Missing jogger found branded and chained at roadside 'may have been abducted for sex trafficking'

A mum who vanished after going out jogging before being found branded and chained at a roadside may have been abducted by sex traffickers - according to police.

Sherri Papini sparked a huge missing person search when she disappeared on November 2 in Redding, California.

She was found 22 days later with her head shaved, bound in chains and screaming at a roadside more than 140 days away.

Police say that the injuries she suffered - including severe bruising and a broken nose - and the fact her skin was branded suggest she was a victim of sex trafficking.

Her husband Keith told ABC News passing motorists had ignored his wife as she stood screaming at the roadside after running to get help.



He said: "She screamed so much, she’s coughing up blood from the screaming trying to get somebody to stop.

"Just another sign of how my wife is, she’s so wonderful - she’s saying, 'Well maybe people aren’t stopping because I have a chain that looks like I broke out of prison' so she tried to tuck in her chain under her clothes.

"She had a metal chain around her waist. She had a bag over her head. She was chained anytime she was in a vehicle.

"They opened the door... they cut something, freed her restraints that were holding her in the vehicle and they pushed her out."

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko had previously told reporters Sherri had a message branded into her skin.

He said: "I would think that that was some sort of either an exertion of power and control or maybe some type of message that the brand contained.



- Mirror