Authorities in Shasta County say they had no idea that Sherri Papini’s husband, Keith Papini, planned to release a statement about his wife’s condition following her kidnapping.
According to local ABC affiliate KRCR, the Sheriff’s Office in Redding, California, was “blindsided” and “surprised” that Keith spoke to Good Morning America about the incident. Watch the video above for a breakdown of Papini’s chilling abduction.
As previously reported, the mother of two went missing on November 2 when she didn’t return home after going on a jog. Twenty-two days later, she was found chained and beaten on Thanksgiving Day. She flagged down a motorist and was soon reunited with her family.
Sherri, who remains hospitalized, claimed that two armed Hispanic women abducted her. On Tuesday, Keith told GMA that her body is covered with severe burns, red rashes and chain markings. He also said she has a broken nose, her blonde hair was chopped off and she’s emaciated, weighing only 87 pounds.
“There’s some unique information in there that was in his press release today that we were hoping to keep a tight rein on as far as what we were going to release to the public,” Lieutenant Anthony Bertain told KRCR of Keith’s remarks. “It’s not the first hurdle in this investigation that we’ve had, we’ve overcome many of them, not just in this case, but there’s surprises in all investigations, so this is just … wasn’t good timing.”
Sheriff Tom Bosenko was taken aback too. He gave an update on Sherri’s health to GMA on the same day. According to KRCR, he learned of Keith’s statement just an hour before his appearance.
“I was familiar with those details. We had not released them yet to the public,” he told George Stephanopoulos of what Keith had said in his statement, noting that police recently did a follow-up interview with Sherri. “They spoke to her for several hours and then late afternoon, early evening, they were going over her interview and planned to interview her again today. … So far we are investigating this as a kidnapping-abduction and everything that she is providing us thus far is indicating that.”
