The mystery donor who offered a cash reward for the return of Sherri Papini before she was found beaten and bound on the side of a Yolo County road is publicly speaking about the case.
The makers of the television crime show, “Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen”, announced Monday a taped interview that is set to air Tuesday with the man behind the offer talking about how he got involved, what he thinks happened to Papini and how she’s coping since returning to her husband and children, according to International Business Times.
In a media clip reviewed by IBT, the donor spoke with his face obscured and voice disguised.
“She’s having a tough time. She can’t be around any strangers,” IBT reported the donor telling the show. “She’s seeing some counselors a couple of times a week, and she is just struggling.”
The crime show also on Monday was promoting the interview on Twitter and Facebook. A trailer on Facebook teased at new details regarding the “possible cult connection” and the unidentified donor.
The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office has said it will release no new information while the case is being investigated. A call to Sheriff Tom Bosenko late Monday seeking comment on the donor’s interview was not immediately returned.
The donor, whose name is only known to law enforcement and supporters closest to the family, offered the reward money about two weeks into Papini’s disappearance.
The Mountain Gate mom’s case drew national attention after she went missing Nov. 2 while on a jog in her neighborhood and three weeks later when she was found in the early hours on Thanksgiving Day, about 150 miles away near Interstate 5.
She told detectives she had been kidnapped by two Hispanic women driving a dark-colored SUV.
Since then, she has shied away from being in the public eye, and her husband, Keith, is likewise silent in the press after the early December airing of “20/20,” which revealed graphic details about his wife’s abduction and release. The family, though, before her disappearance was normally absent from the public eye despite deep roots and a large social circle in the area.
The donor said during the TV interview he did not know the Papinis but was compelled to get involved, IBT reported.
“It seemed to me that, you know, here’s a girl who’s got two little kids and got a husband at home crying, and I just visualized what that life was like and felt like, you know, ‘Let’s see if we can be creative here,” IBT reported him saying.
IBT said the donor also speculated Sherri Papini may have been taken for sex trafficking. He did not think her disappearance was a hoax, IBT reported.
“I am very, very good at reading people, and one of my gifts is the gift of discernment, and I definitely believe she was abducted,” IBT reported him saying.
The show airs at 4 p.m. on KCVU-TV Fox 20, according to a schedule on Crime Watch Daily’s website.
