The husband of Sherri Papini, the California mom who mysteriously vanished earlier this month, is recounting his wife’s kidnapping in his first on-air interview since her discovery.
In an exclusive sit-down with 20/20, Keith Papini describes Sherri’s 22-day captivity including the moment she was thrust from a moving vehicle on Thanksgiving, the day she was discovered.
“She was bound, she had a chain around her waist, that is correct, she had a bag over her head, that is correct,” Keith told ABC News’ Matt Gutman.
“Her left hand was in the vehicle chained to something, she was chained anytime she was in a vehicle. They opened the door, she doesn’t know because she had a bag over her head, they cut something to free her restraint that was holding her into the vehicle and then, kind of, pushed her out of the vehicle,” Keith continued to detail of what his wife told him.
Sherri was allegedly kidnapped while out for a jog on Nov. 2. The mother of two was found around 4:30 a.m. Thanksgiving Day in Yolo County — about 150 miles south of her Redding home, where she was last seen.
“My first sight was my wife in a hospital bed. Her face covered in bruises ranging from yellow to black because of her repeated beatings. The bridge of her nose broken,” he wrote. “She has been branded and I could feel the rise of her scabs under my fingers.”
He also noted that she weighed only 87 lbs. and her long, blonde hair had been chopped off.
During a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko revealed new details about the two Hispanic women who allegedly abducted Sherri.
Sherri told investigators that one of the women had long curly hair, thin eyebrows and pierced ears, and the other woman, who was older, had straight black hair with gray and thick eyebrows. Both of the women allegedly spoke in Spanish the majority of the time.
Bosenko said the alleged abductors had sometimes covered Sherri’s face and had concealed their own faces as well during her three-week ordeal. “Sherri did her best in providing the descriptions but was not able to provide a detailed description because of the assailants covering their faces,” Bosenko said.The motive behind the alleged kidnapping is still unclear as authorities continue to investigate.
Keith’s emotional interview airs on ABC News 20/20 Friday, Dec. 2 at 10 p.m. ET.
