Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos compared Nancy Guthrie’s potential kidnapping to the Isabel Celis case, calling the Guthrie case “unlike anything we’ve seen in Tucson in years.” The closest example, he said, was the kidnapping of Celis. She was six years old when she was taken from her bedroom in 2012.
In April 2024, a man named Christopher Clements was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Sellis in Tucson more than a decade ago. He was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and second-degree burglary for kidnapping and killing the girl.
“It’s taken us 10 years to figure this out. I wish that wasn’t the case here, but I also want the public and the community to know that we’re working hard and we’re working with some really good quality teams,” Nanos said.
Who is Isabel Celis?
Pima County prosecutors said Clements took Isabel from her bedroom in the early morning hours of April 21, 2012. Her father, Sergio Celis, discovered she was missing when he went to wake her up around 8 a.m. The missing child’s eldest brother found her window open and the screen bent and leaning against the side of the house, Tucson.com reported.
Despite an investigation, the case remained unsolved for years. FBI agents received a tip in 2017 that Clements had information on Isabel’s location. He was being held in the Pima County Jail on unrelated charges at the time and agreed to lead investigators to see Isabel’s body in exchange for the charges being dropped and his car released.
Clements directed authorities to a desert area near Avra Valley and Trico Highway, pointing to a tree surrounded by thick brush. Investigators initially found some skulls there. However, a wider search of the area uncovered several other bones, later identified as those of Isabel. Forensic experts with the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that one of the child’s vertebrae was fractured, possibly due to blunt force trauma.
Clements is a convicted sex offender who was convicted by a separate jury in the 2014 death of 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez. The cases of Gonzalez and Sellis went unsolved until 2018, when officials announced Clements had been arrested in the deaths of two Tucson girls.
Isabel’s parents addressed the court at Clements’ sentencing.
“His behavior drove Isabel away from her brother,” Isabel’s mother, Becky Celis, said, KOLD reported. “He took a beautiful thing from life. We never got to see her grow into a beautiful woman, watch her grow up, graduate high school, go to college.”
She added, “My comfort is knowing that there is a verse in the Bible from Matthew: If anyone hurts or abuses one of these little ones, these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for him to have a big stone tied around his neck and thrown into the deepest sea, rather than face the punishment he deserves. The Bible talks about the wrath of God, which has been proven to be great.”
“We, my son Julian, Sergio Miguel, Becky and myself, we all will be sentenced to life imprisonment for this inescapable, never-ending nightmare,” Isabel’s father Sergio said. He added, “Until the day I die, I will feel responsible for not doing my job and protecting my little girl from the evil that lurks outside my window.”
The Pima County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement after the verdict, “After months of hard work, preparation, and a week-long trial, the jury finally returned a guilty verdict against Christopher Clements for the murder of Isabel Sallis. The Pima County Prosecutor went to great lengths to bring justice to the family, and the jury’s verdict is a vindication of that effort. “Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the Sallis family, considering the trauma they” had to endure throughout the trial.” “
Sheriff Chris Nanos says Nancy Guthrie investigation ‘nowhere near a cold case’
Nanos said in a recent interview that Guthrie’s investigation “A far cry” from the cold case. “We have some DNA We think it’s still feasible. ” he said during a 45-minute interview on The Bill Buckmaster Show on KVOI AM 1030 with longtime Tucson host Bill Buckmaster and Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller.
Learn more | Nancy Guthrie case: Former FBI agent reveals why Savannah Guthrie’s mom was ‘more vulnerable’ to attack
Speaking about the investigation, Nanos said the Sheriff’s Department is still working with the FBI, labs and forensic examiners across the country and “we still have thousands (hours) of video footage to sort through.”
“This case will get us there. We let the evidence show us the way, and that’s what we base everything on,” Nanos said. “Right now, it’s all speculation. We have nothing in front of us to prove ‘who did this and this is why’.”
“I can’t share everything, but I will tell you this: We have some DNA that we think is still viable and we have to work on it,” the sheriff said. “We know the science, we know we have some labs in the country that are working hard to make this happen.”
