Sherri Papini’s Husband Describes How Calif. Mother Survived 3-Week Abduction

By Epoch Newsroom
December 5, 2016 Last Updated: December 5, 2016
Sherri Papini was abducted in November 2016 and returned home on Thanksgiving the same year, but details are unclear. (Facebook/Shasta County Sheriff's Office)

The husband of the 34-year-old California mother who went missing for three weeks before she was rescued on Thanksgiving Day further elaborated on the treatment of his wife while she was held captive.

Husband Keith Papini told ABC News his wife, Sherri Papini “literally lived through hell” for some 20 days. The new interview was aired on Monday.

“The things she told me,” Keith told ABC reporter Matt Gutman on “Good Morning America,” as he broke down in tears, “The things she told me that she did, talking to me each time, acting like she was tucking in our kids.”

According to her husband, Sherri apparently tried to cope by imagining she was with her family, including her two children Tyler, 4, and Violet, 2.

“[Sherri] told me she took a piece of cloth and rolled it up like it was Violet and she rocked it,” Keith added. “She was so strong.”

A "missing" sign for Mountain Gate, Calif., resident Sherri Papini, 34, is placed along side Sunrise Drive, near the location where the mom of two is believed to have gone missing while on a afternoon jog on Nov. 2. (Andrew Seng/The Sacramento Bee via AP, File)
A “missing” sign for Mountain Gate, Calif., resident Sherri Papini, 34, is placed along side Sunrise Drive, near the location where the mother of two is believed to have gone missing while on a afternoon jog on Nov. 2. (Andrew Seng/The Sacramento Bee via AP, File)

Police said she was abducted on Nov. 2 while going for a jog, while Keith elaborated on the kidnapping, saying guns were involved.

“She didn’t get into a vehicle on her own,” he said.

Sherri was hit, kicked, and branded—and officials said that Sherri told them she was chained with a bag over her head while in captivity.

“She was bound … she had a metal chain around her waist,” Keith said last week. “She had a bag over her head…she was chained anytime she was in a vehicle.” 

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She was found on the side of a road early on Thanksgiving about 150 miles south of where she disappeared. Reports have indicated that someone cut a chain that was connecting her to the inside the vehicle she had been traveling in, and she was dumped on the side of a road.

Investigators said they’re looking for two Hispanic-looking women, who spoke Spanish the majority of the time she was around. One of the women had long and curly hair, thin eyebrows, and pierced ears. The other woman, described as older, had straight black hair and gray eyebrows, reported People magazine.

During the ordeal, she endured mental and physical abuse, said Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko. “Sherri did her best in providing the descriptions but was not able to provide a detailed description because of the assailants covering their faces,” Bosenko said.