Sherri Papini is a young Californian mom of two who was recently found after having been abducted by two alleged women. She was freed and later found on the side of the road 22 days after the abduction on Thanksgiving morning.
As law enforcement authorities are on the hunt for Papini’s captors, her family and friends have been speaking out looking for answers to this mysterious crime.
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Sherri’s sister, Sheila Koester, is overjoyed and relieved that Sherri was returned home safely.
“I am just hoping that the sheriff’s department can continue their investigation and we can find out everything we can for her,” Koester said while talking with People magazine. “I hope whoever did this to her is brought to justice. We all have hope that we will have some closure.”
Some of Sherri’s friends have spoken out on Sherri’s abduction and have expressed their utter confusion as to this shocking crime.
“Why did they beat her and break her nose and brand her and burn her?” Joyce Travis, Papini’s friend and former co-worker said on Friday.
“Every one wants to know why,” Travis said. “Everyone wants the answers. I am sure Sherri doesn’t know either. I am sure she is just as confused today.”
When Papini was found 150 miles away from her residence in Redding, California, she only weighed 87 pounds. The woman who called 911 reported that Papini appeared “panicked and frightened.”
One of the most peculiar aspects of the abduction is that Papini’s captors branded her.
Travis said it was “almost like they didn’t want her to be beautiful anymore.”
“When [Sherri] walks in the room everyone turns around and looks, and she is the girl you can’t hate because she is so nice,” Travis said. “Everyone who knew her were all distraught she was gone and hoping and praying she was safe and sound. As time went on, it was getting despairing.”
Travis, who met Sherri while working together at AT&T, is of the belief that her friend was abducted by sex traffickers.
“I believe it was an abduction from the beginning because of her size,” she said. “She is so tiny, and I can just imagine her running at the side of the road and someone thinking she is a teenager and take her for sex trafficking. She looks like a kid.”
Redding Mayor Missy McArthur does not think the evidence suggests that Papini was taken by sex traffickers.
“I still think it is random crazy, because they apparently cut her restraints and threw her out of the car,” she said. “For sex trafficking, they probably wouldn’t have released her.”
Nick Hurley, who works with Sherri’s husband Keith, has spoken out to stand up against the people that claim the abduction was all part of some elaborate, sinister hoax.
“It makes no sense you would do any of that to yourself,” Hurley said. “For me knowing her and how she was with her kids I knew right away that someone forcefully took her. There was no way she would leave her kiddos.”
What are your thoughts on Sherri Papini’s horrifying abduction?
MORE Sherri Papini: Missing California Mom Was Found Chained On The Side Of The Road / Sherri Papini’s Family Reacts To Her Being Found Safe /
[H/T People]