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E061: Sherri Papini
1.4k Plays5 years ago
This story may sound like a scene from a horror movie, but it was the reality of Sherri. She never would have dreamed her afternoon jog would turn into a nightmare, and after 22 days with few clues to go on, many of her friends, neighbors, and family doubted they would see her again; nor would she have ever believed that, when she was found, there would be those who doubted the validity of the horror she said she experienced.
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Transcript
Starting a Podcast with Buzzsprout
00:00:00
Speaker
Sleuth Hounds Have you ever considered creating your own podcast? Have you been inspired by listening to some of your favorites and thought, I'd love to try this out on my own? Whether it's a true crime podcast like ours, a motivational podcast, or maybe one filled with tips and strategies for those interested in the same activities you are?
00:00:20
Speaker
When Maggie and I first decided to start our podcast, we knew absolutely nothing about what podcasting would entail. But when we found that the platform Buzzsprout was one for which we didn't need any special equipment, just a computer microphone, some quiet space, and each other, we knew that this was the way to go.
00:00:39
Speaker
It is intuitive to use, fun to play around with, and so helpful in getting analytical data about our number of downloads to track trends and from where our listeners hail. Best yet, Buzzsprout is affordable, even by our teacher salary standards. Buzzsprout will get your podcasts listed on every major podcasting platform. So, what are you waiting for? Fulfill that dream of yours and start today.
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Speaker
If you use our Coffee and Cases referral code, 709-643, linked on Facebook and in our show notes, not only will you help support our show, but you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card after your second month on a paid plan. It's that easy.
Victim's Perspective: Abduction and Survival
00:01:23
Speaker
Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. Join over a hundred thousand podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Now it's time for the world to hear.
00:01:47
Speaker
You were doing so well before. Why did you let yourself slide? It will take you forever to get back in shape. Nevertheless, you're working on it, and that, you tell yourself, is what matters. You wave as neighbor after neighbor passes you, judging your slow pace no doubt. You turn up your playlist and focus your thoughts on picking your kids up from daycare in a few hours. You don't even notice the car that's slowing down behind you.
00:01:54
Speaker
what you have to say.
00:02:15
Speaker
You don't even notice when the car stops and someone gets out. You are too focused, too zoned in on getting home to take a shower. You don't sense the danger until it's too late. You turn around just as someone slips a bag over your head. Your earphones are yanked from your ears as this person, this assailant, pulls your phone from your hands. You're pushed into a vehicle and you hear the door slam before you're even able to muster a cry for help.
00:02:45
Speaker
Hours pass, and those hours soon turn into days. You're starting to lose hope that you will ever see your husband and kids again. You're starving. So hungry. When was the last time you ate? Days ago? Weeks maybe? You can't ask for food. They will just beat you more. Through all the verbal and physical abuse, you've never seen the faces of your torturers, only their cruel dead eyes. You pleaded with them.
00:03:12
Speaker
begged them to let you go, but they just continue to torment you. With chains around your waist and your hands bound, you're thrown into a vehicle. This is it, you think, as your captors speed off. They're going to kill you, you just know it. Suddenly the car slows, the door opens, but the car doesn't stop. The next thing you know, you're pushed out of a moving vehicle. While this story sounds like a scene from a horror movie, it was very much the reality for our victim today.
00:03:42
Speaker
She never would have dreamed that her afternoon jog would turn into a nightmare. And after 22 days, with few clues where to go from there, many of her friends, neighbors, and family doubted they would see her again.
Introduction: True Crime Case of Sherry Papini
00:03:54
Speaker
But they were wrong. This is the story of Sherry Papini.
00:04:14
Speaker
Oh.
00:04:34
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement.
00:04:50
Speaker
so justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive.
Engaging the Audience: Analytics and Community
00:05:06
Speaker
So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:05:11
Speaker
Before I jump into the story today, Allison and I want to take just a second to thank you guys for the support we've seen over this past week alone. Our listens grew quite a bit this last week and we know that it's because you guys have continued to share coffee and cases with your friends and family. Allison actually shared a status with me the day that I was writing this episode.
00:05:34
Speaker
Yeah, and on that day, one year ago, coffee and cases had reached 750 listens and we were like, how old were we then?
00:05:45
Speaker
like oh we thought we were like heading like skyrocketing we were like this is it we're gonna be famous and what's crazy though is that one
00:06:06
Speaker
year forward on that exact same day. So earlier this week we had almost 26,000 listens. Right. Which is amazing. Oh my goodness. It made me so excited and it just kind of gave me the energy to, you know, start the day off, right? Yeah. Because like, okay, so I'm obsessed with
00:06:30
Speaker
Buzzsprout, which is what Allison talks about at the very beginning of each show. Yes. Because I love to see where people listen to. Shout out, Centennial, Colorado. I know. Centennial, Colorado. I'm telling you. It was actually the past 10 episodes when I went to look. Oh my goodness. They've been the top leader the past 10 episodes. It's crazy. And even as we're talking, this is how simple it is. So I'll pull up our top locations in
Sherry Papini's Disappearance and Investigation
00:06:58
Speaker
the last five episodes.
00:07:00
Speaker
Centennial, Colorado. Frankfurt, Kentucky, obviously. Plainfield, Indiana. Atlanta, Georgia. Lexington, Kentucky. And another Colorado city, Maggie. Parker, Colorado. And then right after that are international listeners in Kippen, Ontario. Oh, I know. So it's super exciting.
00:07:24
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm like obsessed with a bus route. And so I like basically check, yeah, bus route, I basically check it like every day. And I cannot believe like, because you don't see the all time listens when you go to statistics, you see like, your top five episodes. And when I switched it to the all time, I was like, holy crap. I know.
00:07:44
Speaker
Oh, you guys are great. And we've gotten such sweet reviews this past couple of weeks to like, we had one review of one of our listeners who
00:07:56
Speaker
said that when they listen to our podcast that they feel less alone and that just warms my heart. Like that makes it all worth it. Right there. Yes. You guys are bringing in 2021 so good. It's the year of this blue town. Like that's not on the Chinese calendar but it should be. Yes exactly.
00:08:17
Speaker
Um, so the story that we're talking about today, Allison, I had actually never heard of Sherry Papini before. No, but it got dark quick. Yeah. And you just wait. Like I saw her, like her story on a cold case group that I'm in on, like I follow on Facebook. And so I just quickly read like the little synopsis that they had. And I was like, Oh yeah, this is the case. This is it. This is it.
00:08:46
Speaker
And while we have covered, um, similar cases, cause you know, obviously you can deduce she was abducted, um, her and her case still is unsolved. It's like any case that we've covered before, like abduction case we've covered before if memory serves me. When we, when we get to like later on,
00:09:11
Speaker
and you figure out how it ends, you'll have to tell me because I think she's the only one we've had like this. Ooh, I'm excited. So Sherry was actually referred to as a super mom on almost every new station that covered her abduction.
00:09:30
Speaker
which I think is really sweet. She was super dedicated to her family. She loved her kids and she loved her husband. They had a happy life in Reading, California. And he, which I talk about it later on, but like you can tell that the son like revolved around Sherry to him. Like he was, he's so in love with her.
00:09:59
Speaker
So the day Sherry went missing was like most others. Her kids were at daycare and like I did not honestly do like a lot of background information about Sherry and what I tried to do. There just wasn't a lot of information. Like their family is a very private family. So I didn't figure out if she was like a stay-at-home mom or if she was off work that day or you know had a different schedule than her husband. But she's at home that day and the kids are at daycare.
00:10:28
Speaker
Okay. Her husband Keith was at work. He worked at Best Buy and around two o'clock that afternoon Sherry was going for just like a regular jog because she had started running again, which kudos to Sherry. I know. I'm not a runner. No. I don't do business. I run for like
00:10:48
Speaker
donuts in the teacher's lounge. According to the article, police searching for Reading Mom since Wednesday, Kate last communicated with Sherry at about 140. That's like right before she's gone.
00:11:11
Speaker
yeah like right before and he actually said that she texted him that morning around 10 37 asking if he would come home like if he had planned on coming home for lunch that day and Keith said quote I usually don't bring my personal phone in on my job so I didn't respond to the message until 139 pm that day so it actually been a couple hours but I think that's pretty common I think for jobs today because I think you
00:11:38
Speaker
probably get in trouble if you have your phone because I mean our culture is so obsessed with phones anyway. But I always feel guilty like in our profession like I try to never have my phone out. We tell them not to have it out and like we're gonna have it if they can't have it. Right. How fair is that? Yeah. Hence the reason I asked for an Apple Watch for Christmas.
Sherry's Return and Public Skepticism
00:12:00
Speaker
So you would know. So I can tell someone's trying to call me.
00:12:05
Speaker
When Keith arrived home from his job at Best Buy, he arrived to an empty house and he knew that something was wrong. Because she was supposed to get the kids at daycare. Exactly. So she should have been there with the kids. So he knew that something was wrong. And he actually went door to door asking neighbors to help him look for his wife and one neighbor.
00:12:28
Speaker
I actually told a reporter, she said, quote, this man thinks she's the only woman alive. You would think the moon and stars are riding on her. I've never seen someone adore anyone like that. Oh, that's a super sweet comment. I know. Okay. Now listen, I don't know why something strikes me as like odd, like, and I don't know why that strikes me as odd. And maybe it's because
00:12:56
Speaker
the neighborhood that I live in, the houses are a little bit more spread out. And so I can't, like, I feel like if Rodney weren't home, I would maybe call family, but I don't know if I would ever think to go door to door. Yeah, I don't know if, like,
00:13:15
Speaker
I mean, I don't know, like I know the house that we moved into, the people that live beside of us were super close to like the family that left this house. Though maybe it would be like it was someone that he was close to, maybe. Well, I was thinking too, I guess, if she's going for a jog and that's the last he knows and maybe he's concerned that something
00:13:38
Speaker
happened or she hurt herself or you know what I mean like maybe some of the neighbors that she would pass would have seen her so that does make sense I guess. Yeah and something else that Keith does that I like maybe this is a man thing because well I'll tell you in a second but he actually was able to locate Sherry's phone so he was well he was tracking Sherry or what he thought was Sherry
Investigation Complexities: Hoax Theories and Family Impact
00:14:05
Speaker
using the Find My iPhone app.
00:14:07
Speaker
Oh, that's smart. I know what I never would have thought of that. But actually, like when I read it, like I immediately thought of one day after work, like, because I always call Anthony to tell him I'm on my way home from work, just to see if he you know, needs anything like if he's already home and we need like dinner or something like that.
00:14:28
Speaker
And I called to let him know I was on my way home and I stopped at like a clothing store because I needed some retail therapy. And I didn't tell Anthony that I stopped anywhere and I guess he got worried. He actually tracked my car using the app that we have for my vehicle that can turn our car on and off. Which is kind of creepy, yet cool at the same time.
00:14:56
Speaker
Which is fine that he was able to do that, but like, who else can do that? That's kind of weird. Right. Well, you know, I just found out that if I misplaced my phone, I can ding it from my Apple watch. Yes, girl. Even if your phone is on silent.
00:15:13
Speaker
yeah it's a lifesaver technology so that's cool that he was so what did he find so he thought that he was going to you know just run across his wife she'd sprained her ankle or something like that yeah but instead when he arrives at the intersection of sunset drive and old organ trail he found sherry's cell phone with her headphones like neatly
00:15:37
Speaker
Like you know how you'll like roll them up like neatly placed on top and her phone looks like screen up and the headphones on top. That's weird because that takes time. Yes. And Keith said in an interview with The Sun, he said, quote, I just drove down there and I found her phone with her headphones because she started running again and I found her phone and it's got her hair ripped out of it. Like in the headphones, I'm totally freaking out thinking that somebody like grabbed her. End quote.
00:16:07
Speaker
But I feel like if you grabbed her, your phone is not gonna be neatly placed with your headphones wrapped up in a little pile on top. Man, if I can accidentally drop my phone from a drop of like six inches and the screen shatters, I feel like if I were grabbed, it would shatter. Like you said, something, it wouldn't be neatly placed
00:16:35
Speaker
right there with the headphone circling on top. Unless maybe there's like two people or multiple people and one person you know grabs her and the other one does whatever with the phone. That doesn't make sense because I wouldn't think that whoever did this would like
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:16:50
Speaker
take the time to... I just kidnapped someone but I'm gonna lay this perfectly in the road take my time with it. Yeah that's a bit odd.
00:17:00
Speaker
His, like her family though, just does not, they don't waste any time. She's reported missing at 6 p.m. that night though. Oh, okay. They're like on hours. And she was considered at risk due to just like the strange circumstances surrounding her disappearance. And that same day, the family offered a $50,000 reward to anyone who could provide information that would bring her home.
00:17:24
Speaker
wow so like um quadruple what uh robert durst the millionaire offered for his missing one exactly this normal family who's the husband worked at best buy him probably had a normal wage like everyone else was offering 50 000 he offered like i give every penny yeah 15 000 yeah
00:17:47
Speaker
And her sister, Sheila, told a news interviewer, she said, quote, she has a family that loves her. Please bring her home. And she made that plea to like a local news broadcast. These families get me every time because I just can't. I can't imagine that that level of pain.
00:18:08
Speaker
Yeah, well I'm pretty sure I've told the one time that the story about when Boomer escaped out of our fence at our old house and like Anthony was, I went out to check on him and Anthony was like not in the yard in our fenced-in backyard. I think I've told that story and like I looked everywhere for them and I called my mom and dad and was like convinced he had been kidnapped.
00:18:31
Speaker
because I didn't know we couldn't find him. Yeah, because I couldn't find him and I didn't know Boomer got out and like that little bit of panic, like I couldn't imagine knowing it's like the confirmation that it really happened. Right. And then that level of panic and pain going on endlessly.
00:18:49
Speaker
So not only was the family of Sherry actively looking for her, authorities were too. So in fact, according to an article from LA Times, police had filed about 20 search warrants in court related to Sherry's disappearance. So they were looking at her computer records. They were looking at past relationships that she had had. They were looking for any video surveillance camera footage that would have offered
00:19:16
Speaker
like clues to where she would have been, because it's not like she disappeared in like, you know, 1990. Not that long ago. So people would have had surveillance cameras outside their home. So law enforcement's doing a lot.
00:19:33
Speaker
Yeah, like they're taking this super serious. And Keith, of course, is like the first person they look at because that's her spouse. But in a People Magazine article that I read, he passed a lie detector test on November 7th, so just five days after she went missing. And the investigators actually said, quote, he was clean as a whistle. OK. So I mean.
00:20:02
Speaker
They don't say that if it's not true. Right. And they don't, after that, they don't suspect him at all. There was no physical evidence to suggest that, you know, he was involved and they were able to confirm that he had been at work. Okay. Yeah. He has, yeah, he has a rock solid alibi. Strangely though, um, this isn't
00:20:29
Speaker
the first time that Sheri's name has been the subject of a 911 call. Okay. So, and I bring this up because it will make sense here in a little bit. Okay. That's why it would be brought up. So according to ABC News, a 911 call log from December 2003, and actually
00:20:56
Speaker
Sleuthounds and Allison, did I even tell you the year that she went mixing? No. Okay, that probably would help. Just... So she was abducted in 2016. So like I said, it's not that long ago. 2016? Yeah. Okay, yeah, that's really recent. Yeah, she was abducted on November the 2nd, 2016. Okay.
00:21:21
Speaker
Um, so she, there was a call log that came through, um, in 2003 and it was released by the California police that revealed Sherry's mom had actually called 9-1-1 and reported that her daughter was self harming herself and blaming it on her mom. So I don't know, like, do you take that as like, she was trying to say her mom was inflicting the wounds? Okay. Even though Sherry was doing it to herself.
00:21:50
Speaker
Yeah, she's saying that her mom did it, I think. So, and this log was obtained by the Sacramento Bee and actually shared with ABC News. And it states that her mom actually asked the 911 operator for advice on how to handle the situation because her daughter was planning on moving back in with her. Wow. That's a hard situation for that, if that's true.
00:22:19
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's just like, that's an odd behavior, I feel like. Yeah, I was gonna say it's almost like an indication of some sort of psychosis, but I'm obviously not an expert, so I don't know. But that's worrisome, anyway. Yeah, yeah. And the report was only two sentences long, and it never gave any detail to where police actually, like if they ever found out that Sherry was in fact harming herself,
00:22:49
Speaker
The log also contained multiple allegations from other family members of Sherry. So on October 1st, 2001, Sherry's sister, Sheila, called police and said that Sherry had kicked in her back door. But she was unsure if anything had been taken from her house, but she kicked in her sister's back door.
00:23:12
Speaker
Okay, again, odd, not a normal action. Yes. And then, stranger still, later that day, Sherry's dad Richard called the police to say that Sherry had vandalized their home in Shasta Lake, California. Okay, again, like the
00:23:36
Speaker
Vindictive harm of herself to try to blame somebody else. The breaking and entering. The vandalizing. Like those are not the behaviors of... A stable individual. Right.
00:23:52
Speaker
And that's not the only incident. On October 3rd, 2003, Richard again caused the police to say that someone withdrew money from his bank account without his authorization and that he suspected it was Sherry because she was living at home at the time. And then there's more to the police report that say the money was returned to his account.
00:24:18
Speaker
and Sherry had gone on to open a credit card account. Wow. Cause that does not sound like the woman that you described in the beginning. Yeah. So when I was researching it and I was reading this, I was kind of like taken aback because it just sounds like polar opposite of who everyone was saying that she was.
00:24:46
Speaker
I don't know. I think just crazy behavior. Right. And like I said, you know, these allegations and 911 calls don't take away from the fact that she's missing, but I point them out because Sherry's disappearance by many is argued to be a hoax and they cite like some of these previous incidents with 911.
00:25:15
Speaker
where like, like the self-harm and then blaming somebody else. Yeah. Like she's had several incidences where she really lied. I guess she didn't explain why the phone was there and there's like hair ripped out and yet the headphones are neatly wrapped. Right. And it could also explain
00:25:44
Speaker
Why? Because most of the abduction cases that we've covered, what normally happens to the victim? They end up being killed. And she was actually found alive three weeks later on Thanksgiving Day, November the 24th. And not like they busted down a door and she was being held captive. She had allegedly been
00:26:14
Speaker
set out basically on the side of the road on County Road 17 near Interstate 5 in California, about 150 miles away from where she went missing at like 430 in the morning. Okay, yeah, that's bizarre because, well, unless she'd been blindfolded the entire time or something like that, I don't know. I would still worry, you know, because she could give clues as to where she was at least.
00:26:42
Speaker
which they do say, and I'll kind of go into more detail about how she claims she was treated during her captivity. But she was like chained around the waist, attached to her hands, like cloth over her head. I think I read somewhere she was able to get one hand free and use the bag that was over her head to wave down somebody on this road.
00:27:11
Speaker
Okay, so I mean it would have been hard to put herself into these restraints is in essence what you're saying. Yes, and then like as we get more detail about like her captivity and stuff, I think you'll even more so say that it would be hard to fake this because it's just like it's kind of crazy.
00:27:33
Speaker
It's just, her case is weird. But like I said, she is able to flag down somebody and her rescuer said, quote, I saw this woman with blonde hair in the right shoulder of the freeway and she was waving a piece of fabric that looked like a shirt, waving it up and down, trying to flag someone down. It was obvious she needed help, end quote. So kudos for you.
00:28:12
Speaker
She was like running down this side of the road. Yeah, and she had no pants on. I know. And it was like a wild girl. No, I do feel like I would stop for a child to help, but it's so sad. And you know how empathetic I am. I mean, if someone's crying, it makes me tear up. But at the same time,
00:28:15
Speaker
for stopping.
00:28:36
Speaker
If I were alone, or had my little sleuthound with me, and I saw someone needing help, especially if it were night, or I'm in a rural area, I'd be nervous to stop, even if the person trying to flag me down was a woman. I think, I mean, I'm out there with you, because like, I hate to see people like hitchhiking on the side of the road, and they could just
00:29:06
Speaker
makes me feel bad. And so I can't imagine if it was something like this, but
00:29:12
Speaker
Maybe since it was 2016, she didn't necessarily have to get in the car with the lady that pulled over because she could have just pulled over and got her phone out to call police. No, I would have called 911. Right. Yeah. And so I don't know if she actually pulled over and put her in her car or if she just called the police. So she may have just called the police, which again, still, good job. Oh, yes, exactly.
00:29:39
Speaker
So Keith is informed that his wife is alive and so he quickly gets in his vehicle to go to the hospital and like I could not I cannot picture his relief like I would not have been able to drive because I would have been like shaking crying and I can only imagine you know
00:30:04
Speaker
what he felt after not seeing his wife for 22 days and not knowing if she's dead or alive to finally be able to look at her. Well, and again, like you said, knowing that that's not usually the outcome. Yeah. You know, so you don't have the relief. Am I correct? Have we covered another case where an abduction has, like they found the person alive? No. I didn't think we had.
00:30:31
Speaker
So Keith goes on to release a statement that week stating that his wife was found on the side of the road beaten, chained with a bag over her head and only weighing approximately 87 pounds. Wow. Which is nuts because if you look at like a picture of her, she is like a blonde bombshell that is beautiful. She's like,
00:30:57
Speaker
looks athletic. Like she's tiny anyway. She's 87 pounds tiny. If you could know that she probably runs or you know does Zumba or something like she looks like she's in shape. So she was only 87 pounds. Pretty sure I weighed that and like
00:31:15
Speaker
I have five months old. I was going to say, losing, starving. That's one thing I couldn't do to myself. Like you could, okay. She could have like hurt herself when she was talking about the mom's call, but I couldn't starve myself. I know that. No, they would, they would find people losing to 250 pounds. Her captors kept shoving Krispy Kreme down her throat.
00:31:42
Speaker
In a statement though, he said, quote, my first sight was my wife in hospital bed, her face covered in bruises ranging from yellow to black because of repeated beatings, the bridge of her nose broken. So in those long 22 days, Sherry had basically been starved and had, from the sound of it, nearly been beaten to death. Wow. So again,
00:32:11
Speaker
And we'll talk kind of about why people think it's a hoax, but I just don't know to what extent E1 would be willing to go to hide whatever she would have been hiding if this was a hoax. Like I'm not going to break my own nose. No. Oh, absolutely not. And I'm not going to starve myself. Right. So I just don't know.
00:32:40
Speaker
According to Shasta County Sheriff, that's a lot of S's right there. In interviews, Sherry was said that she was held by two Hispanic women who took great steps to keep their faces hidden from her. So either they would cover like the bottom portion of their face or they would keep her head covered. Oh, okay. So that would explain. Right. And like,
00:33:09
Speaker
People that know me know me like I have this irrational fear of like the world one day running out of oxygen. Okay. Like I freak out if I feel like I'm suffocating or drowning. So like a head cover thing.
00:33:29
Speaker
would have done me in. Oh, the mask, the masks that we wear half the time. I'm like trying to bring it because yeah. Yeah. You know, when you're talking about
00:33:45
Speaker
the injuries. It makes me think, and I don't know her name, because as you know, Sleuth Hounds, we record these and when Maggie, it's Maggie's week for an episode, I don't know the story until she tells it to me. But there was
00:34:02
Speaker
a former model or a model, she was interviewed by Dr. Phil and she was abducted. And there's like all this, these theories about whether she actually was abducted or it was a hoax. But with her,
00:34:20
Speaker
Hers was like, again, it was masked men saying that she was restrained and things like that. But that was only for six days, not 22. And it was bizarre because at one point she said like her captors took her shopping. Oh, and she would be recognized. I just googled it. Is it Chloe Ailing? Yeah.
00:34:45
Speaker
That's what it is, yep. She would be, like, if you're famous, they're not going to take you out of the house. Well, I don't think she was famous, but she was angry. Oh, oh, okay. She's not showing up having lost all kinds of weight, you know, with her nose broken and things like that, like Cheri is. So that makes it a lot more believable to me.
00:35:11
Speaker
Yes. And so not only was she starved, she was abused. They also, I think this is like a sign of them trying to humiliate her or humiliate her because they cut off her hair, like not super short, but several, several inches of like her overly long, beautiful blonde hair was cut off. She was beaten, you know, she had the broken nose, but they also branded her on her right shoulder during captivity. Oh.
00:35:41
Speaker
And I scoured the internet, like I devoted a pretty good amount of time to see if something had been leaked, you know, what was on her shoulder. I mean, I'm pretty sure they're keeping what was branded on her shoulder, like under wraps until they hopefully go to trial one day. Because the only thing I could find was that it was letters, like a word or words. So no symbols or numbers.
00:36:10
Speaker
And like when I read this case to Anthony, which I think we should have Rodney and Anthony be guest stars on an episode. Agreed. Cause Anthony would do it if Rodney, like if they could do it together. Oh yeah. They bring some good insight though. Yes. Cause I read, I read this to him and he was like, I bet that like cutting off the hair and then the branding, he said they probably put like slut or maybe something like that, that,
00:36:38
Speaker
maybe they were jealous of my beauty maybe. I don't know, not a hundred percent, you know, we don't know. But hopefully one day when they catch whoever did this to her, we'll be able to get all of the details. Sherry was able to share as many details as possible about her captors. She described them, as I said, to Hispanic women who both spoke Spanish the majority of the time. She said one captor had long curly hair,
00:37:07
Speaker
pierced ears thin eyebrows and a thick accent the second she described as being older having straight black hair with some gray and thick eyebrows and Police do draw a sketch of the women But like in my opinion They could really be almost anybody you just see them from like the nose up And they just look like
00:37:37
Speaker
every other Hispanic woman that you would see. Right. Though I do think, I mean, again, this case is kind of unique because generally speaking, and I hate to do this, especially, you know, for half the world's population and the men out there, but in most of the cases, our captors are men. And so the fact that it's two women. Yeah, it is different. Also unique.
00:38:05
Speaker
And I'm going to try, so Allison and I are recording separately today because school is back in session and we have no lives. So if you like switch to like the recording thing we use, I have my phone pulled up with their picture. Oh, yeah. Okay. So one looks young and one looks older with wrinkles, like a furrowed brow, but that's about it.
00:38:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean like they could maybe be like a mom and a daughter. Right. Yeah, I could see that.
00:38:39
Speaker
But I mean, really, that's it. And it looks like everybody else these days because it looks like they have masks on. Yeah, so they blend in perfectly. And so now nobody ever. Actually, maybe now people will recognize them. I've seen that person. We'll make sure to post these on. They're masks on at the supermarket. Yeah. They're a homie in the line at Kroger. Right.
00:39:04
Speaker
So according to an LA Times article that was called Sherry Pappini's husband might have compromised kidnapping with public comments Which is a really weird name for an article, but whatever really long. Yeah The women supposedly were driving a dark colored SUV and they had a handgun when they kidnapped Sherry and police determined that there was no struggle upon abduction
00:39:32
Speaker
and that maybe that how the cell phone was like neatly placed. Like maybe they had a gun to Sherry or something like that. Oh and they said like put your phone down. Put your phone down. Yeah. But when detectives show her images of SUVs that were seen on like neighborhood surveillance cameras in the area like at the time of her capture, she said none of them looked familiar.
00:39:59
Speaker
Which, I mean, I know that like fear and anxiety, I don't know, I don't know if it would make, I guess it affects everybody differently. It could either make you hyper aware or like your adrenaline is just pumping so much that you don't remember anything. Yeah, and I try to, like I'm just in general, not a very observant person. Oh, I'm not. Anthony will remember small things that we did, like,
00:40:28
Speaker
or said to each other like in Kroger five years ago. And I'm like, yeah, I don't remember the conversations we had yesterday. Yeah. And like, and I think I've told this story too. One time my mom and I were driving from Eastern Kentucky to Lexington, um, to talk to a florist, like when anything I were engaged and we got a flat tire on the mountain parkway and
00:40:55
Speaker
I mean, kudos to these people, but we had several people that pulled over to ask if we were okay, and we'd already called the sheriff's office by then, but one person passed twice, and then finally circled back around and pulled over, and we didn't get out of the car or anything, but we told them we were fine, and then my mom was like, write this down, his license plate number was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He looked like this, he had an earring in his left ear, a tattoo right there, and I'm like, mother!
00:41:27
Speaker
Yeah, I'm clueless about like, I'll pull in the garage and I'll be like, when did you know, when did we put that box right there? And Rodney will be like the one that's been there for two weeks. And I'm like, I guess, but what's weird if I read something?
00:41:43
Speaker
it sticks in my head. Like I can remember one time in grad school, I was reading Bleak House by Dickens, which is like 989 pages, literally. And you know, I can be like on page 970, and I'm like, I have read this phrase before. It was on the left hand side of the page, about two thirds of the way down, and I can like go all the way back and find like on page 13, that same phrase.
00:42:13
Speaker
Is that not so weird, but there will be a box in the garage for two weeks that I don't notice. The size of, yeah, a car. And I'm like, when did that get there? So officials are not able to determine a motive for this kidnapping or whether or not she actually knew her abductors, which I feel like if I had seen someone regularly enough, I would recognize them from the nose up. Yeah. And like I said, there are many
00:42:43
Speaker
many people that claim this is just a big fat hoax. Like there are entire Reddit forums dedicated to proving her abduction was false. Just like quickly when I was searching and I didn't go into it. Like I think that there was actually something and like this could be completely wrong. But I think I read like a search result that said her family had like
00:43:13
Speaker
sued Reddit or tried to take Reddit to court over like hampering the case or something. I mean, if any potential jurors come across anything and it just puts doubt, seeds of doubt. Yes. And then it reminds me of a shoot of the Polar Express. You're a doubter.
00:43:43
Speaker
So here are some of the reasons that people claim the hoax theory. Okay. So in an article called Sherry Papini Case, four years later, a look back at California mother's bizarre disappearance. It says through the investigation, authorities uncovered text messages between Sherry and a male acquaintance from Michigan. Oh, like she's having an affair?
00:44:11
Speaker
Yeah, so if you remember, they checked her computer and her phone for all of that. And they actually were able to determine that the pair had been involved in an online slash texting relationship for a while, but it was unclear whether that relationship was romantic or not. See, to me, it's still cheating. That's just how I feel. Right. And like, I don't know if it's like,
00:44:38
Speaker
Like, if that was her college ex-boyfriend or if that's like the kid that was four days younger than me and we went to church together and we've literally known each other since the day we were born. I mean, that's true. Yeah. So, like, I don't know the circumstances.
00:44:56
Speaker
that it was, you know, and they actually aren't able to determine if it's romantic or not, but there is another thing that kind of ties in with the text message, but appearing a little bit that maybe points to it possibly being a romantic relationship. And they say that they go back several months to like days right before she disappeared. And that was according to Sergeant Jackson and People magazine.
00:45:25
Speaker
He said, quote, it was a prior contact that she had years before somebody she met and kept in touch with. A male acquaintance she was talking with through text. An acquaintance is different than friend. Yes, but what I'll say is this, and maybe this is, I don't know, me being judgy, but acquaintance, friend, whatever.
00:45:53
Speaker
If this is a texting relationship that had been going on for quite some time and it were innocent, then I feel like wouldn't that person also kind of alarms be going off when, you know, I've been hearing from Sherry nearly every day and then all of a sudden I'm not. Like wouldn't they have called the police too and said,
00:46:20
Speaker
Like, I think something's wrong with my friend. Right. Like a welfare check type of thing. Right, to me. And like, I didn't read if her husband knew about the texting thing, because that's another big thing. That's true. Like, are you telling your husband, like, hey, I'm catching up with my friend, or like, are you deleting your messages and have a passcode that he doesn't know on your phone? Right. Because that makes a difference too.
00:46:47
Speaker
So again, we need the context because we don't like, I can't make proper judgments because I don't know. Correct. Yeah. So the notion that her case is a hoax is made stronger when investigators released that Sherry had both male and female DNA on her body.
00:47:07
Speaker
Oh, when she said it was two women. Right. And that is what people say that it directly contradicts what she said in her story. And they are able to 100 percent verify that it was not like Keith's DNA. It's unknown male DNA. They don't release whether it's hair or bodily fluids. Now, could
00:47:33
Speaker
I don't know how much she heard cause the, the younger one, I think in her description she said had a thick accent, but I don't recall her saying anything about hearing the older one speak. I'm wondering if the older one could have just been a male with long hair. Oh, I hadn't even thought of that. Like I had just thought like maybe she, they put clothes on her that weren't hers and there was like a,
00:48:02
Speaker
Oh, yeah. That's what I thought. But that's your point. It's kind of valid too, because like the older person could have been possibly a male. Right. Especially if because I think it interesting that she mentioned how the younger one spoke
00:48:25
Speaker
but I didn't, I only saw physical description of the older one. That was what first came to my mind. This is just off the cuff. Good point. And Sergeant Jackson tells People magazine, quote, the male DNA was compiled from the clothing Sherry was found wearing. The samples were uploaded into CODIS database in April or May, but there were no matches to known offenders. Hmm.
00:48:52
Speaker
So, and like I said, even though there's a lead, there's no lead. Right. And they were able to 100% say it was not from her husband. Okay.
00:49:04
Speaker
Also, so people around the world, if you have Netflix and you haven't watched Bridgerton, I don't know what you're doing with your life right now. I still need to. I'm making an ashamed face right now. I need to watch it. School has consumed me though. Don't let your little sleuth out and watch it because it's a little risky. But I did read them one and I say this because I read in one article that
00:49:34
Speaker
There was DNA found on her person. And they say that like in Bridgerton and it makes you think like it is like your private area. And so I don't know if it was meant in the same context there. Okay.
00:49:55
Speaker
Well, again, going back to the alphabet killer, that's how I first found that they could even get like fingerprints from a body. So I guess it could be, I don't know, somewhere else. So.
00:50:13
Speaker
Again, we need more details. There was also, and this goes back to the text messages, a call that came into the sheriff's office from a man that claimed Sherry was with him the entire time that she was missing. And he claims this entire thing is a hoax and she's just trying to cover up like this big lie that she's living.
00:50:36
Speaker
And he says investigators are quote too afraid to commit one way or the other in part a fear of getting egg on their face
00:50:48
Speaker
I mean there's lots of like I mean even if you go back to the Emma Phillip off case where she was afraid that somebody was following her and remember there was the one guy who like busts up into like a convenience store a shop and he's like she's my girlfriend she's been with me
00:51:09
Speaker
Oh, yeah. See your parents. And so, I mean, I feel like there are people sadly out there who would make claims like that. And then all it does is hurt the investigation. Yeah, they do it for the attention and then investigation. Wasn't it in the Philip up, Philip up? Wasn't it in the case that like they later came forward and apologized? Didn't we cover a case? Maybe I'd imagine that. But I thought we covered a case or maybe I read it that
00:51:39
Speaker
Someone who made some type of outrageous claim like that came forward and apologized because it did deter the investigation. Yeah, it was in the Kristen Modifieri case, one of the suspects, John Onuma.
00:51:59
Speaker
It wasn't like this case where he said, yeah, I was with her and then told a lie about it. But he's the one, he called the police and he tried to say that these two women were the ones who had abducted her. And remember, those were the two women who had the fight with his girlfriend at work. Like, I'm sorry, I told a lie. I shouldn't have, you know, it took the attention off of the investigation. Yeah, I remember that now.
00:52:30
Speaker
Another thing that just doesn't look favorable for Sherry is that she claims that she got a cut on her right foot during a fight with the younger of the two female attackers and like there was no cut. That seems a weird thing to make up though. Which I mean maybe she like she's starving so she probably
00:52:56
Speaker
is like hallucinating or maybe so maybe she thought that happened right or maybe she like stepped on something and it made her foot sore and she thought there was a cut there because like why would she make this up what what is there to gain from making this up do you know what i mean like it's not like she's trying to say oh they were asking for a reward and then she was going to use the reward for herself like it feels like there's nothing to gain
00:53:26
Speaker
Correct and that's my stance on this but they have conducted interviews like the Huffington Post did and They actually interviewed a lady named Kelly that worked at the Shasta County Sheriff's Office and she told them quote I don't know if the words ruled out can be used and this is in reference to like ruling out the possibility that something is off in regards to
00:53:56
Speaker
She wouldn't give authority or give the people that were interviewing her her last name, but she was who they were directed to as far as when they asked to speak to a communications officer. Here I think, you know, again, I asked the question, what does she have to gain? But then if law enforcement is saying that there's something fishy
00:54:25
Speaker
Well, and like, who is Kelly? Because she's not like a sergeant. I've never been an officer who wouldn't give their name. Right. So, I mean, she might just be like,
00:54:35
Speaker
I mean, I've never really been into a police station. So maybe she's just like the person that answers the calls at the front and transfers people if that is a thing that they have. So she could just be like a secretary or something. Anything wrong with that. She might not be like privy to in the know. Yeah. Because another person through the sheriff's office, who is the county sheriff, um, he,
00:55:04
Speaker
would say that based on the information they have, he believed her. We believe that this was an abduction. Okay. And that is who I am going to believe. I'm with you. I think that's a lot of
00:55:25
Speaker
I don't know the word I'm looking for. You just have to be really dedicated to whatever like lie you are protecting to starve yourself, beat yourself. And like, how are you going to chain your own hand, which I guess you could get the one hand free. I don't know. I'm telling you. But for your nose to be broken, branded.
00:55:46
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I forgot about that. You'd have to like, knock her off down to 87 pounds, bruises all over you. And regardless of whether you think it's hoax or not, you can't deny that she has other people's DNA on her. Well, I mean, I guess they could be the people that are saying she had an affair.
00:56:13
Speaker
I mean, and I guess those people wouldn't be in a database because they, you know, wouldn't be criminals or anything like that. But I just. I don't know. It's hard to say and to do that to your family when things are going well. Right. So I am a full supporter of she was abducted. Yeah, I'm I'm with you on this on Maggie. And we want to know, Sluthounds, what you think.
00:56:42
Speaker
Cheri and her family have since moved cities. They live a quiet life and stay to themselves. In fact, in a heart-wrenching statement released to Good Morning America, Keith said the following, quote, rumors, assumptions, lies, and hate have been both exhausting and disgusting. Those people should be ashamed of their malice, subhuman behavior.
00:57:05
Speaker
We're not going to allow those people to take away our spirit, love, or rejoice in our girl being found alive and home where she belongs. I understand people want the story, pictures, proof that this was not some sort of folks.
00:57:20
Speaker
plan to gain money or some fabricated race war. I do not see a purpose in addressing each pretentious lie. Instead, may I give you a glimpse of the mixture of horror and elation that was my experience of reuniting with the love of my life and mother of my children.
00:57:37
Speaker
Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see upon my arrival at the hospital, nor the details of true hell I was about to hear. The mental prison I was in for over the past three weeks was shattered when my questions of my wife's reality became known.
00:57:53
Speaker
The officers warned me to brace myself. My first sight was my wife in a hospital bed, her face covered in bruises ranging from yellow to black because of repeated beatings, the bridge of her nose broken. Her now emaciated body of 87 pounds was covered in multiple bruises, severe burns.
00:58:11
Speaker
red rashes, and chain markings. Her signature long blonde hair had been chopped off. She'd been branded and I could feel the rise of her scabs under my fingers. She was thrown from a vehicle with a chain around her waist attached to her wrist and a bag over her head." Like I said, Sleuth hounds
00:58:35
Speaker
Sherry's case is different than most cases we covered. Sherry was found alive and Sherry has used luthounds. Maybe if we work together, we can bring Sherry the peace he truly deserves.
00:58:48
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
00:59:17
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.