SHERRI PAPINI, CA: MISSING/RECOVERED

[HairOfTheDog]

Sherri Papini, 34, of Redding, CA was last seen jogging in her neighborhood on the morning of Wednesday, November 2.

Family members sounded the alarm when they learned that Sherri hadn't picked her two children up at daycare the day of her jog, which was completely out of character.

"She absolutely loved and adored her children and did anything for them," Sheila Koester, Sherri's sister, told the press.

Keith Papini, Sherri's husband, tracked her cell phone to less than 1.5 miles east of Interstate 5 in the Mountain Gate area north of Redding using the Find My iPhone application. Sherri's ear buds were still in the phone, with strands of her hair attached. No other items were recovered at the scene.

A coordinated search effort began on Thursday. Members of the Shasta County Sheriff's Office and Rescue team deployed all over the area in search of Sherri, with helicopters from the California Highway patrol providing air support.

Over the weekend, an impassioned army of community members was dispersed to air the search. The search spanned a 5-6 mile radius from the Papini home and the area is described as "rural and forested."

Sheila said Sherri was training for an upcoming race where participants dress in superhero clothes and run to raise money for disadvantaged children. "She is a bright, bubbly, intelligent, beautiful and loving mother."

Authorities continue to follow up on leads and, in a Shasta County News Release, labeled Sherri's disappearance as "suspicious circumstances/at risk."

So far, $26k in reward money has been donated via a GoFundMe account and Secret Witness has put up $50k.

I sure hope Sherri is found alive.

Ref: http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/missing-i...en-n679321

[HairOfTheDog]

This short video contains statements from Sherri's husband and her sister.

It also advises women on safety measures for jogging alone.

[Duchess]

She's tiny. That's not the first time I've thought that about some of these women who go missing :(

[Carsman]

Very sad, women should not jog on trails and or secluded roads all alone. Too many nut cases out there!

[HairOfTheDog]

This is good news. And, it's pretty weird.

Sherri Papini was found safe and was reunited with her husband Keith on Thanksgiving Day.


Photo of the couple, released by Keith Papini

2 days ago, on Tuesday, the private hostage negotiator (Cameron Gamble) working for Sherri's family made a public statement addressed to Sherri's abductors or anyone who knew where she was located. The Sheriff had advised the family against using intermediaries such as Gamble.

In his statement, Gamble noted that the large reward put up by an anonymous donor expired if he did not receive a call to negotiate the ransom exchange by Wednesday at 5:00 a.m. Sherri had been missing 3 weeks.

Early yesterday morning, Thanksgiving Thursday, Sherri Papini flagged down a motorist on I5 in rural Yolo County. She was bound with restraints and said that she had been released by her captors.

Police were called and she was taken to a hospital for medical clearance before being reunited with her family.

Shasta police held a press conference yesterday and said that Sherri had some injuries which were not life-threatening, but didn't expand on the injuries.

The Sheriff's Office is warning the public and telling them that they should remain cautious. According to officials, details of this investigation point to this being an isolated incident.

Sheriff Bosenko said that from his knowledge no tip had been called in, either into the ransom reward website or a tip line.

Bosenko told reporters that Sherri told investigators she was abducted by two Hispanic females with a handgun in a dark SUV.

Sheriff Bosenko said that this is still an active investigation and they will keep searching for Sherri's captor or captors.

Refs:
http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/northst.../183165592
http://www.redding.com/news/local/Papini...95816.html
=====================

I'm very curious to hear what Sherri told investigators went down during the 3 weeks that she was missing.

[Duchess]

Such a bizarre story. I'm very glad she was found alive but I feel skeptical. Reading the crime forum has made me somewhat cynical. I hope she's not blaming brown people because she wanted a break from real life.

[HairOfTheDog]

Such a bizarre story. I'm very glad she was found alive but I feel skeptical. Reading the crime forum has made me somewhat cynical. I hope she's not blaming brown people because she wanted a break from real life.

It is a really strange story. I wonder if Adub is following this case. I'd like to hear her take/ponderings.

I read several articles and hundreds of comments about the case today. There's a good deal of suspicion that Sherri actually ran off voluntarily (probably to hang out with a dude) and then had help staging her roadside release in order to come back as a victim and maintain her family's "supermom" status.

Another common theory is that Sherri and some members of her family created the whole missing/abduction scenario to gain exposure and possibly $$$$ ($50,000 was raised in GoFundMe donations); a hoax.

Many suspect that Sherri was released (after either a real or hoax abduction) because the strange private reverse-ransom offer was taken up on, only the police don't know that ransom was paid or the police don't want to make it known to the public for fear of motivating similar kidnappings.

One common speculative story is that Sherri was engaged in a feud or was the subject of long-standing grudge with some Latinas who targeted her for revenge.

[HairOfTheDog]

There's an archived Skinheadz internet posting by someone from Sherri's hometown, with her maiden name (Graeff), claiming that Hispanic girls in high school ragged on her because of her white pride and caused her to fight with them (and Hispanics harassed her father too). The writer claims that she kicked ass but now realizes that the Skinhead women should only fight when their men aren't around to do it for them.



The Skinheadz post: http://umbrellaofsuspicion.com/wp-conten...erri-1.jpg

I don't know if the old internet posting (written sometime between 2003 and 2007) is truth or fiction, but it's been making the rounds for a couple of weeks.

So, it adds to the oddities of this case that Sherri told police she'd been abducted by two Hispanic females whom she can only identify by voice.

Ref: http://www.inquisitr.com/3745610/did-she...d-website/

[HairOfTheDog]

The Latest

"We currently have no reason to disbelieve Sherri Papini's story, Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said on Sunday. "She was assaulted and had injuries which she was treated for."



Sherri Papini was found here ^ around 4:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning. It's in Woodland, CA (Yolo County), about 150 miles from her home in Redding.

She was bound with a chain and something around her wrists when she flagged down a passing motorist. She was 'heavily battered' according to CHP dispatch, but was released from the hospital shortly after being examined.

Sheriff Bosenko said yesterday that investigators are looking into past incidents with Sherri Papini, are aware of her previous marriage and divorce, and are checking into her past online activity.

Aside from the alleged Skinheadz post, Sherri posted a chronological blog about her romance with Keith Papini and claimed she'd never lived with a guy before, but public records confirm that she had in fact been married and divorced when she started dating Papini.

Investigators have also put out 20 warrants for data including surveillance cameras and cell towers. The camera footage, from locations in Yolo County and the city of Redding, include homes, business, a church, motels and traffic cameras.

[HairOfTheDog]

In the meantime, LE says they're looking for two Hispanic females in a dark SUV -- no age or physical description provided. In California, that's the equivalent of looking for two white males in a pick-up truck in West Virginia.....or a black couple in a medium-sized car in Mississippi.

I hope Sherri Papini speaks in detail with investigators soon and that surveillance video and/or cell phone records provide some evidence to either confirm or disprove this strange abduction and release story.

Ref: http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-reason-d...d=43816705

[HairOfTheDog]

Below is the statement from Keith Papini released today.

Statement:
"The first thing I would like to address is the ovewhelming amount of gratitude our entire family has for the thousands of people that have been on this torturous journey with us. I cannot possibly name each and every person, although their names are eternally etched in our hearts. Thank you to our strong family, devoted friends, the entire Redding community, and countless communities around the world. Specific thanks to the Shasta County Sheriff”s department, FBI, NorCal Alliance for the Missing, The Lost Coast Trackers, Shasta Support Services, The Guardian Angels, my own personal A-Team, Cameron Gamble, Cody Salfen, Jim Linnan, Sean Ditty, Don Armstrong, Yolo County Sheriff's department and hospital, the medical personnel that helped our dear Sherri, social media, and many news outlets.

Thank you to LRT Graphics and Signarama. Thank you to the extremely generous, anonymous as well as named donors all over the world whom selflessly gave to our family. Thank you to the many incredible humans that have never known Sherri that facilitated in sharing our heart break across the globe. Sherri has always captured my heart and it is no surprise that she has captured the hearts not only through the country, but throughout the world. Thank you, truly, immensely, sincerely, and with my entire heart.

Secondly, we live in a nation of free speech, accompanied with an era of technology that provides immediate gratification. This is a double edged sword. I am grateful for this system as it is what spread my wife's face quickly throughout the world, gaining the attention of thousands. The unfortunate side is that some people have been sitting in angering, expectant, positions waiting for the gory details.

Rumors, assumptions, lies, and hate have been both exhausting and disgusting. Those people should be ashamed of their malicious, sub human 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. I understand people want the story, pictures, proof that this was not some sort of hoax, plan to gain money, or some fabricated race war. I do not see a purpose in addressing each preposterous lie. Instead, may I give you a glimpse of the mixture of horror and elation that was my experience of reuniting with the love of my life and mother of our children.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see upon my arrival at the hospital, nor the details of the true hell I was about to hear. The mental prison I was in over the past three weeks was shattered when my questions of my wife's reality became known.

The officers warned me to brace myself. My first sight was my wife in a hospital bed, her face covered in bruises ranging from yellow to black because of repeated beatings, the bridge of her nose broken.

Her now emaciated body of 87 pounds was covered in multi colored bruises, severe burns, red rashes, and chain markings. Her signature long, blonde hair had been chopped off. She has been branded and I could feel the rise of her scabs under my fingers. She was thrown from a vehicle with a chain around her waist, attached to her wrists and a bag over her head. The same bag she used to flag someone down once she was able to free one of her hands. Sherri was taken from us for 22 days, and suffered incredibly through both intense physical agony and severe mental torture. My reaction was one of extreme happiness and overwhelming nausea as my eyes and hands scanned her body. I was filled with so much relief and revulsion at once. My Sherri suffered tremendously and all the visions swirling in your heads of her appearance, I assure you, are not as graphic and gruesome as the reality.

We are a very private family whom do not use social media outlets prior to this grotesque tragedy. My love for my wife took precedents and it was clear we had to be exposed in ways we never would have been comfortable with. So please have a heart and understand why we have asked for our privacy. This will be along road of healing for everyone. Ultimately, it was Sherri's will to survive that brought her home. Thank you." http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/shasta/.../190962819

Shasta County Sheriff Bosenko continues to state that he currently has no reason to disbelieve Sherri Papini, that she was injured when released or dropped off on Thanksgiving, and that he's continuing his investigation and pursuit of two Hispanic women in a dark SUV.

[HairOfTheDog]

Shortly after Keith Papini released his statement on Good Morning America today, an interview with Sherri's ex-husband David Dreyfus was published.

Dreyfus claims that Sherri didn't really write the Skinheadz post from 2003 (which is being investigated as a possible factor in her temporary disappearance). He says some unknown person in high school posted it as a prank against Sherri. That's hard for me to swallow, especially considering Sherri was years out of high school at the time the post was made. Ref: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...acist.html

And, the private hostage negotiator/defense contractor, Cameron Gamble, came out and praised Sherri as a hero and survivor. He said the anonymous donor who had offered the unclaimed ransom/reward could end up giving the $100,000 to the Papinis (which would be on top of the $50k raised via donations on GoFundMe). Ref: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...eward.html

Weirdness. I'm not convinced that what's being put out there in this case is reality. But, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, so.....

[Duchess]

Oh man. They cut her hair off, broke her nose, covered in bruises and cigarette burns and she only weighed 87 lbs. She musta looked like a Holocaust survivor.

[HairOfTheDog]

Oh man. They cut her hair off, broke her nose, covered in bruises and cigarette burns and she only weighed 87 lbs. She musta looked like a Holocaust survivor.

She was branded with some kind of message (not a symbol, according to the Sheriff), but there was no mention of cigarette burns.

There's a lot of speculation that Sherri Papini was nabbed by sex traffickers who let her go when the publicity got to be too much (or when then they secretly accepted the anonymous donor's ransom via the private negotiator).

That could be the case. But, I lean more towards it being personal, not random. I think Sherri Papini is probably the central clue to what happened to her.

Anyway, after Keith Papini released that statement about his wife's condition and condemning 'sub humans on the internet', the Sheriff's office admitted that they'd been blindsided by it.

LE had wanted to withhold key details from the public (like the branding), as they almost always do before they've arrested and charged someone. That makes it easier for LE to weed out bad tips and false confessions, to verify true confessions, and to trick suspects into revealing details not released publicly.

But, Keith Papini took it upon himself to release those details anyway (apparently to quash 'hoax' suspicions expressed by internet posters). I hope he didn't compromise the investigation in any significant way in so doing.

Sheriff Bosenko indicated yesterday that he may hold a press conference today with more information.

Refs:
http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/shasta/...d=43869060

[Maggot]

I'm really surprised they let her live. That's the only reason it strikes me as an odd case.

[Duchess]

She was branded with some kind of message (not a symbol, according to the Sheriff), but there was no mention of cigarette burns.

I don't know where I got that from, I may have assumed and wrongly so.

[HairOfTheDog]

I've followed a lot of cases. Each is unique, but this case is odd in a few respects.

I've never heard of a case where a private negotiator interjects himself, against the wishes of LE and with the blessings of the family, to publicly offer an anonymously-donated ransom to alleged unknown abductors who've not made any ransom demands (and promises the criminals that justice isn't a concern). I understand a family wanting their loved one returned, no matter what. But, I also completely understand why the sheriff would not want kidnap-for-ransom to be touted as a profit-making scheme in his community.

And, after the ransom offer was pulled back, it was turned into reward for information money with an expiration the next day (Wednesday). The next morning, Thanksgiving Thursday (the day which the husband told the kids mommy would be home), the abductee was released near a highway. That strikes me as odd. The sheriff and the private negotiator have both since stated publicly that no ransom or reward was claimed.

It's also rare, but not unheard of, for females to allegedly abduct and torture females. For a pair of females to do so for a long period of time (three weeks, in this case) and then for one of them to reportedly release the abductee where she would quickly be found is not similar to any case I've followed.

I also find it very odd that a there's a confirmed archived Skinheadz post by Sherri Graeff (Papini) about being harassed over her white pride where she claims to have put a violent beatdown and broken the nose of a Latino girl who called her 'Hitler' -- and over a decade later she's reportedly kidnapped and has her nose broken by a pair of Hispanic women.

Hopefully, this case will be solved, the oddities will make more sense in context, and the responsible party(s) will be held accountable under the law.

[BigMark]

Yup, extremely weird and trying to fit a narrative.

[HairOfTheDog]

Hopefully, there will really be some new information provided at today's press conference.


REDDING, Calif. - The Shasta County Sheriff's Office announced they will be holding a press conference Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. to talk about new information they've learned in the Sherri Papini case. http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/shasta/...wednesday/

Edit: Pushed back to 1:30 pm PST.

[HairOfTheDog]

(There was a Q & A with reporters which is not captured in the above video).

The sheriff said that Sherri Papini has cooperated with authorities to the best of her recollection.

Sherri told them that one of her captors was an older woman with graying hair and thick eyebrows. The other was a younger woman with long curly hair, thin eyebrows and pierced ears. No age, height, or further description was given other than they spoke Spanish most of the time and that the captors concealed their faces most of the time and Sherri's face some of the time.

Sheriff Bosenko thanked Keith and Sherri Papini for their cooperation. He also confirmed that Keith Papini's public statement compromised the investigation, but they are moving forward.

The sheriff confirmed that investigators are looking into the Skinheadz post as a possible factor and that Sherri would have been 20 or 21 when it was posted.

The sheriff said that investigators had shown Sherri video of all the vehicles in the area of her house and where her phone was found (face up with the earbuds neatly placed on top): she told them none of the vehicles were familiar.

The sheriff indicated that investigators had interviewed several people from Sherri's past and gone to different states to do so.

He gave a tip line and asked for the public to call in any information that they believe might be of help in identifying the suspects.

He repeated that the investigation is active and he won't be releasing all of the details nor will he be holding future press conferences unless there's anything new and substantial to report.

So...........not much new information. We still don't know anything about where she was held, motive, or much else. I hope LE has a lot more than they're letting on.