Husband reveals missing jogger was branded and had her hair cut off
The husband of a Californian woman who was found chained and beaten on the side of the road has spoken of his wife's horrific injuries, saying she weighed only 39 kilograms when she was found.
Sherri Papini disappeared on November 2 while going for a jog in her suburb of Redding in northern California.
She was found on the side of the road 240 kilometres away from her home having suffered horrific injuries, including being branded, her husband Keith Papini has said.
Mr Papini said his wife was almost unrecognisable when he saw her for the first time in a hospital bed, three weeks after she went missing.
"Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see upon my arrival at the hospital, nor the details of the true hell I was about to hear," he wrote 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.
"She has been branded and I could feel the rise of her scabs under my fingers,” he wrote.
He said Mrs Papini’s “signature long blonde hair had been chopped off” and had told him she was “thrown from a vehicle with a chain around her waist, attached to her wrists and a bag over her head”.
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bonsenko confirmed the branding, telling ABC News the perpetrators could be trying to send a message.
"It is not a symbol but it was a message. It could be a message to her, it could be a message to others," Mr Bonsenko said.
He said investigators have conducted several interviews with Mrs Papini and plan to speak to her again.
Mr Papini addressed rumours about his wife’s disappearance, particularly speculation that she was never kidnapped.
"Rumours, assumptions, lies and hate have been both exhausting and disgusting,” he wrote.
"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.
"I understand people want the story, pictures, proof that this was not some sort of hoax, plan to gain money, or some fabricated race war.
"I do not see a purpose in addressing each preposterous lie."
Mr Bosenko said police were treating the incident "as a kidnapping-abduction".
"Everything that she is providing us thus far is indicating that," he said.
"We currently don’t have a known motive or reason for this abduction. We don't know if it was targeted to her specifically, or a random abduction," he added.
Police are searching for two women in connection with the kidnapping.
The suspects are described as Hispanic and were last seen driving an SUV. It is believed they are armed with a handgun.
News break – November 30
