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Who was Isabel Celis? Sheriff Nanos compares Nancy Guthrie case to Tucson girl's murder, ‘Unlike anything we’ve seen’
Chris Nanos compared the Nancy Guthrie case to six-year-old Isabel Celis' murder. The Tucson girl was taken from her bedroom in 2012, and later found dead.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos compared Nancy Guthrie’s potential abduction to the Isabel Celis case, saying the Guthrie case is “unlike anything we’ve seen in years in Tucson.” The closest example, he said, is the kidnapping of Celis. She was six years old when she was taken from her bedroom in 2012.
A man named Christopher Clements received a natural life sentence in April 2024 for the murder of Celis in Tucson more than a decade ago. He was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and second-degree burglary for the abduction and death of the girl.
“It took 10 years to get resolution on that. I hope that’s not the case here, but I hope also that the public and community understand that we are working it hard, and we are working it with some really good, quality teams,” Nanos said.
Who was Isabel Celis?
Pima County prosecutors said that Clements took Isabel from her bedroom in the early morning hours of April 21, 2012. Her father, Sergio Celis, found her missing when he went to wake her up at around 8 am. The missing child’s oldest brother found her window open and the screen bent and propped against the side of the house, according to Tucson.com.
Despite an investigation, the case remained unsolved for years. FBI agents received a tip in 2017 that Clements had information about Isabel’s location. At the time, he was in the Pima County jail on unrelated charges, and agreed to lead investigators to Isabel’s body in exchange for the charges being dropped, and his car being released from impound.
Clements directed authorities to a desert area near Avra Valley and Trico roads, and pointed to a tree surrounded by dense brush. Investigators initially found a few cranial bones there. However, a wider search of the area revealed several other bones, which were later identified as Isabel’s. Forensic specialists with the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office testified that one of the child’s vertebrae was fractured, possibly due to blunt force trauma.
Clements, who was a convicted sex offender, had already been found guilty by a separate jury in the 2014 killing of 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez. Both the Gonzalez and Celis cases remained unsolved until 2018, which is when officials announced that Clements had been arrested in the deaths of both Tucson girls.
Isabel’s parents addressed the court at Clements’ sentencing.
“His actions took Isabel away from her brothers,” said Isabel’s mother Becky Celis, according to KOLD. “He took away a beautiful life presence. We will never get to see her grow into a beautiful woman, to watch her grow up, graduate high school, go to college.”
She added, “My solace is knowing in the Bible there is a verse in Matthew: If anyone hurts or abuses these little children, these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for him to have a heavy boulder tied around his neck and hurled into the deepest sea than to face the punishment he deserves. The Bible speaks of God’s wrath and it has been shown to be great.”
“We, my son Julian, Sergio Miguel, Becky and myself, we all are going to serve a life sentence of this unescapable, never-ending nightmare,” said Isabel’s father Sergio, adding, “Until the day I die, I will feel responsible for not doing my job and protecting my little girl from the evil that lurked outside her window.”
The Pima County Attorney’s Office said in a statement, in part, after the verdict, “It took months of hard work, preparation, and a week’s long trial, and finally, the jury returned a guilty verdict in the murder of Isabelle Celis against Christopher Clements today. Pima County prosecutors put their best foot forward to secure justice for the family and the jury’s verdict vindicates that effort. Our heartfelt sympathies go to the Celis family given the trauma they have had to endure throughout the trial.”
Sheriff Chris Nanos says Nancy Guthrie probe is ‘not even close’ to a cold case
Nanos said in a recent interview that the Guthrie investigation is "not even close" to a cold case. "We have some DNA that we think is still workable,” he said during a 45-minute sit-down interview with longtime Tucson host Bill Buckmaster and Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller on KVOI AM 1030's Bill Buckmaster Show.
Talking about the investigation, Nanos said that the Sheriff's Department is still working with the FBI, labs around the country and forensics examiners on "thousands (of hours) of video footage we still have to sort through.”
“The 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, everything is speculative. We don’t have anything in front of us that says 'this is who did this, and this is why'.”
“I just can’t share everything, but I will tell you this: we have some DNA that we think is still workable, and we have to work that," the sheriff said. "And we know the science, and we know we have some labs around this country who are really working diligently to get there with this."
