The sheriff responsible for finding an 84-year-old woman who vanished from her Arizona home is now fighting a lawsuit over conditions inside his own jail, raising pointed questions about whether his office has the bandwidth to handle either problem.
Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, disappeared from her home on February 1. A ransom note demanding millions of dollars in Bitcoin became public the following day. Footage described as showing a masked intruder outside her home the night she vanished has surfaced, along with a glove containing a DNA profile that is being analyzed at a lab. Ransom letters sent to multiple news outlets contained specific details about Nancy's home and clothing. Despite all of it, authorities have not publicly confirmed a suspect, and the 84-year-old has not been found.
Into that unsolved mess steps Christopher Michael Marx, a Pima County Jail inmate who filed a civil lawsuit against Sheriff Chris Nanos last week seeking $1.35 million, according to Newsweek. The lawsuit claims a sheriff's deputy was moving between two separate jail units without disinfecting between them, one of which housed an inmate with COVID-19.
According to the U.S Sun, Marx claims the deputy's conduct put his life at risk and alleges the Pima County Sheriff's Department violated Article Two of the Arizona State Constitution, the Declaration of Rights, which enumerates individual rights protected under Arizona law. He lays out his grievance plainly in the filing.
This deputy was going back and forth working both units; our unit was on lockdown because this deputy was working both units.
Marx also wrote in the lawsuit: "I could have died." The inmate says he intends to use any money recovered from the suit to purchase apartments for people without housing. Newsweek reported that Marx was found guilty of shoplifting in 2024.
No hearing date has been publicly scheduled, and no court ruling has been issued. Authorities have not confirmed whether any internal review of the deputy's conduct has been initiated.
The lawsuit lands as scrutiny of Nanos and the Pima County Sheriff's Office over the Guthrie investigation continues to grow. Former prosecutor Lindsay Richards told the US Sun that federal investigators should have been brought in far sooner than they were.
Why did it take that long? It should not have taken that long.
Richards, who also described Nanos as appearing overwhelmed, pressed the point on investigative capacity and urgency.
People should be working around the clock and even reverse geo tracking of phone numbers and stuff like that, yes, that is very time-intensive, but there should be so many people working on it that we can get it done faster."
Savannah Guthrie has publicly pleaded for anyone with information about her mother's whereabouts to come forward. She and her siblings have made multiple videos appealing for help.
Rather than projecting command of the situation, Nanos drew attention for a sharp exchange with the Arizona Republic, which had asked him about a report concerning his professional resume. His response to that outlet was not a defense of his record on either the disappearance or the jail conditions claim.
That's your 'urgent' request? You sure you don't want to go back to my high school and ask why I got swats from the principal? Good luck with your hit piece.
Authorities have not publicly confirmed what the resume report alleged, what specific credentials or claims were at issue, or whether any formal review followed. What is confirmed is that the sheriff leading one of the most high-profile missing-person cases in Arizona chose to spend energy mocking a reporter rather than addressing the substance of the inquiry.
Investigators will need to determine whether the DNA profile recovered from the glove found at the scene connects to any known individual. They will also need to establish whether the ransom letters sent to news outlets were authored by the same person or persons responsible for Nancy Guthrie's disappearance, a link that has not been publicly confirmed. The FBI's precise role in the investigation going forward has not been publicly detailed, nor has any timeline for forensic results been released.
On the civil lawsuit, the court will need to assess whether Marx's constitutional claims survive initial review, what evidence supports the alleged conduct by the deputy, and whether the $1.35 million demand has a basis beyond the inmate's own written account. No ruling is expected until the case progresses past the complaint stage.
An 84-year-old woman has been missing for weeks, her family is begging the public for help, and the sheriff running the case is managing a constitutional lawsuit over his jail while deflecting questions about his own resume. The public deserves a law enforcement leader who is focused, accountable, and in command. Whether Pima County has one is a question that demands a real answer.
