After Sherri Papini was abducted, she was missing for three weeks before being found chained and branded. Police in California then went searching for two Hispanic women, based off Papini's description of her captors.
Now, however, one expert is insinuating Papini's description may all be part of a cover-up the 34-year-old woman was coerced into.
John Kelly, president of S.T.A.L.K. Inc., told People,
This is a sadistic situation, and she somehow was able to convince them to let her go. She somehow got them to believe she would not squeal on them. It's only by an act of God that they let her go. I have a hard time understanding that as sadistic as these [people] are — and I've hunted many of them — would let someone live.
Papini was reunited with her family on Thanksgiving day. She had gone missing earlier in November after going jogging one morning near her home in Redding, California.
She was found after she was reportedly pushed out of an SUV and left on the side of the road. Soon after, she was able to flag a driver down. The driver then called 911 and Papini was able to receive medical attention.
And while Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said police are looking for two women based on the info Sherri provided, Kelly has theorized that a different set of people that don't fit the description could be behind the crime.
In short, Kelly is not ruling out that Papini being branded was all part of a ploy to throw police off the scent. Kelly told People,
It's called staging. They've set up that it was two women, that they picked on you because you are this all-American girl, that they are Hispanic and upset with the political climate, and we will tattoo a message on you that corresponds.
Regardless of who abducted Papini, though, one thing is not up for debate: Her road back to normalcy will likely be a complicated one.
This is going to take an awful lot of therapy, an anti-depressant, probably anti-anxiety medication. It will be very hard for her to navigate these traumatic waters.
That much seems certain.
Citations: People
