SHASTA COUNTY (KRON) — Over the last two days Sherri Papini has been interviewed twice by the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department.
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko says Papini has been cooperative and courageous during those interviews as she has been forced to relive her ordeal.
During the interviews at an undisclosed location, Papini told investigators that her abductors were two Hispanic female adults, both spoke in Spanish most of the three weeks she was in their captivity. The suspects concealed their faces to hide their identities from Papini and they were armed with at least one handgun.
Sheriff Bosenko described the suspects in this manner:
Suspect 1: younger of the two suspects long curly hair, thin eye brows and a thick accent
Suspect 2: older of the two suspects straight black hair with some gray and with thick eye brows
The Sheriff did confirm the suspects branded Papini but he would not provide any further details on what the brand says or on what part of her body it was placed.
A number of search warrants have been written in the case but there is no known motives whether she was a specific target or it was a random abduction.
The husband of Papini who went missing for three weeks said his wife was covered with bruises and burns and was chained at the waist and wrists when she was found on Thanksgiving.
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told the AP on Monday that investigators have no reason to doubt the harrowing tale told by 34-year-old Papini.
Keith Papini said his wife weighed just 87 pounds and the bridge of her nose was broken when she was tossed from a vehicle along Interstate 5 near Sacramento with her hands restrained and a bag over her head.
Her signature long, blonde hair had been chopped off.
Her husband said she used the bag to flag down help after she managed to free a hand. Since then, police have been looking for two women driving a dark-colored SUV.
Bosenko said Sherri Papini was unable to recall any details about her abduction when first questioned soon after being found. He said victims of traumatic experiences sometimes suffer from memory loss regarding the events.
Papini, the mother of two young children, disappeared while jogging Nov. 2 near her home in Redding, California, about 140 miles north of Sacramento. Her husband was cleared as a suspect after passing a polygraph test.
When she was released, her face was “covered in bruises ranging from yellow to black because of repeated beatings, the bridge of her nose broken,” Keith Papini said in his statement.