Sheriff Clears Entire Guthrie Family — Denounces ‘Cruel’ Media Pushing Them as Suspects in Shocking Statement

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Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos released a pointed statement on Monday, taking aim at those who have insinuated that a member of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie’s family may be responsible for her disappearance.

“To be clear…the Guthrie family – to include all siblings and spouses – has been cleared as possible suspects in this case. The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case,” began Nanos. “To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel. The Guthrie family are victims plain and simple…please, I’m begging you the media to honor your profession and report with some sense of compassion and professionalism.”

Though Nanos’s statement did not name her, Ashleigh Banfield has emerged as the most notable promulgator of the idea that Guthrie’s son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, is a suspect in the case — even going so far as to suggest he was the “prime” one.

After she earned a brushback pitch from Nanos’s department for that claim, Banfield doubled down during an interview with Mediaite founder Dan Abrams last week.

“I can tell you that my source every day since has stood by that reporting. And that is the thinking as of the day after Mrs. Guthrie was reported missing,” asserted Banfield during their sit-down.

“So your source still indicating that he is a suspect?” followed up Abrams.

“Nothing’s changed. Nothing’s changed. But I will say this: the day after I did that report, my source said, ‘things have really tightened up.’ The folks in the Sheriff’s Department are worried about retaliation because of the leak. And I thought to myself, ‘Well, if it’s not true, there wouldn’t be any worry,’ you know? And then on the third day he said, ‘What I can tell you is: when they take shots at you, you’re standing on the target,'” replied Banfield.

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