A MOTHER of two is believed to have been abducted after she disappeared when out for a jog in the broad daylight in California.
Sherri Papini, aged 34, has not been seen since last Wednesday. Her mobile phone has been found about a kilometre from her home north of the city of Redding in Shasta County, in northern California.
“She was out for a run. She wouldn’t leave her babies,” said her sister Sheila Koester, 36, the Ventura County Star reported.
Sherri Papini sent a text message to her husband, Keith Papini, earlier Wednesday to ask whether he would be home for lunch, Koester said.
He replied later in the afternoon and said he wouldn’t.
“He returned to the home later in the evening, around five, and no one was here,” Koester said. “He called the authorities immediately.”
Sherri Papini typically picks up the couple’s two children from day care in the afternoon, family members said. Jogging in the neighbourhood is typical for her.
“She’s here with them every day gardening and doing projects. There’s just no way she would just take off,” said Suzanne Papini, Keith Papini’s sister.
She said the recovery of her sister’s mobile phone was good and bad.
“I would say my personal reaction is that it’s twofold. One, is that is it’s good to have some sort of clue. The other portion is that it really points to she’s been taken.
I mean, she wouldn’t just drop her phone if she was running away. So, at least it’s giving us some kind of information, but it’s pretty we’re sick. This is a pretty sickening situation.”
More than 150 people have been searching for her and the family has posted a $50,000 reward for any information as to her whereabouts.
Shasta County sheriff Tom Bosanko said officers are working around the clock and using all available resources.
“Ms Papini has been entered into a national computer for missing persons,” he said.
“She is considered at risk due to suspicious circumstances. Shasta County search and rescue and our volunteers are conducting a search in the area. We’re also checking with known local sex offenders, parolees and probationers as part of this investigation.”
Papini is the fourth jogger in the US to go missing this year, although there is nothing to suggest her disappearance is linked to the unsolved murders of registered nurse and writer Alexandra “Ally” Brueger, 31, in Michigan on July 30; caterer and blogger Karina Vetrano, 30, in New York City on August 2; and Google employee Vanessa Marcotte, 27, in Massachusetts on August 7.
The women were all attractive, petite brunettes (Papini is blonde) of a similar age who were attacked while on their daily run.
As the search intensifies for Sherri Papini, a California mother of two who was reported missing after failing to return from an afternoon jog, her husband tells ABC News that he believes she was abducted.
“Everybody who knows my wife knows that there’s no reason for her to leave … She was definitely taken against her will,” Keith Papini told ABC News in a Sunday interview.
Sherri Papini, 34, of Shasta County was reported missing on Wednesday at about 6 p.m. after having gone jogging at approximately 2 p.m. According to a poster that was distributed in the search effort, Papini was last seen jogging alone on Sunrise Drive in Redding.
Described by her family as being a “super mom,” she failed to pick up her two young children from child care on Wednesday, sparking concern.
“I received a text message from her at 10:37 a.m. that day asking me if I was coming home for lunch,” Keith Papini said. “I usually don’t bring my personal phone in on my job. So I didn’t respond to that message until 1:39 p.m. that day.”
Papini added that he traced his wife’s cellphone using an app that tracks lost phones and found the device on the side of a road.
“Knowing that she didn’t pick up our kids — there is no way that ever happens,” Papini said. “She could drop her phone, but she would never in a million years not pick up our children on a time that she normally would have.”
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said on Saturday that the missing woman was “considered at risk due to the suspicious circumstances.”
She was last seen wearing a pink jogging top. Search teams have been scouring the area, and Papini’s family has offered a $50,000 reward to anyone who can provide information leading to her whereabouts.
“She has a family that loves her. Please just bring her home,” said her sister, Sheila Koester.