On November 2, 2016, Sherri Papini disappeared while jogging a mile from her home in Redding, California.

She reappeared after 22 days on Thanksgiving Day near the town of Mountain Gale at 4.30 am on November 24, 2016.

Sherri informed the police that two Hispanic women had abducted her, and a medical exam revealed she had been “branded,” on her right shoulder, though it was indefinite what the image was that had been burned into her skin. She had also lost a considerable amount of weight during confinement.

In the same months, the investigators showed some mistrust in her story, given the dubious details and inconsistencies of the reported abduction.

The story is still a mystery as investigators clearly can’t determine if Sherri was the abduction victim or the fraud victim. But if it was a hoax, what was the reason? If the kidnapping was fabricated, who hurt her so badly?

The Abduction

Sherri’s husband, Keith Papini, became worried when he returned from his job at Best Buy on November 2, 2016, and did not discover her at home. She also had not picked her children up from daycare.

He used the “Find My iPhone” application to attempt and find where she was by locating her cell phone. The app showed her cellphone was at the intersection of Sunrise Drive and Old Oregon Trail, about a mile from their home.

Keith said, “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. I found her phone; it’s got hair ripped out of it, like, in the headphones.“

When Keith went to recover the phone, it was put on the ground and tidily wrapped around it with the headphones. He reached the authorities to believe that something terrible had occurred to Sherri.

Sherri Reappeared

After three weeks, in the early morning hours of November 24, Sherri was discovered at the side of County Road 17 near Interstate 5 in Yolo County. 

The place was 150 miles (240 km) south of where she was kidnapped and around 15 miles north of Sacramento.

According to police, she had managed to flag down a passing car despite being chained.

Sherri informed police that she had been retained by two Hispanic women who took steps to keep their faces concealed from her, either by wearing masks or by covering her head. Sherri said that the two women with a handgun had kidnapped her, hit her, and kept her prisoner in a basement before one of them eventually left her on the side of the road.

Sherri said the woman had been driving a dark-colored SUV with a large rear side window at the time of the abduction, but she could not give details of the make and model.

Physical Examination

She appeared to have been physically harmed during her imprisonment, and she had been imprinted with a terrifying message, her nose damaged and her hair cut off. She also weighed only 87 pounds (40 kg) when she was discovered.

The Sheriff’s office said, “Sherri appeared battered and bruised, her hair had been cut to shoulder length and she had a brand on her right shoulder. Sherri, however, stated she had not been sexually assaulted, and there is no physical evidence to indicate otherwise. “

‘The Sheriff’s Office analyzed the label on Sherri’s shoulder and its possible meaning, but details remain hidden.

Police Release Sketches

Sketches of Sherri’s likely kidnappers were released in October 2017, 11 months after Sherri Papini was found. 

One woman was represented as being aged between 20 and 30 years old, 5 feet 5 inches tall, and with curled dark hair, thin eyebrows, and pierced ears. 

The second woman was between 40 and 50 years old, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, with long, straight black hair, gray, thick eyebrows, and pierced ears.

Weird Discoveries

After medical examination of Sherri, it was found that a male DNA on her, but no other female DNA, apparently at chance with her claim that two “Mexican women” kidnaped her. This male DNA was not her husband’s, and Keith Papini volunteered for a polygraph and passed.

Then a man called the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office a few months after the alleged kidnapping claiming that Sherri was with him for the entire 22 days when Sherri Papini was allegedly held captive by the Hispanic women. But this lead went nowhere. Still, it enabled doubts in the Sheriff’s office.

The officers were suspicious from the beginning about the kidnapping even before she was discovered alive. They spent days concentrated almost completely on an exchange on Papini’s computer that meant she might have been involved with a man she met online.

Police discovered Sherri had been texting a man before her disappearance, and they tracked down the man in Detroit, Michigan, on November 9, a week after she vanished. But the man was ruled out as a suspect in her disappearance, and the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department refused to give further details.

Sherri also appeared to have had a disturbing past. When she was 18 years old, her sister accused her of kicking in the back door of the family’s Shasta Lake home. 

The same day, her parents, Richard and Loretta Graeff called the police to document the incident as “vandalism” and claimed that she had taken off to “somewhere in Redding“.

When Sherri Papini was 21, her parents made another call to the police alleging she had stolen money from her father’s bank account, which she later returned. Then Loretta reported that Sherri was harming herself and blaming her injuries.

Retired NYPD Sgt. Joseph Giacalone, now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said after Sherri was discovered, “I don’t think they could find anything in the United States where that happened to someone. Generally, when kidnappings go on that long, they don’t end as well as this one did.”

That no reason was ever revealed in the case is also mysterious, along with the $100,000 reward being presented in the case going unclaimed. 

“When you’re going to kidnap someone you’ve got a reason for it, whether it’s money, revenge or to get back at somebody,” Giacalone said. A pair of female kidnappers are also “very unusual” he said.

Since authorities have suggested no public threat from the two women, Giacalone said that could indicate that Sherri knew her abductors. “Generally when law enforcement doesn’t say there’s a public threat, they genuinely believe the person actually knows the perpetrator.“

Others blamed the investigation, “The Sheriff’s office was so focused on that one lead that they forgot how to run an investigation. I’m not afraid to call out law enforcement when they’re not doing they’re not doing their job and the problem, in this case, is that law enforcement has failed miserably.”

Changes in Sherri:

Sherri Papini now remains at home with her husband, Keith and son and daughter on the outskirts of Shasta Lake in Northern California.

Neighbors have said that Sheri is now only seen outside rarely and “mostly stays home“.

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