Details about woman who’d gone missing: texts, DNA
A woman who disappeared last year from her neighborhood near Redding and mysteriously turned up alive on the side of a freeway “branded,” bruised and in chains, had been texting with a man from Michigan before going missing and had male DNA on her clothing that was not her husband’s, investigators said Wednesday.
For the first time in nearly six months, officials provided new details of the sensational kidnapping case of Sherri Papini, a 35-year-old mother who vanished while jogging but remarkably turned up alive three weeks later on Thanksgiving morning.
The FBI also released two sketches of Papini’s alleged abductors as they work alongside the Shasta County Sheriff ’s Office in piecing together the bizarre case that has captured wide attention.
“We’ll probably release better information at a later date once we have more information confirmed,” said Sgt. Brian Jackson of the Shasta
County Sheriff ’s Office. “Our whole focus now is getting some suspects identified.”
In interviews with detectives following her release, Papini described her abductors as two Latina women armed with a gun in a darkcolored sport utility vehicle. The FBI’s sketches show two women with the lower halves of their faces obscured by handkerchiefs.
One woman was described as a young adult with dark curly hair, pierced ears and thin eyebrows. The other was described as an older adult with straight, graying black hair and thick eyebrows.
Papini disappeared while jogging in her neighborhood northeast of Redding on Nov. 2 after dropping off her children at day care. When she failed to pick up her children that day, her family members became worried. Their concerns grew when deputies found her phone abandoned a mile from her home.
While teams of volunteers fanned out in search of the woman, investigators discovered Papini had been texting with “a male acquaintance” from Michigan, and days prior to her disappearance, she texted him “in an attempt to meet” while he was in California, Jackson said Wednesday.
Detectives, though, went to Michigan to interview the unnamed man, and determined he was not involved in the disappearance.
Then around 4:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving, Papini — injured and disheveled — turned up on the side of Interstate 5 in Yolo County with a chain around her waist. She flagged down a passing trucker and was taken to Woodland Memorial Hospital, where detectives interviewed her several times and collected evidence.
Her husband, Keith Papini, described his wife’s horrific injuries, including her “emaciated body” being covered in bruises, burns, rashes and chain markings. Her long blond hair had been cut off at her shoulders, and her back right shoulder had a mysterious branding mark.
Officials would not elaborate on the details of the burn.
Papini told detectives that she had fought one of her two abductors at some point while being held captive, slamming the younger woman’s head into a toilet, Jackson said. That woman later drove her to be dropped off on the side of the road, he said.
Sherri Papini “continues to provide details as she can recall them, but has not been able to provide a complete detailed statement due to her poor recollection,” Jackson said.
Crime-lab technicians with the state Department of Justice found two DNA profiles— one from a man and one from a woman — on Papini, following her return. The man’s DNA was not her husband’s, Jackson said.
He would not disclose what type of DNA investigators found on Papini, but said it did not match any profiles in the FBI’s national database.
Papini said she was not sexually assaulted during the kidnapping, and there was no evidence to suggest otherwise, officials said.
As details of the kidnapping emerged, and media attention intensified following Papini’s return, skepticism on social media began to swell.
Keith Papini struck back at doubters, vigorously defending his wife in the days after her safe return.
“Rumors, assumptions, lies and hate have been both exhausting and disgusting,” Keith Papini wrote in a statement to ABC’s “Good Morning America” in November. “Those people should be ashamed of their malicious, subhuman behavior. We are not going to allow those people to take away our spirit, love or rejoice in our girl found alive and home where she belongs.”
Investigators have received more than 600 tips from around the world and remain in contact with the Papinis. They have executed more than 20 search warrants and gave Keith Papini a polygraph test. They do not believe he was involved in his wife’s disappearance.
Anyone with information about the case was asked to contact the FBI at (916) 746-7000. The FBI is offering $10,000 for information leading to the identification of the suspects.