Newly emerged video shows Sherri Papini – the California mother-of-two who was kidnapped, beaten and branded – on the morning she was found.
The footage, taken by a security camera at a Jehovah’s Witness church in the community of Yolo, was released by The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday.
In the footage, Papini can be seen running left and right for several yards, eventually disappearing off camera, to be found shortly afterward by police.
Newly released video shows Sherri Papini (in red circle) running around on the morning she was found after vanishing for two weeks in November 2016. It was released Tuesday
Papini (seen with husband Keither) had been branded and beaten after her November 2 vanishing. She said women kidnapped her, but she had male DNA on her clothes, cops said
According to police, the footage shows Papini outside the church at at 13980 County Road 99W, close to the northbound interchange with Interstate 5.
The footage was shot at around 4:15am on Thanksgiving morning, 2016, according to the sheriff’s office.
At the end of the video she is seen running towards the northbound on-ramp of the I-5 which is where she was found with a chain connecting her waist and let arm, and two hose clamps around her ankles.
Police said that Papini, who had vanished on November 2 leaving behind her phone with a clump of hear still attached to the headphones, had been beaten and branded.
She claimed she had been kidnapped by two Hispanic women who could not be identified because they constantly covered their faces.
However, male DNA was found on her clothing, police said, and it emerged last month that she had been texting another man before her disappearance.
Cops investigating her disappearance had discovered Papini’s texts and tracked down the man in Detroit, Michigan on November 9 – a week after she disappeared.
The video footage was recorded at this Jehova’s Witness church in Yolo, California; Papini had disappeared from Redding, around 140 miles away
These are sketches of the women that Papini said had kidnapped her. She told police that they always had their faces covered, so she couldn’t identify them
In October it emerged that Papini (seen here with Keith) had been texting with another man before her kidnapping
However, no arrests were made and the man has not been named. Police have not commented on the specifics of the Detroit investigation.
Also last month, police released audio of Papini’s husband, Keith, calling 911 to report her disappearance.
‘I’m, like, totally freaking out thinking like somebody like grabbed her,’ he said on the recording.
He said that she had become concerned when she stopped answering her phone, and when he found out she hadn’t picked the kids up from daycare, he flew into full blown panic.
‘I couldn’t find her, so I called the day care to see what time she picked up the kids,’ he said.
‘The kids were never picked up so I got freaked out, I hit the Find My iPhone app thing I found her phone; it’s got like hair ripped out of it, like, in the headphones.’
He said the last time he had heard from her was a message asking whether he was coming home for lunch. He replied: ‘Sorry long day.’
Keith said that his wife had only recent started running again and that she would have most likely been wearing athletic clothes when she was taken.
‘Something happened to her is the way I’m looking at it. There was hair, like, in the headphones, like it got ripped off when they grabbed her,’ he added.
Papini was spotted in a rare venture outside of her Shasta Lakes home to pick up her two children from daycare in September, nearly a year after she was kidnapped
Papini is seen here before her abduction. Her husband told police that he found her phone and headphones by the road with a clump of her hair attached
The mom-of-two has been living as a recluse since the horrific ordeal last year and it’s only recently she has recovered enough to be able to describe her attackers to a forensic sketch artist.
‘It has taken time for Sherri to recover to a point to be able to provide accurate details to the sketch artist,’ the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office said in news release.
‘The sketches then needed to be finalized and approved for release by the FBI.’
She told police that her kidnappers, both Hispanic women, had taken care to cover their faces but she was still able to describe them in surprising detail.
The first woman was aged between 20 and 30 years old, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, with curly dark hair, thin eyebrows and pierced ears, she said.
The second woman was between 40 and 50 years old, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, with long, straight black hair with some gray in it, thick eyebrows and pierced ears, the FBI said.
Anyone who recognizes either woman is urged to call the police.
Papini said the women were driving a dark-colored SUV with a ‘large rear side window’ when she was abducted from near the town of Redding.
Male DNA was found on Papini after she was dumped on a highway on Thanksgiving morning last year, police say
Papini – mother to Tyler, five, and Violet, three – is described by neighbors as living a ‘reclusive’ existence while also trying to put her life back together since her ordeal
This photo from November 10, 2016 shows a ‘missing’ sign for Papini
Keith, who said at the time that his wife would never leave him or their children voluntarily, also launched an appeal – a GoFundMe account raising cash to pay for the search.
Managed by his sister Suzanne, who now lives in Long Beach, California, the Bring Sherri Home Safe appeal eventually raised a total of $49,070 – just short of the $50,000 goal. It is not clear what has happened to the money.
Papini was eventually found 150 miles away in the 452-person town of Yolo, which is approximately 15 miles north of Sacramento, early on the morning of November 24.
‘Sherri appeared battered and bruised, her hair had been cut to shoulder length and she had a brand on her right shoulder,’ the sheriff’s office said at the time of her recovery.
‘Sherri, however, stated she had not been sexually assaulted, and there is no physical evidence to indicate otherwise.’
She was also branded with a threatening message, the details of which were not released by police.