Abducted jogger Sherri Papini had chilling message burned into her skin by abductors
POLICE investigating the "abduction" of Californian mum Sherri Papini have revealed she had been branded with a message by her captors when she was discovered at the side of the road.
And they say after interviewing her for several hours over the last two days they still have no idea why she was taken.
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko revealed to on Wednesday the mum of two had a "message" not a "symbol on her skin, but would not say what it was.
He said of the branding: "I would think that that was some sort of either an exertion of power and control and or maybe some type of message that the brand contained. It is not a symbol, but it was a message."
Sherri, 34, was tortured, burned, beaten while kidnapped, and her abductors are still at large.
She had been chained with a bag over her head, according to a statement by her husband Keith.
Police are looking for two Hispanic females driving a dark colored SUV who were armed with a handgun.
But despite speaking to Sherri, who was found on Thanksgiving by a passing motorist, they are baffled as to why she was abducted.
Bosenko told : "Our investigators have spoken to Miss Papini for a number of hours Monday and then several hours again Tuesday.
"Right now we have no known reason why she was abducted, we do not know if she was specifically targeted or if this was a random abduction.
"The victim may not know the reason why, so we don't know, at this stage of the investigation, the reason or a motive."
He went on to say abductions like Sherri's are rare.
Sherri was kidnapped on November 2 when she went out out for a jog in her rural town of Mountain Gateand tied up with restraints.
It was revealed on Tuesday officers were looking into the possibility Papini’s kidnapping may have been racially motivated.
Detectives have been looking at a racially charged blog post, which is said to have been posted by someone saying they are Sherri.
It was written by someone called Sherri Graeff, which is Papini’s maiden name.
The post has been circulated online since she first disappeared.
It was originally on a pro-white website called which is no longer active.
Bosenko told DailyMail.com it had been discovered in the last few days and they were looking into whether Sherri’s abduction could be related.
Papini was kept hostage for 22 days - and husband Keith Papini said even though police officers told him to prepare himself, he still couldn't believe the extent of his wife Sherri's horrific injuries.
“The officers warned me to brace myself. My first sight was my wife in a hospital bed, her face covered in bruises ranging from yellow to black because of repeated beatings, the bridge of her nose broken,” he told Good Morning America.
“Her now-emaciated body of 87 pounds was covered in multi-coloured bruises, severe burns, red rashes and chain markings.
“Her signature long, blond hair had been chopped off. She has been branded and I could feel the rise of her scabs under my fingers,” Keith said in the statement.
Keith also revealed chilling new details about the abduction of the 34-year-old, who was dumped on the side of a road by two armed female captors on Thanksgiving Day, reports the .“She was thrown from a vehicle with a chain around her waist, attached to her wrists and a bag over her head. The same bag she used to flag someone down once she was able to free one of her hands,” Keith said.
“Sherri was taken from us for 22 days, and suffered incredibly through both intense physical agony and severe mental torture.”
He also noted, “My reaction was one of extreme happiness and overwhelming nausea as my eyes and hands scanned her body.
“I was filled with so much relief and revulsion at once. My Sherri suffered tremendously and all the visions swirling in your heads of her appearance, I assure you, are not as graphic and gruesome as the reality.”
Keith also slammed some of the the media for suggesting his wife’s kidnapping was a “hoax.”“Rumors, assumptions, lies, and hate have been both exhausting and disgusting. Those people should be ashamed of their malicious, sub-human behaviour,” he wrote in his statement.
It's now been revealed that two witnesses may have spotted Sherri in a vehicle at a truck stop near Redding, California., before she was released by her abductors.
According to Sherri's ex-husband, she did not ever write the post, it was a prank by someone who didn't like her at school.
David Dreyfus, who divorced her in 2007, told DailyMail.com his former partner "wasn't racist" and added: ‘That post isn’t true, it was a prank by someone at high school, she never found out who did it."