Nearly a year after Sherri Papini vanished while jogging near her home, investigators have shared shocking new details about the alleged incident.
The “super mum” was out jogging near her home in northern California when she was reportedly snatched by two women. She was discovered freed but partially clothed and shackled on a road more than 240 kilometres away some three weeks later.
Sherri claimed her kidnappers were two women, but authorities said Wednesday that a man’s DNA was found on her clothes.
“The male DNA was compiled from the clothing Sherri was found wearing,” Shasta County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Brian Jackson told People.
Jackson said that the alleged female abductors gave her clothing to wear, so it’s possible “that the clothing that was provided to Sherri are clothes that belonged to somebody who was an acquaintance of the captors, and hopefully down the road, once we get these females identified, we will get the answers for that.”
The DNA was uploaded into a criminal database, but so far, no matches have been made. Her husband Keith has been ruled out as a suspect.
Sherri’s husband Keith has been ruled out as a suspect.
It was also revealed that the mother-of-two had been texting with a Michigan man in an attempt to meet in California before her disappearance.
Detectives traveled to Michigan, interviewed him and determined he was not involved in her disappearance.
No arrests have been made in the kidnapping, but the FBI this week released sketches of two female suspects in the case. Both are described as Hispanic women, one of whom is in her 20s or 30s and the other of whom is middle-aged.
Image via the FBI.
Sherri was out jogging near her home in northern California when she was reportedly snatched. She returned 22 days later, her husband Keith recounting the horrors she’d faced.
She was reportedly held captive in a cell, starved, beaten and branded. She allegedly had broken bones on her face and her head had been shaved.
“My first sight was my wife in a hospital bed. Her face covered in bruises ranging from yellow to black because of her repeated beatings. The bridge of her nose broken,” Keith Papini told Good Morning America in a statement. “She has been branded and I could feel the rise of her scabs under my fingers.”
The story unsurprisingly attracted worldwide attention with many speculating that it might have been some sort of cult kidnapping, while others believed the entire event to be staged.
