily Mail.

‘Of course everyone deserves to be off. It was a very stressful, difficult and long week.

‘But given how hard detectives and search and rescue teams work, including overtime, this is a bad decision and does not look good for the force.

‘This seems very odd, given how emotional he was during interviews throughout the week, saying he believed she was still alive and how desperate he was to find her.’

84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today Show star Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona, on the night of January 31.

The insider added: ‘Perhaps this game can be played in the comfort of one’s home. This would have been a better decision than going out in public.

‘The University of Arizona basketball team is ranked number one in the country. It’s a huge game and he’s a public figure now. ‘He’s been on stage a lot this week and people will recognize him.’

The source said of Nanos’ comparison to the weekend that many employees have: ‘Some of them are working crazy hours this week, so it’s hard to bear watching your leader go to the basketball.’

Nanos has come under increasing fire for failing to produce any suspects nearly a week after Nancy was abducted from her $1 million home in Tucson’s affluent Catalina Foothills area early Sunday.

His performances at press conferences also came under scrutiny, especially when he was forced to backtrack on some of his earlier statements about the kidnapping.

The Daily Mail revealed critical mistakes were made in the critical early hours of the investigation, including being late in deploying a vital search and rescue plane.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has come under increasing scrutiny for his handling of the search for the 84-year-old

Forensic teams were seen arriving at the house on Friday evening to collect new evidence

Investigators were seen scouring the roof of Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Arizona, on Friday evening and reportedly found a camera that had been overlooked in previous searches

A dark-colored SUV was towed from the property on Friday

At one point during his press conference on Thursday, he replied ‘my guesses are as good as yours’ when asked about possible suspects.

When asked about possible evidentiary problems due to the crime scene tape at Nancy’s house being put and removed several times, he replied: ‘Let me leave that to the courts. ‘We comply with the rules of law.’

But the biggest bungle was when the department’s high-tech Cessna plane was blown up near Nancy’s home just after she was reported missing.

The two-seat plane, equipped with high-resolution thermal imaging cameras that can scan large areas of desert terrain, remained on the tarmac for about half a day, sources close to the sheriff’s department told the Daily Mail.

There was a personnel shortage that left the department without qualified pilots to fly the aircraft; People familiar with the situation directly blamed Nanos.

Nancy was reported missing shortly after 12pm on Sunday. Police arrived at his home at 12:15 p.m., but the plane, known as Survey 1, was not in the air until 5 p.m. that evening.

Pima County Board of Supervisors member Matt Heinz told the Daily Mail that failure to get the plane airborne could have cost investigators vital opportunities.

“The first few hours of any search like this are absolutely crucial,” Heinz said.

Six days into the search for Today Show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, investigators returned to her Arizona home to obtain new evidence in the hope that she was still alive.

Trained airmen who can crew aircraft have been transferred from the Air Operations Unit in recent weeks, creating confusion, said Sergeant Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Sheriff’s Deputies Association.

He described the aircraft as ‘the most valuable law enforcement asset in southern Arizona.’

One of the replaced airmen was a 17-year veteran who was allegedly reassigned for disciplinary reasons a week before Nancy’s disappearance. Another was removed from the unit in November 2025. Nanos did not fill the positions.

County GOP chair Kathleen Winn said: ‘This left the department without a crew to respond to the search due to staffing shortages.

‘If anyone could have flown that plane, if it had been in the desert they probably could have found her (Nancy) in a heartbeat.’

A helicopter was deployed but did not have the advanced sensors and thermal imaging technology of Survey 1.

Criticism of Nanos has gained momentum throughout the week. The FBI appears to be playing a growing role, and on Thursday announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the recovery or disappearance of Savannah’s mother.