Sheriff: Mom was branded

Woman who was taken also had her hair cut during her long ordeal

The abductors of Redding mother Sherri Papini may have branded her and cut off her hair while holding her captive to send a message and humiliate her, Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.

“I would think that was some sort of either an exertion of power and control and/or maybe some type of message that the brand contained,” Bosenko said. “It is not a symbol, but it was a message.”

Bosenko declined to elaborate on the brand’s appearance. Papini’s blond hair was cut, Bosenko said, because her captor or captors were “very sick” and “may have wanted to not only cut it off not to change her physical appearance but also as to humiliate ... to wear her down.”

Bosenko said Papini was unable to fully describe her two female abductors because their faces were covered, and kept Papini’s head covered during much of the ordeal. Bosenko said authorities are trying to do a sketch of the suspects based on Papini’s limited recollections.

Papini told investigators one of the women had long curly hair, thin eyebrows and a thick accent. The older suspect had straight black hair and thick eyebrows.

Papini was found on the side of a road, beaten, chained, with a bag over her head and weighing only 87 pounds Thanksgiving morning, her husband said Tuesday.

“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,” Keith Papini wrote. “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.”

On “Good Morning America,” the husband also rejected internet speculation that Sherri was not actually kidnapped.

“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,” he wrote. “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.”

Authorities investigating the case have also said they have no reason to disbelieve her story.