Sketches, 911 call released in Sherri Papini kidnapping case
REDDING, Calif. -- A California sheriff has released new details in the mysterious case of a young mother who was found battered and bruised but alive along a freeway after she was missing for three weeks.
The Shasta County sheriff's department also released sketches of two suspects and a 911 call from Keith Papini reporting his wife missing on Nov. 2.
LISTEN: Keith Papini's 911 call
The department said Wednesday that investigators collected male DNA from the clothing that victim Sherri Papini was wearing when she was found on Thanksgiving and female DNA that was discovered on Papini's body. The samples have not been identified.
The bizarre case - with many of the most sensational details initially released by her husband in an exclusive interview with ABC - has baffled police and set social media buzzing.
Armchair detectives have scoured the internet's darkest corners for clues and others argue the case is a twisted hoax akin to the movie "Gone Girl."
Her husband, Keith Papini, said in a statement Wednesday that he hoped the newly released information will lead to an arrest.
"This has been an extraordinarily difficult time for our entire family," he said in the written statement. "We ask that the media please respect our need for privacy as Sherri continues to heal and we work towards putting our lives back together."
Papini disappeared while jogging near her home in Shasta County, about 215 miles (350 kilometers) north of San Francisco.
Her husband found her phone and earphones near their home after she failed to pick up their children at daycare and called police. He was initially a suspect, but the sheriff said Wednesday that the husband passed a lie detector test and offered to take another.
Authorities also said a Detroit man Papini texted and planned to meet shortly before her disappearance has been cleared of involvement.
Papini was found alongside Interstate 5 in Yolo County, about 100 miles from her home. Papini said she was held captive for 22 days. Her nose was broken, and she was wearing a chain restraint around her waist.
Her blonde hair had been cut to shoulder length, and she had a brand burned into her right shoulder. Last year, her husband told "Good Morning America" that the suspects may have been trying to humiliate Papini by cutting off her long blonde hair and branding her. Sheriff Tom Bosenko declined to elaborate on the branding, saying only that it was a message, not a symbol.
RELATED: Missing mom Sherri Papini branded with 'message' by abductor, sheriff says
Papini has said she was not sexually assaulted and has described her abductors as two women who took her at gunpoint.
Sheriff's Sgt. Brian Jackson said the sketches drawn by FBI artists are being released 10 months after her disappearance because of Papini's difficulty in recalling what her abductors looked like.
No ransom demand was ever received, and neither the Papinis nor their families are wealthy, Bosenko said. She is a stay-at-home mom and he is a Best Buy store employee.
The sketches released by FBI officials show two women. Officials said the first is described as being 5'5" tall, with a medium build, 20 to 30 years old, coarse, curly dark hair, thin eyebrows and pierced ears. The second woman has straight black hair with some gray in it, thick eye brows, between 40 and 50 years old, and 5'7" tall.
The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to their identification.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
