Sherri Papini Latest Update: Hostage Negotiator Speaks Out About Missing California Mom's Case, Preventing Similar Tragedies

A hostage negotiator who said he helped police track down a California mother who went missing for three weeks has launched Project Taken, a kidnapping avoidance and survival education course. Police have not named a suspect in Papini's disappearance after she went missing one afternoon in early November while jogging in the woods near Redding, in northern California, but Cameron Gamble, who’s been training the U.S. Military Special Ops community on survival tactics since shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, said his Project Taken could help other families facing similar tragedies.

He called the effort “a unique organization focused on training missionaries and ministries to prevent, survive, and escape hostile situations." Gamble made his first appearance in Papini’s case in a YouTube video on Nov. 23rd.

"My name is Cameron Gamble, and I'm an international kidnap and ransom consultant," Gamble said in the video. "I've been retained by an individual who wishes to remain anonymous, an individual who has come forward to offer a cash reward for a ransom for Sherri Papini's safe return to her family."

Papini, the 34-year-old mother of two, was allegedly abducted Nov. 2, leaving behind her cell phone and a pair of earbuds, along with a few strands of blonde hair that was later discovered by her husband. She then reappeared – 22 days later – on the side of the road early Thanksgiving morning.

Her husband, Keith Papini, tried many conventional and unconventional methods to get his wife back – including seeking help from Gamble.

"For me, I was going to do everything I could to get my wife back, and if this was going to work, I was going to try it," Keith Papini said at one point of hiring Gamble.

Gamble set up a website and offered a large cash ransom to get Papini's "story out there bigger," he said.

"I wanted to make it so tempting that the abductor's own mother would have turned him in," Gamble said.

A day before Sherri Papini was found, Gamble took the offer off the table. Police said the ransom had nothing to do with her release, but Gamble said otherwise.