Hemera/Thinkstock(REDDING, Calif.) — As the search intensifies for Sherri Papini, the California mother of two who was reported missing after failing to return from an afternoon jog, her husband tells ABC News that he believes his wife was abducted.
“Everybody who knows my wife knows that there’s no reason for her to leave … She was definitely taken against her will,” Keith Papini told ABC News in a Sunday interview.
Sherri Papini, 34, of Shasta County, was reported missing on Wednesday at about 6 p.m. after having gone jogging at approximately 2 p.m. According to a poster that was distributed in the search effort, Papini was last seen jogging alone on Sunrise Drive in Redding.
Described by her family as being a “super mom,” the woman failed to pick up her two young children from child care on Wednesday, sparking concern.
“I received a text message from her at 10:37 a.m. that day asking me if I was coming home for lunch,” Keith Papini said. “I usually don’t bring my personal phone in on my job. So I didn’t respond to that message until 1:39 p.m. that day.”
Papini added that he traced his wife’s cellphone using an app that tracks lost phones and found the device on the side of a road.
“Knowing that she didn’t pick up our kids — there is no way that ever happens,” Papini said. “She could drop her phone but she would never in a million years not pick up our children on a time that she normally would have.”
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko said on Saturday that the missing woman was “considered at risk due to the suspicious circumstances.”
She was last seen wearing a pink jogging top. Search teams have been scouring the area, and Papini’s family has offered a $50,000 reward to anyone who can provide information leading to her whereabouts.
“She has a family that loves her. Please just bring her home,” her sister, Sheila Koester, said.
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