Sherri Papini 911 Kidnapping Call Released: Audio

Investigators in Shasta County, California, released audio from a 911 call regarding the kidnapping of Sherri Papini last year. Her husband, Keith Papini, called authorities Nov. 2, 2016 when he returned home to discover she wasn’t at their house.

“I just got home from work and my wife wasn’t there which is unusual and my kids should have been there by now from, like, daycare,” he said in the call. “I thought maybe she went on a walk. I couldn’t find her so I called the daycare to see what time she picked up the kids.The kids were never picked up.”

Papini went on to say that he tried to find his wife’s phone using the “Find My iPhone” app, which said her phone was at the end of the driveway. When he went to look for it, he found her phone there with headphones attached, he said. Papini told the 911 operator he assumed his wife had left the house to go running.

“I found her phone and it’s got, like, hair ripped out of it, like in the headphones,” he said. “So I’m totally freaking out thinking somebody, like, grabbed her.”

Sherri Papini was missing for 22 days before a trucker saw her bound with restraints on the side of a highway in Yolo County. She was beaten, her hair had been chopped off and she was branded on her right shoulder. She told authorities she had been left there by one of her kidnappers, who she described as a Hispanic female.

After being taken to the hospital, Sherri was interviewed by police but couldn’t recall much of her experience. She provided limited details, authorities said, but told them she was never sexually assaulted and only had contact with two women during the entirety of her 22 days.

In the wake of her return, Sherri was criticized and her story called into question after an article reported by the Sacramento Bee asserted that her family had previously called law enforcement about her allegedly harming herself. The Papinis slammed the story and police said it was unrelated to what happened to her.

“[Previous calls] really [don’t] have any bearing on her case,” Shasta County Sheriff’s Lt. Pat Kropholler told People magazine. “There is no evidence here that this is a hoax or this didn’t occur.”

The investigation into Sherri’s abduction remains open and active. Authorities have been unable to locate the two women she described. No arrests have been made in the case.