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The Nancy Guthrie case was compromised from the very beginning by the investigating team’s lack of experience a whistleblower reportedly said, as he placed the blame on Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos’ alleged incompetence.
Sergeant Aaron Cross, president of the Pima County Deputies Organization — the police union representing sheriff’s deputies — told TMZ Saturday about the issues stemming from errors by staffers he says were unqualified for the major case.
The lead detective on the case, who had never worked a homicide before, “was placed in there nearly immediately,” Sgt. Cross explained.
He noted that the detective was promoted to sergeant just three years ago and “very rapidly went inside from patrol and then was assigned to homicide.”
Cross emphasized that the initial mistake came from leadership and that an probe this complex required far more background experience.
“Command, for whatever reason, decided that despite the fact that he hadn’t been in homicide before, he was the right person for that unit,” Cross said.
He placed the blame directly on Sheriff Chris Nanos, who was recently slapped with a $176 million suit alleging dangerous incompetence on a different case, claiming such a decision was “almost unheard of” prior to Nanos taking office.
“It takes a while to learn the ropes,” Cross added.
In the early stages, investigators suffered from a lack of communication that often led to duplicate work, according to Cross.
“The issue was that there was a lot of duplication of work because we weren’t accurately tracking who had been spoken to,” Cross said, identifying those as the initial missteps.
“In my opinion, and the opinions of other detectives and many people in the community, the scene was just given up so quickly. I think the next day it was given back to the family.”
Cross also told TMZ that while it was “well known” local investigators harbored “animosity against the FBI,” it remained unclear whether that tension directly impacted the investigation.
Addressing the public, Sgt. Cross pointed out the apparent lack of outreach to the public.
“If you drove to Tucson right now, save for a single billboard along the freeway, you would have no idea that the crime even happened,” he said.
“There are no posters or reward pamphlets being handed out, other than a few YouTubers who took that upon themselves recently.”
Additionally, Cross noted a breakdown in the department’s reach into Tucson’s local networks.
“Typically in a case like this, our street detectives would go out and speak with our local criminal element,” Cross said.
“Because what people need to understand about Tucson is that it’s kind of a big little city, and there’s one degree of separation from everybody here.”
He added: “What we would often do is have the street detectives — those units that used to exist — go out, kick the bushes, and rattle cages frequently until something turned up. Because, you know, the bad guys talk to each other, by and large.”
Nancy Guthrie was last seen while being dropped home by family on the evening of January 31.
Sheriff Nanos couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
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