The Pima County Sheriff's Office, which is leading the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, worked closely with a reality TV show crew before she vanished in February from her home in Tucson, Arizona.
In 2025, the sheriff's department worked with A&E for several months to help produce a show called 'Desert Law,' while also assisting the network in obtaining footage and access for a separate cold case series. That is according to internal emails obtained by Fox News Digital between the department, its public information office, and producers from Twenty Twenty Productions, who were working on the 'Desert Law' show. The series focuses on law enforcement in Pima County's Sonoran Desert.
The messages revealed that five different units, including the homicide and cold case unit, had new commanding officers in the year prior to Nancy's alleged abduction. The emails, which were exchanged between July and December 2025, also show a high level of coordination, with sergeants taking producers on ride-alongs and giving them access to relevant locations and evidence from past crimes. A&E also requested a substantial amount of body camera footage.
In an email from September 23, 2025, Captain Robert Koumal wrote to another deputy about his concerns with providing certain pieces of video to A&E. Koumal said that in one encounter with a suspect, an officer used 'profanities constantly.' In another incident, he admitted that a deputy repeatedly punched an individual he was trying to apprehend but turned on his body camera 'well after the fight [was] over.'
It is not clear if any of this footage was handed over for 'Desert Law,' which premiered on January 7, 2026. Captain Robert Koumal was the main point of contact between the department and the producers from Twenty Twenty Productions. Koumal expressed concern in handing over body camera footage that showed deputies being violent with suspects or using profanities.
Koumal, who leads the sheriff's community services division and handles record management, sent out an email in June to his deputies that instructed them to cooperate with the A&E crew. 'Our team has been very supportive in promoting the great work of our personnel and department efforts,' he wrote. 'The A&E team is flexible and appropriately sensitive to adversely impacting our operations and/or safety. Please consider reaching out to them if any incidents occur – even short notice.'
Tom Olney, one of the producers, sent an email to Koumal in September effusively praising him and his department for their 'continued support.' Throughout the filming, Olney routinely asked the department for updates on when records requests would be fulfilled. In at least one instance, Olney asked for a newer request to replace older ones, something officials agreed to. Typically, law enforcement agencies process requests for public records on a first-come, first-served basis.
The emails provide a unique, unfiltered insight into the Pima County Sheriff's Department before the agency was thrust into the spotlight over the disappearance of Nancy, the 84-year-old mother of TODAY show host Savannah Guthrie. Nancy was last seen on January 31 after being dropped off by a family member at her home in the Catalina Foothills. Police believe she was taken against her will during the early hours of February 1. After she failed to show up at a friend's home that day, her family reported her missing. Nancy's disappearance remains unsolved after more than two months.
From the start, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has endured relentless criticism for his handling of the case. He now faces the possibility of losing his job after he allegedly misrepresented his work history, something he denies. Nancy's home surveillance footage showed a masked man at her door the night she went missing. Authorities have not been able to identify the man, nor have they zeroed in on a possible suspect.
The Daily Mail reported in February that the sheriff's department failed to deploy its fixed-wing Cessna aircraft to search the area around Nancy's home immediately after she was reported missing. The aircraft, equipped with high-resolution thermal imaging cameras capable of scanning vast swaths of desert terrain, remained on the tarmac for roughly half a day, sources close to the sheriff's department told the Daily Mail. There was a staffing shortage that left the department without qualified pilots to fly the plane – a shortage people familiar with the situation blamed directly on Nanos.
Nanos has also acknowledged that crime scene tape around Nancy's house was put up and taken down on numerous occasions. He has also been accused of covering up a series of suspensions he received in the 1980s when he worked at the El Paso Police Department in Texas. The Arizona Republic reported in April that Nanos testified during a December 2025 deposition that he had never been suspended while working as a police officer. This alleged misrepresentation, which Nanos denies, could lead to him being removed from office by the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
