Missing California Mom Was Found ‘Chained to Something’ and Heavily Battered: Report
Missing California mom Sherri Papini was reportedly chained and beaten up when she was discovered on the side of a road after mysteriously vanishing while jogging three weeks ago, according to The Sacramento Bee.
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko has previously said that Papini, 34, was bound with restraints when she was found on County Road 17 in rural Yolo, California, around 4:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving day. However, The Sacramento Bee reports that a radio dispatcher initially said Papini was “chained to something” when she was found.
“CHP is on scene and advised that she is chained to something,” a radio dispatcher told a responding officer Thursday in an audio clip obtained by The Sacramento Bee. “CHP is advising that she is heavily battered.”
Bosenko has said Papini was being treated at a hospital outside of Shasta County for non-life-threatening injuries, but no details of her condition have been released.
Calls to the California Highway Patrol for comment were not immediately returned.
At a news conference Friday, Papini’s sister Sheila Koester declined reporters’ questions about her sister’s condition, and what happened in the 22 days she was missing, according to a transcript of the press conference published by CBS Sacramento.
Koester also said she didn’t know any details of the ongoing investigation. While she said Papini has been reunited with her husband, Keith, Koester didn’t reveal if she has seen her two young children.
“Right now she has been through a very traumatic event and needs time with her family,” Koester said.
In a phone interview with The Sacramento Bee Friday, Koester said this has been the “most amazing Thanksgiving that our family could ever ask for.”
“We’re all very, very, very excited, very, very relieved and just very thankful for getting our Sherri back,” she said.
A woman shared on Facebook early Friday morning how she saw Papini on the roadside and called police before she was rescued.
“I was certain you needed help,” she wrote.
Authorities are searching for two women in an SUV, who they say are armed and dangerous, after Papini indicated they played a role in her kidnapping.
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told Good Morning America on Friday that Papini was “very emotional” when she was found.
“The California Highway Patrol was able to connect her to her husband via cellphone, and he immediately started responding …of course, she was very emotional to be released and hear her husband’s voice and then, a few hours later, to be reunited with him,” Bosenko said.
The Shasta County sheriff’s department has not responded to calls from PEOPLE.
