It was Day 5 in the search for Nancy Guthrie, and the international media were packed into a small briefing room on the south side of Tucson, Ariz. Reporters had lined up early to hear Sheriff Chris Nanos of Pima County, and they were bursting with questions. Had the police made any headway? Did they have a suspect? Most of all: Was Ms. Guthrie still alive?
Sheriff Nanos stepped to the lectern: “I want to begin by offering our condolences,” he said, pausing as the room collectively tensed.
But, no, he was not breaking grim news in the case of Ms. Guthrie. A separate tragedy had occurred the night before, some 200 miles north, where an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter had crashed, killing two state troopers who were responding to a gunfight.
The hunt for Ms. Guthrie was still stalled, turmoil was all around, and Sheriff Nanos was trying to navigate the maelstrom.
On Thursday, as he addressed the growing horde of journalists for the first time in 48 hours, the pressure to find Ms. Guthrie was mounting and the story was only getting weirder. There was the impending deadline, imposed by a possibly bogus ransom note, demanding millions in Bitcoin by early that evening. The unsubstantiated reports of a person of interest. The removal, return and re-removal of crime scene tape around Ms. Guthrie’s home.
There was also the imminent arrival of the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel. The possibility that artificial intelligence might make any proof of life from a kidnapper difficult to trust. And, hovering over it all, the celebrity of Ms. Guthrie’s daughter, Savannah Guthrie, a host of the “Today” show, whose association with the case has made it a national obsession.
Sheriff Nanos has seemed surprised at the intense attention.
“I’m not used to everybody hanging on my words and then trying to hold me accountable for what I say,” he told reporters, somewhat sheepishly, at an earlier news conference.
The sheriff is the face of an investigation that has the press and the public desperate for answers, refreshing social media feeds and flooding department inboxes with requests for information. And yet, until there’s a break in the case — one that won’t tip off the perpetrators if he reveals it — he can’t offer much. So he rehashes and declines to elaborate, sometimes apologetically, noting the continuing nature of the search.
Some wish he’d just stop talking altogether.
“It’s important to have a reason to have a press conference, and not just have one,” said Matt Heinz, a fellow Democrat who is a member of the Pima County board of supervisors. “I can’t watch them. I don’t find them helpful, productive or reassuring.”
But Thursday’s briefing did yield some key clarifications.
The F.B.I. said the authorities were taking seriously a ransom note sent to at least three news outlets that included facts about the crime scene and a specific timeline for its monetary demand.
The initial deadline for payment was 5 p.m. on Thursday, said Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Phoenix office. The note did not specify a time zone. Compounding the confusion, a second deadline was set for Monday. Mr. Janke declined to say what was threatened if the money were not sent in time.
After consulting with the F.B.I., Ms. Guthrie’s children recorded a video saying they were ready to talk with her abductors. As of Thursday evening, they had heard nothing.
It was not clear whether the ransom note was genuine, but officials said at least one man had been arrested and charged with sending a different phony demand to the Guthrie family. The notoriety of the case and the digital tools that enable such fakery have added to the frenzy around the investigation.
The handling of the crime scene has done the same. This week, after the police finished an initial sweep of Ms. Guthrie’s house, officers removed the yellow tape that cordoned off the property. Journalists then took turns walking up to the front stoop and examining a splatter that Sheriff Nanos later confirmed to be Ms. Guthrie’s blood.
Private security eventually arrived to ward off trespassers. The police returned Wednesday afternoon and once again strung up crime scene tape. Officers spent a couple of hours searching the property, removed some items and left. They took the tape with them.
Sheriff Nanos said on Thursday that, in hindsight, he should have instructed officers to keep the perimeter up to preserve the scene. When asked whether he was concerned about the possible contamination of evidence, he said, “I’ll let the courts worry about that.”
Sheriff Nanos, whose elected position puts him over a department with about 1,500 employees, was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, where he began his career as a police officer in 1976. After about eight years working the beat in his hometown, he moved to Pima County, started as a corrections officer and steadily rose through the ranks.
This week is not the sheriff’s first time at the center of the news. Almost exactly 15 years ago, he was staring down a similar throng of television cameras as he answered questions about the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
More recently, he has made headlines for his handling of a series of scandals.
The F.B.I. has probed his department for misuse of funds, inmates at Pima County jails have died at an alarming rate, the state attorney general’s office has investigated his handling of a reported sexual assault by a deputy, and he has been accused of retaliating against his 2024 election opponent, who was a lieutenant in his department.
His track record has alienated members of his own party, such as Mr. Heinz, the county supervisor, who has called on Sheriff Nanos to resign and endorsed his Republican opponent in the latest contest.
But Sheriff Nanos has also won plaudits in his liberal county for refusing to aid federal immigration raids and for criticizing agents who conduct operations in masks. He thanked President Trump for committing so many federal resources to Ms. Guthrie’s case, but he said in an interview that he wasn’t holding his breath for a phone call from the White House.
The sheriff has been working on the case constantly, triaging tips sent directly to his cellphone and carrying on a text exchange with Savannah Guthrie. “This is just going to be really devastating for her if we can’t find her alive,” Sheriff Nanos said.
At the Thursday briefing, the biggest gathering yet, reporters peppered him with questions about the minutiae of the investigation. When asked if he should have called in regional and federal reinforcements sooner, Sheriff Nanos replied with a candor that was by then familiar.
“You know, it’s Monday morning quarterbacking,” he said. “I do it all the time, so you have the opportunity to do it for me. I’ll take that hit.”
Reis Thebault is a Phoenix-based reporter for The Times, covering the American Southwest.
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