What Really Happened To Sherri Papini? Rumors Swirl As Police Have Yet To Make An Arrest Or Find A Motive

Much has been made about the mystery surrounding the 22-day disappearance of California mother Sherri Papini last month. Media reports about the circumstances leading to her alleged kidnapping have ranged from Papini having a history of expressing racism toward Latinos to her making up her abduction story entirely.

After being found on Thanksgiving Day, Papini told the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office she had been kidnapped in a dark colored SUV by two Hispanic women who were armed with handguns, ABC News reported Dec. 2.

Papini was “heavily battered” and “bound with restraints” when she was spotted along Interstate 5, a near Sacramento by a passing motorist, 150 miles from the small town of Redding from where she vanished while on an afternoon jog Nov. 2.

Papini’s husband, Keith, reported her missing when he came home to find their home empty even though his wife was supposed to have picked up their two children from daycare and should have been home. He said he suspected something was wrong because it was completely out of character for her not to tend to the children. Though he was able to find his wife’s phone on the side of a road along which she had been known to jog frequently by using the “Find My iPhone” application, Sherri Papini was nowhere in sight.

Conspiracy theories online include the Papini couple staging the kidnapping for monetary gain and Sherri Papini faking her own abduction because she was having an affair. After it was revealed to the public that Sherri Papini told investigators she had been kidnapped by two Latinas, people on the internet immediately pointed to the 1995 case of Susan Smith, who told police her children had been kidnapped by an African-American man during a car theft until evidence emerged proving it was Smith who had killed them herself.

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said Dec. 2 he had no reason to doubt Sherri Papini's kidnapping story.

“Since speaking to Papini, based on information we’ve received, we believe her. We believe that this was an abduction," he said. But he noted his department had yet to make any arrests or find any motive for the kidnapping.

After being reunited, the Papinis moved to an undisclosed location to maintain privacy and might never return to their home in Redding, People Magazine reported Dec. 3.

Papini described one of her abductors as having a thick accent, pierced ears, thin eyebrows and curly hair, Bosenko said. Papini described her other captor as older, with thick eyebrows and straight black hair, he added.

But Bosenko said a detailed composite sketch of the alleged kidnappers could not be made because Papini’s head had been covered during the majority of her abduction. Bosenko said on the rare occasions Papini did not have a hood on, the two kidnappers allegedly would not reveal their faces.

Keith Papini has not been ruled out as a suspect despite his cooperation with investigators’ inquiries about the case and passing a polygraph test, Bosenko said.

In a statement to “Good Morning America,” Keith adamantly objected to online speculation his wife had fabricated the story of her kidnapping, the Los Angeles Times reported Nov. 29.

"I understand people want the story, pictures, proof that this was not some sort of hoax, plan to gain money or some fabricated race war. I do not see a purpose in addressing each preposterous lie," Keith Papini wrote.

When a reporter from the Huffington Post called the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office on Dec. 2 to ask about the possibility Papini made up her kidnapping, a staff member identified only as Kelly told him, “I don’t know if the words ‘ruled out’ can be used.”

Investigators have scoured Papini’s past for clues to explain the abduction. After looking through Papini’s previous activity online and investigating her relationship with her ex-husband, authorities discovered a racially charged blog post under Papini’s maiden name, Sherri Graeff.

The post described an incident in which Sherri Papini’s father had been called racial epithets such as “Hitler” and “Nazi” by a group of Latinos while attending a homecoming sports event with his daughter.

The author of the post wrote the Latinos knocked her to the ground and kicked her in the face.

David Dreyfus, Sherri Papini’s ex-husband, told the Daily Mail on Nov. 29 the online post was a fake and a mischievous joke played by someone who attended high school with Sherri Papini, and that Sherri Papini was not a racist.

Bosenko said his department knew about the blog post but that it was “too dated to have any relevance to her abduction.”

Another online post allegedly written by Papini on Pintrest under the caption “cultural differences” described pro-Caucasian sentiments and denounced Muslims.