Revisiting Sherri Papini’s disappearance one year later: what happened?

Sherri Papini's Husband Recalls the Day He Discovered She Was Missing on 20/20 as seen on ABC.

As much as a true crime buff as I am, I am surprised the story of the disappearance of Sherri Papini slid under my radar.

On November 2 of last year, the 35-year-old mother of two mysteriously vanished while she was jogging in her neighborhood of Redding, California. The case received international attention, and a $50,000 reward was offered for information on the disappearance.

However, 22 days after she went missing, Sherri reappeared 150 miles from her home, emaciated, bruised and branded, with her long blonde hair chopped off. In a news conference in November of 2016, Sheriff Tom Bosenko described the woman’s alleged captors – two armed Hispanic women, a younger one with dark, curly hair, pierced ears and thin eyebrows; and an older one with thick eyebrows and straight black and gray hair. Sherri told police that the women abducted her in a dark-colored SUV.

In the year since the alleged abduction, no suspects have ever been found, despite police receiving over 600 tips. The case remains a mystery, keeping law enforcement officials baffled. Shasta County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Brian Jackson, speaking with PEOPLE, asked, “What was the purpose? Why was she released? It is hard to keep somebody in captivity for 22 days. Why would somebody go to that length? Those are all types of questions we all have.”

Last week, sketches of the alleged captors were released and a $10,000 reward was announced for any information leading to arrests in the case. According to Joe Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, “The police have a very tough job on this case. There might never be any closure. The police are stuck with a case right now that looks unsolvable.”

And, while police are baffled, Sherri’s family is also still looking for answers. Sherri’s husband, Keith Papini, released a statement on Wednesday, which said, in part:

”We want to express our immense gratitude to all of the many people who have publicly and privately supported us over the last year. Your well-wishes have helped beyond measure. We are hopeful that the release of additional information by law enforcement will expedite the capture of Sherri’s abductors. This has been an extraordinarily difficult time for our entire family. We ask that the media please respect our need for privacy as Sherri continues to heal and we work towards putting our lives back together.”

[From Record Searchlight]

Amateur detectives (a/k/a people like me who watch shows like Making a Murderer) have been on the case, theorizing that Sherri pulled a “Gone Girl” and that the disappearance was a hoax. Back in March, some incident reports were uncovered, which may have lent a little bit more fuel to the hoax fire. One of these reports was called in from Sherri’s mother, Loretta Graeff, in December of 2003. She reported that her daughter was “harming herself and blaming the injuries on [her].” At the time, Sheriff Bosenko said that law enforcement had no reason “not to believe” Sherri’s abduction story and said the reports cases didn’t “have anything to do” with the investigation surrounding the disappearance.

To add to the intrigue, Keith Papini passed a lie detector test and is not a person of interest in the disappearance. A “male acquaintance from Michigan” that Sherri was supposed to meet up with before her disappearance was also ruled out as a potential suspect.

This is indeed a curious case. It sounds a bit sketchy, but I don’t know all of the facts. However, I would sure love to know what really happened. Might I request that someone make a documentary series of this? I would definitely tune in.

Sherri Papini's Husband Recalls the Day He Discovered She Was Missing on 20/20 as seen on ABC.

Sherri Papini's Husband Recalls the Day He Discovered She Was Missing on 20/20 as seen on ABC.

Sherri Papini's Husband Recalls the Day He Discovered She Was Missing on 20/20 as seen on ABC.

Sherri Papini's Husband Recalls the Day He Discovered She Was Missing on 20/20 as seen on ABC.

Photos: WENN.com

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102 Responses to “Revisiting Sherri Papini’s disappearance one year later: what happened?”

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  1. Donna says:

    One report says she was texting a male in the days prior to her disappearance and that there was male DNA somewhere on her when she was found. Another article I read said she’d fabricated some tall tale about disappearing years ago. I find the two Hispanic women story to be a massive crock of crap. She ran away from suburbia, possibly for a hookup that went awry. I think it’s a hoax.

    • Lexter says:

      She planned her run away but the guy she was meant to get with chickened out so she returned Gone Girl style to rejoin her family…. perhaps!

      • Miss M says:

        I thought the same thing… She was not abducted. What was the purpose?!
        No money was requested… didshehave signs of aggression in her body? If yes, how did she escape?

    • Lahdidahbaby says:

      Well, I’ve gotta ask what happened to the $49,000 allegedly donated to their GoFundMe account while she was missing. Anyone know?

    • sunnydaze says:

      Yes, all very suspicious. A previous report of trying to harm herself and blame it on someone else should absolutely be taken into account, that’s not exactly a “normal” thing to do. We “joke” about Gone Girl, but there absolutely are disorders where people go to extreme lengths to feign illness/harm for various purposes…Munchausen Syndrome (Factitious disorder) is probably the most well known. There have been documented cases of people doing unbelievable things – truly unspeakable things – to continue or initiate the role of “patient” or someone who needs care. Add in other possible disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder and a case like this is absolutely plausible. Branding would be painful, but so are the behaviors of people who engage in self-harm. Appearing emaciated sounds like a sure reason to believe this story, but she looks to be a very thin woman – loosing even a bit of weight I’m sure would alter her appearance.

      However, maybe she’s telling the truth. People have mentioned her questionable husband…I think it should be noted lie detectors are not exactly super reliable instruments. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201303/do-lie-detectors-work)

      Regardless of whether it happened or not, this is a woman who is suffering. I really hope she and her family get help.

      Also, I wish all individuals who disappeared gained this kind of media attention. A woman I work with was missing for over a month, was held in an abandoned house and raped repeatedly. She was found wandering in a town about 15 miles away without pants, completely delirious and covered in wounds. However, because she is also a sex worker and heroin user police refused to do anything about it and her family just assumed she was dead. Apparently, she wasn’t “credible”. Also, this happens all. the. time.

      • TQB says:

        So important to note the unreliability of lie detectors – every jurisdiction in the US has considered and refused to admit the results of these tests as evidence. Think about it. All the evidence you see on CSI or any other procedural has gone through years of scientific scrutiny and been determined to be reliable – fingerprints, DNA, psych evaluations. Lie detectors do not make the cut and are used for “investigative” purposes only – usually to rule someone out. They can be defeated and highly subjective.

        To your point about the missing woman you know, that is awful. All I could think when I saw this was “well she’s blonde and pretty – of course we still care a year later.” All. The. Time. I’ve watched a dozen true crime shows where a serial killer escapes notice for years because he only preys on sex workers; it’s only when he moves up to killing a man or a “reputable” woman that they piece it together. These women are basically disposable in the eyes of the law and society.

      • isabelle says:

        Lie Detectors aren’t allowed most of the time to be entered as evidence they aren’t a reliable factual source. Many courts/states have nixed them altogether as evidence. It may give Detectives some fodder for their “gut” but it in the end isn’t reliable.

      • Crystal says:

        To be clear, even “reliable” forensic sciences have serious flaws. That is why a panel was established to set standards. Want to guess how quickly it was removed once Sessions was approved?

        If anyone is interested in a quick lesson, Last Week Tonight did a very accurate and informative look a few weeks ago. These are problems long discussed in the forensic science community.

    • Penelope says:

      This. ^^^^

  2. Char says:

    I vaguely remeber this story. I remember the police saying they had no reason not to believe her story, but in basically every case like this, the person who was abducted is found out to be lying. I think she just got lucky they can’t prove that. & why always blame another race? It’s always a Hispanic or black person that does this to them. Count me skeptical.

  3. WTF says:

    Not buying it for one second.
    #girlbye

  4. Nicole says:

    Totally remember this one and thought that it was a hoax. Something didn’t gel here

    • CynicalAnn says:

      I thought it was a hoax from the moment I heard about it too. And the police obviously do too-they just can’t say it outright.

  5. YeahRight says:

    She looks vacant.
    I hope someone did a mental health assessment.
    People take a test to drive a car but any two idiots can procreate.
    Why not sterilize everyone at birth and when you pass the test and background check when you “decide to have kids” you have the procedure reversed.

    I don’t care enough about these people to watch a documentary. It would just be giving her the attention she craves.

  6. ME says:

    My BS radar detector is going off when hearing this story. Apparently she also posted at least one racist and anti-Latino comment on a now defunct white supremacy website.

    • shlockOftheNEw says:

      Human trafficking is a real thing, branding is of course consistent with this very real but subterfuge violence. Why would she brand herself or cut her own hair off? We can’t tell from photos that she’s “vacant” or whatever, and this labeling is moot. Plus if a woman wants to cheat in the 21st century, she can go ahead and have a hook up- it’s not like it’s 1852 and she has to ride a horse into the night to “take a lover” and “bring herself to ruin”. Jeez. Please people, the poor woman was targeted – but not a runaway teenager like most abductees,- but a mother and wife whose family went into immediate public outcry!

      • Tourmaline says:

        Still not buying it tho

      • isabelle says:

        Why would people do a lot of things? Ever heard of Manson cult, Jim Jones cult,? Why are people cutters? WTF do people get their total bodies tattooed? Also branding is also a “thing” with some segments of sub groups and yes cultures. People do stupid sh&t all the time and make zero sense. Humans are chaos.

    • OliviaJoy77 says:

      She always seemed to have ‘run ins’ with Hispanic people all through her life. In high school she supposedly got into some kind of verbal altercation at a football game with some hispanic people and claimed they showed up at her work like a week later to jump her, but she was supposedly able to fight them all off. (eyeroll) Based on all the past stories that I’ve heard, she likes attention, and this wasn’t the firt time she had been ‘kidnapped.’ Makes absolutely no sense why two women would kidnap her, hold her for 3 weeks, not ask for any ransom, not kill her, and just give her back. Dont believe for a second this woman was kidnapped.

    • Maria S says:

      Yes, she definitely did. Her husband also made a strange as hell reference to race war early in the abduction. I thought it was a hoax to start ethnic strife.

      • CamPel says:

        Yeah her husband referred to the kidnappers as sub human which is a word used alot to describe other races by skinheads and white supremacists.

  7. Merritt says:

    I’m wary of branding someone a liar without concrete evidence. Especially after the police prematurely called Denise Huskins a liar and then a similar crime was attempted on another person then it turned out the bizarre story was true and Denise was a victim of both the kidnapper and of the police dismissing her. She and her boyfriend received a lot of online harassment and death threats.

    • Umyeah says:

      Totally agree, after all the Weinstein stuff i believe victims until there is real evidence to suggest they are lying.

    • Scal says:

      Exactly. There’s a similar story from this american life/propublica where police didn’t believe a victim -arrested her for filing a false report, threw her in jail all because she didnt ‘act like a victim’ (whatever that means)

      Several years later in another county police catch a guy who had attacked multiple women and found her picture on his computer. And THEN they believed her. It makes my stomach turn just thinking about it.
      https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story

      • shlockOftheNEw says:

        Thank you- to blame this woman as “vacant” or “texted some man” sounds like slut shaming to me, and I would expect more from posters on this site. Also her -mother- said she harmed herself once upon a time (sign of abuse unresolved likely from a family member) So–she’s “guilty”? The woman suffered physical abuse and -branding-. Let her be. May justice prevail.

    • KBB says:

      Everyone referred to that as a “Gone Girl” case as well, until they figured out she wasn’t lying. I’m reluctant to label Sherri Papini’s story a hoax. Especially given that she was branded, beaten, and had her hair cut super short.

      She looks like someone who takes great pride in her appearance. She’d have to be certifiable to do all this for attention. And she hasn’t even been seeking out attention, she could be on every news channel granting interviews but she’s not.

      If she was texting a male acquaintance, maybe he wasn’t the only one. Maybe she was tricked or catfished into some kind of trafficking ring and has been reluctant to admit certain communications? I’d buy that there’s more to the story, but not that she staged the entire thing.

      • OliviaJoy77 says:

        It doesn’t make sense to me that if she was branded and beaten so severely why she didn’t spend a single night in the hospital. She was released the same night she was found. And supposedly she was branded with ‘MILF’ which makes me second guess this whole story too. And that weird ransom negotiator seemed up to no good as well.

      • pwal says:

        Clearly, you forgot the story of the woman who was the ‘victim’ of an acid/Drano attack. She claimed that a Black woman threw acid in her face out of jealousy. The victim was lying. She did it to herself.

      • KiddVicious says:

        Where did you see she was branded with MILF? I’d heard the police weren’t releasing what the brand looked like.

  8. Immy says:

    The police just released sketches of the two Hispanic women that supposed abducted her, I saw them on another site. One of the sketches looks just like Shari. Apparently that is a common thing people unconsciously do when lying and asked to describe a suspect who doesn’t exist, or so people were saying.

    • Jennie Hix says:

      I laughed out loud when I saw those sketches. They revealed no details of the supposed kidnappers. You’d think they would have removed those bandanas from their faces at some point during the 3 weeks she was kidnapped! Especially since when she supposedly escaped, she claims she bashed one of the women’s heads into the sink.

      Sorry, but the girl is lying.

    • argonaut says:

      note that it’s the LOCAL police releasing these sketches.

      the fbi has a different idea of what happened – the wording in their most recent statement makes it clear there is skepticism she was abducted. they refer to it as a “disappearance,” not an abduction.

      i believe the fbi over local police.

  9. Danielle says:

    I remember this case too. She had lost a ton of weight, and she had been branded. I have a hard time believing someone would do that to themselves outside of fiction. And the detail that she was texting a male…about getting coffee for old times sake? Or about selling something on Craigslist? Or hooking up in a motel room? We don’t know. That vague detail makes something sound sketchy that may not be.

  10. Talie says:

    This story has always been whacked out…also, I never realized it until now, but she and her husband look like siblings! He’s also been weirdly cryptic.

    • Pandy says:

      My thought too – -they do look like siblings. Not entirely sure I buy this tale. A drug bender could leave you with the same results really, The prior incidents make her less believable.

    • Anastasia says:

      YES! I came here to say that! They look just like brother and sister.

      And I vote this is a hoax.

  11. Wren33 says:

    It seemed sketchy from the start for sure. But then I remember a couple years ago there was that young woman, in California maybe, who was actually kidnapped and reappeared and the police thought it was a hoax and her boyfriend was involved because the story was so crazy, and then it turned out to be true.

    • MelB says:

      Unresolved Mysteries is my Reddit rabbit hole. I get lost in that subreddit.

      • StumpyCorgi says:

        Me too! Love it there. There is also entire subreddit devoted to getting the truth about the Papinis. I believe it’s r/thepapinis

    • Erica_V says:

      I’ve never heard of this story at all and going through these comment on the Reddit… I feel the same. I feel like this is a hoax but I can’t pin point why I feel that way. The sum of all the parts of the story just don’t add up.

    • Odette says:

      Sorry, but the 90 day Fiance reddit is the BEST!! lol 🙂

  12. Hola says:

    Seems like a hoax but when she was found she was emaciated, chained and branded. So it’s not like she spent 22 days on a relaxing vacation. Why brand yourself unnecessarily. Wish they would release what the brand says. Also No ransom demands were made so it wasn’t for money. If you’re going to make an elaborate kidnapping scheme in order to disappear, why not stay gone? The details are def sketchy and I would love love love to know what really happened.

  13. Margo S. says:

    Does anyone else think that these two look like brother and sister. Literally, I’ve never seen a married couple looking more alike. This whole thing gives me a weird feeling. Sorry, but I think this is a hoax. She has “crazy eyes”.

    • DIRTNAP says:

      Margo S., I watched a news program on these two (maybe it was Dateline?) and they do resemble each other. What really stood out to me was how many professionally-taken photos these two had of themselves. I get it – some were engagement, some were wedding, a photographer takes multiple shots, etc. (plus, I’m Gen-X and admittedly not as into taking photos of myself as younger generations, so I may be reading into it). However, this program rarely repeated a photo. Most photos were variations of her looking straight at the camera while he was doting on her/not facing the camera, and there were SO MANY taken in such a short span of time. Really, how many photos of herself and her husband does she need? The sheer magnitude of professional shots struck me as attention-seeking.

      • KBB says:

        She could have a close friend or relative that’s a professional photographer. I’ve got a friend who’s related to a pro photographer so all of her photos look like that too. The specific posing is another matter though.

      • CamPel says:

        I think her and her husband went through all their pictures before she was “kidnapped” and decided what ones to release to the public. Not a single picture he gave to the media was just a normal day in the life pic. They’re all professionally taken pictures.

    • KBB says:

      Ed Norton and his wife look like mirror images to me. They say those relationships actually last longer, you’re more likely to give someone that looks like you the benefit of doubt or something.

  14. Char says:

    I understand that the branding makes it seem more legit, but there have been plenty of cases where people have actually shot themselves to make it look like they were the victims (example: shooting & killing their spouse or hiring someone to do it for them, then shooting them as well to make it look like they were also attacked). I watch way too much Dateline & Snapped to just believe her. The Denise Huskies case mentioned above is crazy though & at least makes me stop & think; however I still highly suspect she is lying. That’s what true crime TV does- makes me a skeptic of everyone!

    • Anastasia says:

      Yes. That mother in a Dallas suburb who killed her two young sons also slashed herself across the neck pretty good. It wasn’t superficial.

    • burnsie says:

      I vaguely remember reading that the brand wasn’t like a logo, but a larger thing — like a bunch of words or something. Idk how reputable the source was though

      • OliviaJoy77 says:

        Suppsedly she was branded with ‘MILF’. Which isn’t a compliment I guess, but it certainly wasn’t a hate filled swastika either. I vote hoax also. Her husband had a brand new truck within two weeks of her coming home.

  15. Maria F. says:

    i find the story very strange and the Hispanic women rang a bell. It reminded me of the lady who drowned her boys and blamed a black guy carjacking her.

    So i am not always into blindly believing the victim….

    • Anastasia says:

      Susan Smith, South Carolina. My daughter was the age of her youngest, and the case gave me nightmares. From the beginning I thought she acted odd.

      • Mrs.Krabapple says:

        I remember her fake crying — her voice “breaking” but no tears or red eyes or red nose, or anything else that happens when you cry. Then the truth came out, and I thought she deserved the death penalty. But since she’s a white woman, I guess that wasn’t on the table.

      • Sophia's Side eye says:

        Anastasia, my son was the same age as her oldest and they looked a lot alike. That case still horrifies me. Why couldn’t she just give them to their dad if she didn’t want them?

  16. I can hear Keith Morrison narrating this story in a future Dateline episode. “But there’s a twist…”

  17. OTHER RENEE says:

    In this current climate of finally believing the victim, I hate to assume she’s lying. However, she does have a history of questionable behavior: breaking into her family members’ homes and stealing, self harm and blaming her mother. Also there was a classmate in high school who was kidnapped while jogging who was never found.

  18. smee says:

    Yeah, this seemed like an abduction at first but everything that happened afterwards is fishy.

    IF she had been picked up by sex traffickers she sure as hell wouldn’t have been dropped off with no harm but a brand and a new hair cut. It pisses me off that they’re using a very real, horrible crime to pull this hoax or grift or whatever tf it is.

    If it does turn out to be fraudulent she needs mental health care and jail time.

    • Jennie Hix says:

      Yes, I loved the detail that the kidnappers didn’t shave her head, they just gave her a cute little bob. I think she just took her extensions out and called it a day. #phoneinthekidnapping

  19. LadyT says:

    This is such a fishy story. I believe she could have staged the whole thing but…There’s no doubt in my mind that detectives have spent just as much time trying to DISPROVE her story as trying to solve it. That they have released nothing to that affect needs to be taking into account too. No hideaway or branding equipment or secret boyfriend or family ratting her out in a whole year.

  20. Dragonlady sakura says:

    The born cynic in me is suspicious of the whole situation but I’ve also been very wrong before. Many times I have thought someone guilty and it turns out they were innocent. I pray for her family either way.

  21. KiddVicious says:

    It does look suspicious, but so did this one that turned out to be real

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/18/us/california-denise-huskins-kidnapping-claim-vallejo/index.html

    • mary says:

      but they have zero suspects in this case…that case began to unfold pretty soon after. it’s been 12 months and no suspects. I think Sherri comes off as a pretty unlikeable person. Her pinterest account was a peak into her crazy brain (lots of guns, right wing, weird stuff). She seemed unstable and also pretty unlikeable.

      • KiddVicious says:

        I agree, I just think weird things happen and if it turns out to be true I wouldn’t be surprised, just as I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a hoax.

        I’m assuming the police have a lot of information they’re not sharing, which is frustrating for those of who want to know everything. LOL

  22. freewhitebaby7.0 says:

    She sounds like a straight-up borderline personality disorder to me. I’ve seen BPD’s do some strange, hurtful things to themselves through the years. The worst of them will do anything it takes to get all eyes on them. Unfortunately there’s not much help for them, and anybody who has anything to do with them can expect to live a life of over-the-top drama.

  23. Sarah says:

    Never believed this bs tale. This woman is a wacko and a racist.
    Why she staged this – who knows? But they both worked it as a grift. They pocketed 50k in Gofundme donations given to ‘find her’.
    All those injuries were reported only by Keith Papini and spoon fed to the media. She went underground so no one could look at her face or hair. Also she could have burned herself with anything at all to try to give her ‘story’ credibility. She has a long known eating disorder, self injuring and blaming others for it and she has staged her disappearance 10+ years ago.
    The only way I will watch a documentary on these grifters is AFTER she has been arrested for lying to the FBI and her other assorted crimes. And LE has officially closed her case as a HOAX.

  24. mary says:

    I live in northern california and almost everyone here thinks she pulled a hoax. I personally think this was done for the GoFundMe money because she magically returned like a day before the Thanksgiving Holiday with 50K to celebrate with. Her husband reported her “blonde locks” had been cut off, turns out her hair had been chopped to her shoulder …..not exactly as extreme as the husband had implied.

    I believe she set this up for nefarious reasons – an affair or the GoFund me.

    My mother is one of the few who believes the kidnap is real. Sherri Papini had some offensive imagery on her pinterest and coupled with her association with white supremacists in the past, my mother believes this was an arrogant entitled and potentially racist woman who may have insulted the wrong people and this was revenge. She thinks some gang banger chicks decided to teach her a lesson and humble her. Could be.

    • Jennie Hix says:

      No, no, no, he didn’t say “blonde locks” lol. He said, “her SIGNATURE long blonde hair.”

      • mary says:

        YES!!! i remember that his description was something awkwardly worded and I thought —
        who talks like that? BIZARRE!!!

        and then it turns out, her hair was chopped to her shoulders! thats a FAR cry from a shaved head which is what i think his statement implied! something stinks!!

      • KBB says:

        Lol okay that is funny. I thought her hair was cut really short, interesting if it was only cut to her shoulders. What would even be the point of that, from the kidnapper’s perspective?

      • holly hobby says:

        Where did you see that it was shoulder length hair? I don’t recall reading that. I did recall the impression the hubby gave me that she was literally scalped. Not true eh?

      • mary says:

        The information that her hair was cut to only shoulder length was information that was released earlier this week by the Sheriff Department.

        If the kidnappers were looking to traumatize/torture her by cutting her hair I highly doubt they would have stopped at her shoulders. This piece of her story doesn’t add up IMO.

    • Katenotkatie says:

      It’s also very strange how she’s never once spoken publicly or really been seen since she returned. Not that every victim must speak publicly about their trauma – but it’s mighty suspicious that her husband so willingly took on the role of family mouthpiece and appeared on network news programs for sit-down interviews.

  25. littlemissnaughty says:

    Maybe I’ve watched too much Criminal Minds but stranger things have happened. Has she told the police what happened to her in those 22 days? Whether she was just stuck in a hole, branded, left there and then released?

  26. Littlestar says:

    Like another commenter said it reminds me of the woman who drowned her kids in the mini van and claimed an African American man had done it. Casey Anthony claimed a “Hispanic” nanny had kidnapped little Caylee and more recently a man shot himself in the leg and claimed an African American man did it. Whole story sounds like a load of tripe and she’s a right wing nut as it is.

    • Stace says:

      I agree. She is a right wing, pro gun, pro trump anti immigration nut according to her pinterest and its just so convienent of her to play the race card. Reminds me of both cases you mentioned.

      On the other hand, while I joke you can find your way to Sacramento/ Northern California by following the pro Trump signs…there is also a fairly large hispanic contigent here, including gang culture in the stockon area of california. Maybe she offended the wrong people? She reportedly targeted a group of latinas in highschool and they ended up whoopin her butt. Maybe she had a reputation amongst certain people in town?

  27. YaYa says:

    My hometown is Redding and the common belief there is hoax. At first everyone was so concerned, and now they pretty much roll their eyes at the whole debacle.

  28. Amelie says:

    I remember this case from last year, it got widespread attention and it was so odd from start to finish, from the way she disappeared to the way she reappeared. We’ll never truly know if she’s telling the truth, unless the two women in the sketch are actually captured. I read somewhere (can’t remember where but it might have been the Daily Mail so take it with a grain of salt) that her neighbors were interviewed after she reappeared because people were questioning the fact that she disappeared while out on a run. All the neighbors reported never having seen her out on a jog before and that she was never spotted running that day she disappeared or any other day. I thought that was odd in itself but decided maybe she was trying to get into running, I dunno.

    I don’t want to disbelieve her since there have been women accused of lying about kidnapping/rape. Someone above mentioned a case where a woman claimed an unknown masked assailant broke into her apartment and raped her and took pictures of her. I saw that report on TV. For some reason she was disbelieved until they caught the guy in another county and found the pictures on his camera (the same model camera she had described to investigators).

    I hope the family finds closure… it would be a lot of trouble just to make up this story.

  29. aenflex says:

    Wasn’t male DNA found somewhere on or in her? Something’s fishy about the thing, either way.

    • holly hobby says:

      Yep that’s the smoking gun. Where did the male dna (not her hubby’s per police) come from if her kidnappers were women?

      • babykitten says:

        I believe the male DNA was on the clothes she was wearing, and those clothes had been given to her by the women. Only female DNA was found on her body.

  30. holly hobby says:

    Oh yeah I remember this case! I do think she pulled a Gone Girl. It is just too weird. Who holds someone captive for 22 days only to release them without ransom nothing?

    • Sophia's Side eye says:

      And, there was a ransom on offer. Apparently a self professed “hostage negotiator” was offering $50K, no questions asked for her safe return. Yet, no one ever tried to claim it? No way.

  31. lascivious chicken says:

    Funny (and totally speculative and probably rude–sorry!) but she looks like she has the same connective tissue disorder that I do (Ehler-Danlos syndrome). Mental health conditions are often asssociated with EDS.

  32. kimbers says:

    I remember the story. remember the husband coming across as a sociopath. youtube his 20/20 story. crazy stuff happens, but I don’t believe the husband at all bc he contradicts their relationship story.

    As for her? pretty doesnt automatically equal sane or nice.

  33. Electric Tuba says:

    I think the husband is in with some bad business, bad people and she was taken until a task was completed by the husband. I think they made it look like similar cases that had happened in the area and/or recently. Feels more like a Fargo than a Gone Girl.

  34. Sojaschnitzel says:

    Those are some duggar level fake smiles. Impressive. And creepy.

  35. CamPel says:

    How come it took a year to get sketches of the two women? Shouldn’t that have been the first thing released after Sherri met with the police? I love the giant hoop earrings one of the “kidnappers” Is wearing. They made sure to accessorize during the kidnapping. I like a kidnapper who takes pride in their appearance.