Emails reveal reality TV crew’s behind-the-scenes access to sheriff now leading Nancy Guthrie probe
FIRST ON FOX: The Pima County Sheriff’s Department worked closely with a reality TV crew to provide footage and access to deputies — including video of arrests and use-of-force incidents that raised internal concerns — according to emails obtained by Fox News Digital.
The emails also reveal that the head of the department's homicide and cold case units had been rotated out in the year before the suspected abduction of Nancy Guthrie from her home in Tucson's Catalina Foothills. Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie, is believed to have been kidnapped months after filming for the show ended.
A June 18, 2025 email from show producer Amanda Riley shows she asked for the contacts of the sergeants running several units. In a reply two days later, Capt. Robert Koumal informed her that "the department has experienced some rotational re-assignments since last year," and revealed that the leader of every team she'd asked about had changed.
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More than 220 pages of emails between PCSD officials and the show's producers show behind-the-scenes exchanges in the creation of a reality show featuring a sheriff's department that would soon become a household name as the Guthrie case played out. Her whereabouts remained unknown as of Friday.
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Some incidents included use-of-force and other behavioral concerns, including discussions over whether to provide bodycam where deputies were swearing to the show. In one case, authorities appeared concerned about an altercation in which the involved deputy didn't start recording until after the fight with a suspect had ended.
Read the emails:
The emails were shared between members of the PCSD, its public information office, and producers from Twenty Twenty Productions, who worked on the A&E show, "Desert Law." The series focuses on law enforcement in Pima County's Sonoran Desert.
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While the TV crew went on a series of ride-alongs with PCSD patrols, show producers were generally interested in bodycam and other police-obtained video. They asked for a public information officer to be available to drive a marked SUV in order to create background footage, known as "B-roll." Koumal agreed in a July 1 email, suggesting a deputy "take our new Tahoe."
The producers also requested information from an infamous local case, the 1996 murder of Gary Triano.
Triano died in an explosion in the Catalina Foothills after his wife, Pamela Phillips, hired a hitman to plant a pipe bomb in his Lincoln Town Car. It exploded while he was driving home from a golf course. Friends and family were waiting to surprise him with a birthday party.
She was convicted in 2014 and is serving a life prison sentence, as is the bomber, Ron Young, who was arrested after a 2005 episode of "America's Most Wanted."
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Koumal, the captain overseeing the sheriff's community services division and records management, also sent out a note encouraging deputies to proactively reach out to the show producers "if any incidents occur."
Producer Tom Olney praised the cooperation, writing, "thank you as ever for all your continued support, its amazing and absolutely the best I've ever received from any law enforcement department!"
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He also repeatedly voiced concerns about the wait time for bodycam records and offered to discuss ways to expedite and prioritize the footage to meet show deadlines. In some cases, he asked for his newer requests to be replaced ahead of older ones, a request that officials granted at least once.
It's unclear from the provided emails whether any of the TV crew's requests took priority over those from the public.
It would be unusual for records keepers to allow certain requesters to skip the line. Typically, agencies process public records requests on a first-come, first-served basis.
The emails were sent between July and December 2025, well before the abduction of Nancy Guthrie, whose Feb. 1 disappearance from her home in the Catalina Foothills remains unsolved. PCSD is the lead agency on that case.