Sherri Papini Kidnapping Latest Update: More Women Disappear Near Crime Scene In Northern California
As the authorities struggle to piece together the mystery surrounding the November kidnapping of Northern California mom Sherri Papini, three more women have gone missing from the same region, News Corp Australia reported Monday.
Papini, 34, vanished Nov. 2 while jogging in Mountain Gate, Shasta County, and was reported missing by her husband, Keith. Weeks later on Thanksgiving morning, she was found beaten, bound and branded when a passing motorist noticed her near a highway in Yolo County, more than 120 miles from home.
The same day that Papini disappeared, 51-year-old Stacy Smart vanished from nearby Lewiston. Smart's family has reached out to the man many credit with playing a crucial role in Papini's return: survival specialist Cameron Gamble. Gamble posted a video offering a ransom from an anonymous donor for information regarding Papini's whereabouts. Two days later, she showed up. Smart's daughter Amy hoped that the success would be repeated for her mother's case.
"(He) is helping us,” Nicole Santos-Hamann told the Record Searchlight, a local affiliate of the USA Today Network. “He’s giving us advice and kind of helping us with coming up with backers, to help us with a bounty or a reward leading up to her whereabouts.”
Amy Snow, a 25-year-old from Salyer in Trinity County, was then reported missing Dec. 1 by her mother. Despite alleged sightings of the young woman in Arcata, near Humboldt County, investigators had also come up with no leads in regards to what may have happened to Snow.
Less than a week later, 44-year-old Jessica Roggenkamp disappeared mysteriously Dec. 10 after two passing drivers helped her change a tire in Anderson, located in the same municipality - Redding - as the scene of Papini's kidnapping. Roggenkamp reportedly told the Good Samaritans that she was headed to a friend's house in Igo. One day later, her vehicle was found near an isolated highway in Trinity County. The keys were found in the car, but the woman's personal items were missing.
Questions about the source of the "reverse ransom" money and Papini's description of her abductors, which she said were two Spanish-speaking women, have stirred controversy over her case. Some skeptics have called the incident a hoax, while others have speculated about the involvement of a sex trafficking ring. Authorities did not immediately link Papini's case to the disappearances of the other three Northern California women.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.