It was a story that captured international attention. In November 2016, “super mom” Sherri Papini was abducted while jogging in Redding, California. Then 22 days later, the petite blonde was discovered bruised, shackled and partially clothed on the side of a road 150 miles from her home.
Papini, who was 34 at the time, claimed she was kidnapped by two Hispanic women. But now, nearly a year later, investigators continue to poke holes in her story.
On Wednesday, October 25, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office released sketches of her suspected abductors as well as new details on Papini’s mysterious disappearance.
Sgt. Brian Jackson told The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday that detectives found a woman’s DNA on Papini’s body but a man’s DNA on her clothing, despite her claims that she was kidnapped by two females. The DNA samples submitted to the criminal database do not belong to Sherri or her husband, Keith Papini.
Authorities also released information about a fight Sherri allegedly got into with of one the suspects in which she claimed to have cut her foot, even though investigators have no evidence of a cut, local newspaper The Record Searchlight reported Wednesday.
Per the Record Searchlight, Sherri had been texting with a male acquaintance from Michigan prior to her disappearance and they had planned to meet up when he was in California. Police questioned the individual and concluded that he was not involved in the incident.
The initial 911 call made by Keith on November 2, 2016, was also released on Wednesday. “I’m, like, totally freaking out thinking, like, somebody grabbed her,” he said. Keith had returned home from work at Best Buy and found that the house was empty.
“I couldn’t find her, so I called the daycare to see what time she picked up the kids. The kids were never picked up so I got freaked out, I hit the Find My iPhone app thing,” Keith continued. “I found her phone; it’s got like hair ripped out of it, like, in the headphones . . . Something happened to her is the way I’m looking at it. There was hair, like, in the headphones, like it got ripped off when they grabbed her.”
In a statement released to the Record Searchlight Wednesday evening, Keith thanked all the people who have supported the Papini family over the last year. “Your well wishes have helped beyond measure,” he wrote. “We are hopeful that the release of additional information by law enforcement will expedite the capture of Sherri’s abductors. This has been an extraordinarily difficult time for our entire family. We ask that the media please respect our need for privacy as Sherri continues to heal and we work towards putting our lives back together.”
Sherri was found Thanksgiving Day in Yolo County in California. Her long blonde hair had been chopped off and she was branded with a message on her right shoulder.
