The husband of a California mom who went missing for three weeks said when she was found on Thanksgiving Day she was starved to 87 pounds, bruised, and branded.
Sherri Papini's disappearance while jogging near her home in Redding, California, on Nov. 2 caught national headlines.
On Thursday, authorities said her captors left her on the side of a road 150 miles from her home, chained and injured.
The identity of her kidnappers — described only as two Hispanic women armed with a handgun — is unknown, as is why the 34-year-old "super mom" was taken.
Papini managed to flag down a driver early Thursday, who then called police.
When officers arrived, they called her husband, Keith Papini, who then met them and his wife at a hospital.
"The officers warned me to brace myself," he said in a statement to Good Morning America. "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 multicolored bruises, severe burns, red rashes and chain markings. Her signature long blond hair had been chopped off. She has been branded, and I could feel the rise of her scabs under my fingers," he said.
Shasta County Sheriff's Office
The Shasta County Sheriff's Office, which is leading the investigation, has said they have no reason to doubt the Papinis' statements.
Keith Papini told GMA he was grateful for how news of his wife's disappearance had spread on social media, but he was also disheartened by public reaction.
"Rumors, assumptions, lies, and hate have been both exhausting and disgusting," he said "Those people should be ashamed of their malicious, subhuman behavior. We are not going to allow those people to take away our spirit, love, or rejoice in our girl found alive and home where she belongs."
Neither of the couple has appeared on camera since Thursday. Keith Papini said the family has always been private, and he asked the public to understand they need time to heal emotionally, and for Sherri to recover physically.
"My Sherri suffered tremendously, and all the visions swirling in your heads of her appearance, I assure you, are not as graphic and gruesome as the reality," he said. "This will be along road of healing for everyone. Ultimately, it was Sherri's will to survive that brought her home."
LINK: Husband Of Missing California Mom Says He Thinks She Was Abducted
LINK: Kidnapped California Mom Was Emotional, But Elated To Be Released, Sheriff Says
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2gGrckc
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