Sherri Papini: Man calls police saying California 'super mom' was with him when she was 'abducted' 4 years ago
California "super mom" Sherrii Papini, who vanished in 2016 during a broad daylight jog, stunned people across the country when she reappeared weeks later and related a story of how she was kidnapped by two women. Those women were never found and Papini's story was never corroborated. The mother ever since has lived a quite life with her husband, daughter, and son in suburban Caifornia. Now, nearly four years after the incident, a mysterious man from Southern California has called in the authorities to claim that Papini was in fact with him during the 22 days she was supposedly held captive by armed abductors.
The man reportedly reached out to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office a few months ago and told them that the mother of two was with him on the days she disappeared, a law enforcement source told the New York Post. "He said, basically, that it was a hoax,” the source said. Investigators of the case reportedly still can not determine whether Papini was actually a victim of a kidnapping or all the people who pulled for her when she was missing were told a lie.
The source told the outlet that investigators in the case are "too afraid to commit one way or another,” in part out of fear of “getting egg on their face." The source added: "They could be putting it on the back burner because they don’t have the pressure to solve it."
Papini went missing on November 2, 2016 just a mile away from her home in Rediding California. She was found three weeks later on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, claiming that she was freed from her captors at 4:30 in the morning. When the mother was found, she was chained and burned by a branding iron. The case garnered nationwide attention with multiple law enforcement expressing doubts over the details in the case and the inconsistencies. There has bee no arrests made in the case and the investigation is still ongoing. Four years after the incident, Papini, now 38, has remained quiet about her reappearance.
Papini and her husband, Keith, in their first statement in years on the case have said that they are still hoping for a resolution. The family's publicist, Chris Thomas, told the outlet: "Sherri and Keith continue to follow the investigation while they focus on their family. They remain hopeful there will be a break in the case at some point and those responsible will be brought to justice."
Authorities largely have also remained quiet about the case. Sgt. Kyle Wallace, lead investigator, said: "The case is pretty unique, so it calls for unique handling of it." Wallace, however, said that there was no perceived ongoing threat to the community's safety despite no arrests being made in the case.
Papini, who was called a "super mom" for surviving the ordeal, in her statement in 2016, had said that two Hispanic women armed with a handgun had abducted her and beaten her. They reportedly held her captive in a basement before one of them freed her and left her on the side of the road. No motives were ever revealed in the case.
The mother, in the aftermath of the kidnapping, left town for a while, however, she later returned to the same home where she had lived with her husband together. The woman's aunt, Darlene Brown, told the outlet that the family was "doing fine. " “I don’t like to bring the case back up,” Brown added.