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Sheriff releases surveillance video of day missing California mother was found

Posted at 12:37 PM, Nov 08, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-08 12:37:08-05

WOODLAND, Calif. - Surveillance video from a church in Woodland, California shows Sherri Papini moments before she was found on Thanksgiving Day in 2016, according to KTXL.

Highway Patrol in Yolo County responded to a northbound onramp to Interstate 5 shortly before 4:30 a.m. after Papini was found, three weeks after she went missing from near her Redding home.

Surveillance video released by the Shasta County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday shows Papini walking across an empty parking lot at the hall on County Road 99W in Woodland. For a moment, she walks out of frame before she reappears and runs toward Interstate 5, where she was able to get a passing driver's attention.

Papini told investigators she had been kidnapped by two people said to be Hispanic women who had their faces covered. Detectives said Papini was battered and bruised, and bound with restraints the morning she was found. Her hair had also been cut to shoulder length and she had a brand on her right shoulder.

In late October, investigators released new sketches of Papini's alleged captors and a recording of the first 911 call from her husband, Keith, reporting her disappearance on Nov. 2. The new information, released nearly a year after Papini's disappearance is because officials no longer consider the information "sensitive."

Investigators also noted text messages between Papini and a man in Michigan about him coming to California. Detectives ultimately said the man had nothing to do with Papini's disappearance. Officials with the Shasta County Sheriff's Office said that information was only released in order to be transparent after receiving a lot of questions about him.

The FBI has established a tip line at (916) 746-7000, and is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the identification of Papini's alleged captors.