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Who Kidnapped 'Super Mom' Sherri Papini? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Friends and family plantically searching for the woman they referred
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  Speaker 1: to as super Mom. I'm getting very angry and frustrated,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and I'm scared um for my wife. This is Crime
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  Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace. The thirty four year old was
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: found on the side of the road near Sacramento, nearly
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty miles from where authorities believed she
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  Speaker 1: was taken while out jogging near her northern California home.
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  Speaker 1: Is now safe. We still do not have a motive
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  Speaker 1: as to the reason why Mrs Rippini was taken. Do
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  Speaker 1: you believe Mrs rippini story? Absolutely? She had reported she
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  Speaker 1: had been abducted, She was discovered in restraints and had
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  Speaker 1: been assaulted. I will confirmed, but the suspects did brand her.
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  Speaker 1: Imagine this. You come home from work. No one greets
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  Speaker 1: you at the door, instead of your spouse walking up
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  Speaker 1: and saying how is your day, your children running to you,
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  Speaker 1: or you hear them playing in the distance. There's an
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  Speaker 1: eerie quiet. You call the daycare. They're still there. They've
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  Speaker 1: never been picked up. Your spouse doesn't answer their cell phone,
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  Speaker 1: and suddenly you know, deep inside something is horribly, horribly wrong.
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  Speaker 1: That is just exactly what Keith Peppini says happened to
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  Speaker 1: him just before Thanksgiving, and in the last hours, the
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  Speaker 1: first photos of his wife, Sherry Peppini, the kidnaped mom,
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  Speaker 1: have emerged. In these photos, Sherry looks gaunt, very very thin, frail, weak, pale.
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  Speaker 1: Her beautiful long blonde hair that she wore her crowning
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  Speaker 1: glory isn't it's unseen. It's took severely under a cap because,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: according to her, her kidnappers cut off all of her hair.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking about Sherry p Paeni out of Sacramento Valley
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  Speaker 1: and with me is Alan Duke. You know, Alan Duke,
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  Speaker 1: investigative reporter. So many people have doubted her story. Why.
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  Speaker 1: I've covered several sensational stories in which a person claimed
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  Speaker 1: to have been kidnapped, sometimes by a person of another race,
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  Speaker 1: and it turned out they just ran away for whatever
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  Speaker 1: reasons they left. Maybe they wanted to break from the
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  Speaker 1: life they didn't like, or or they wanted to avoid
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  Speaker 1: something coming up. Since it's rare for a kidnapped woman
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  Speaker 1: to be freed by kidnappers weeks later, it triggers those
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  Speaker 1: suspicions with something like this happens. We remember those hoaxes
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  Speaker 1: and we try to put this case in that box.
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  Speaker 1: Are you talking ba ba ba? Wait? Are you talking
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  Speaker 1: about Jennifer will Banks, the runaway bride? Who it was
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  Speaker 1: the night before her wedding and she disappeared and there
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  Speaker 1: was a massive search for her. And as it turned out,
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  Speaker 1: she blamed I think she blamed a couple of Hispanic
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  Speaker 1: guys and gave a very vague description and said she
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  Speaker 1: had been assaulted. And as it turned out, what had
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  Speaker 1: really happened and she got cold feet and took a powder.
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  Speaker 1: She was the real runaway bride. So are you somehow
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  Speaker 1: alan equating Sherry Peppini with the runaway bride? Is that
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  Speaker 1: what I'm hearing? I'm exactly doing that. I covered that
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  Speaker 1: story very very closely. Of course, she was in the
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  Speaker 1: Atlanta area, uh, and it was a very dramatic thing.
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  Speaker 1: It ended I believe in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She ended
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  Speaker 1: up taking a bus from Atlanta to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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  Speaker 1: When the police found her. I think it was at
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  Speaker 1: a bus station in Albuquerque. I was on duty work
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  Speaker 1: in the story at that moment, and we were so
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  Speaker 1: shocked when we found out what really happened that it
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  Speaker 1: was she just got cold feet and she ran, and
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  Speaker 1: of course we call her the runaway Brian Well. I
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  Speaker 1: remember that because I had been in touch with her parents,
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  Speaker 1: with her father specifically, and he was heart broken. The
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  Speaker 1: h E double l she put her family through. But okay,
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  Speaker 1: we're going can we get it back in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the road, Alan Duke, all right, because we're way
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  Speaker 1: out in the weeds right now. We're talking about Sherry Peppini,
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  Speaker 1: the mother of two young children that disappears. But this
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  Speaker 1: is this is the difference. Sherry Peppini had been out
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  Speaker 1: ostensibly jogging as I started. Her husband comes home, The
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  Speaker 1: children don't run to the door, she doesn't answer the door.
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  Speaker 1: He can't find her. He calls the daycare. The children
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  Speaker 1: are still there. She had never come to pick them up.
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  Speaker 1: That was the first. Then he does he find my
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  Speaker 1: iPhone up, and he finds her iPhone on a jogging
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  Speaker 1: trail with her earbuds, with her hair ostensibly wound up
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  Speaker 1: in the earbuds. So that's where it all starts. He
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  Speaker 1: immediately calls one. It's right before Thanksgiving, like two weeks
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  Speaker 1: before Thanksgiving. And can you even imagine I remember not this,
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  Speaker 1: but the last Thanksgiving, my Dad, it just passed away.
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  Speaker 1: And when we all gathered, the weight of that empty
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  Speaker 1: chair was just over whelming. And I imagined the Peppini's
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  Speaker 1: Alan Duke at Thanksgiving how that was going to be.
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  Speaker 1: But that's not the way it turned out. Because that day, Alan,
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  Speaker 1: remember this, motorists call nine one one. They passed her,
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  Speaker 1: but they called one. Motorist finally stopped and out of
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  Speaker 1: nowhere comes Sherry Peppini. She's practically starved, her hair is
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  Speaker 1: all cut off, she's covered in bruises, and she has
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  Speaker 1: a chain around her waist and she is bound chained
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  Speaker 1: to a heavy object. Now, are you telling me that
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  Speaker 1: you think she staged that whole thing? No, exactly, I'm
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  Speaker 1: not saying that because of whatever how we found her.
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  Speaker 1: When you look at all of that evidence that you
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  Speaker 1: just gave, it's hard to imagine that she is one
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  Speaker 1: of those runaway brides or one of those hoax situations,
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  Speaker 1: because how do you self inflict that on yourself? Well
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: did you just say, how do your self inflict that
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  Speaker 1: on yourself? Well? Bad English? Okay, poor, it's poor English.
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  Speaker 1: It's poor English. Once again, we're often Alan, do Gland.
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  Speaker 1: Let's get back and sharing a peaty world. Here's another thing.
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you why people I think had a problem
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  Speaker 1: with it, because statistically it's unheard of. She says that
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  Speaker 1: she is kidnapped in an area where there's a very
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  Speaker 1: little crime by two female Hispanic females. First of all,
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  Speaker 1: for a female to commit this kind of crime is
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  Speaker 1: unheard of, if you look at the methods and assessment
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  Speaker 1: of homicide, very very rare that a female executes a
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  Speaker 1: violent crime another female like this. She says she never
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  Speaker 1: saw their faces. They kept a hood on her the
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  Speaker 1: whole time, although now we're hearing that one has salt
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  Speaker 1: and pepper straight hair and one has curly hair, and
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  Speaker 1: one's older than the other one, so you had to
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  Speaker 1: see them somehow. But she says she was kept captive.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, statistically, alan sev of violent crimes are committed
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  Speaker 1: by men, twenty by women the remaining five percent. We
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  Speaker 1: don't know if it was a man or a woman,
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  Speaker 1: so this is highly unlikely. I also think that if
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  Speaker 1: her wounds were self inflicted, doctors would be able to
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  Speaker 1: tell that. So I assume that they are not self inflicted,
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  Speaker 1: or there would not still be a search going on.
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  Speaker 1: It's odd on either side, and that's what we're left with.
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  Speaker 1: You want to believe that it is not a hoax,
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  Speaker 1: and there's plenty of reason not to believe it at
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  Speaker 1: a is a hoax. But as you say, this is
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  Speaker 1: against the odds. But there are the those aberrations, There
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: are those cases where something happens that is against the norm,
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  Speaker 1: and this sounds like it's one of those. Are so
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  Speaker 1: anxious to rush judging her and say she made the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing up. But let's think about it. The husband
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  Speaker 1: apparently took a polygraph and passed that was reported, So
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  Speaker 1: in order to think this was a hoax, what the
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  Speaker 1: husband was in on it, I don't believe that they
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  Speaker 1: would do that to their children or their families. So
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  Speaker 1: let's just say the husband's not in on it, say
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  Speaker 1: it's all her. So what she starved herself for almost
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  Speaker 1: three weeks, beat herself, branded herself, and cut off her
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  Speaker 1: own hair. While you would expect such a kidnapping would
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  Speaker 1: be carried out by men, and Peppini says her kidnappers
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  Speaker 1: were women. Could it be though, that these women were
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  Speaker 1: part of a group including men, and they were just
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  Speaker 1: chosen to be the primary kidnappers. But but still why
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  Speaker 1: would they take her, keep her for two weeks and
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  Speaker 1: and and then set her free. Well, you know that's
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  Speaker 1: another good point, Alan, and I agree with you, because
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  Speaker 1: you've got to look at Although the state does not
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  Speaker 1: have to prove motive at trial, you have to look
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  Speaker 1: at does this make sense. It reminds me a little
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  Speaker 1: bit of the job in a case, because I always said,
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  Speaker 1: why would a kidnapper come in the home to steal
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  Speaker 1: job in a for ransom and then at the last
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  Speaker 1: minute go, oh, you know what, I just think I'll
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  Speaker 1: kill her and you're and leave her forget about the ransom.
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  Speaker 1: Doesn't make sense. Why would two women come along, kidnap
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  Speaker 1: her for whatever reason and then go, you know what,
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  Speaker 1: forget about that. I'm just gonna throw her out on
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  Speaker 1: the side of the road and be done with it.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't really make sense, right. I've covered a lot
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  Speaker 1: of crimes that are just by the book, and the
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  Speaker 1: detectives sort of know they've been there, done that, got
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  Speaker 1: the T shirt, and they start to expect normal patterns.
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  Speaker 1: But this one doesn't fit a normal pattern. Are detectives
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  Speaker 1: equipped to think out of the box like that? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you work with them, prosecutors, how hard is it for
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  Speaker 1: them to think out of the box. Well, of course
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  Speaker 1: they are. I mean, I think that really minimizes their capacities.
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  Speaker 1: They think just like we think, but at a certain
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  Speaker 1: and they know a lot more than we know, but
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  Speaker 1: at a certain point they get stumped. Well, here's the deal.
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  Speaker 1: She's home now, her families are relieved, her children have
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  Speaker 1: their mother back. So far, we believe he has passed
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  Speaker 1: a lie detector tests. And in order to believe that
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  Speaker 1: she did this herself should either have to have an
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  Speaker 1: accomplice or she would have had to inflict these wounds
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  Speaker 1: on herself and starved herself. And back to the big development.
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  Speaker 1: She's first spotted for the first time since she in public,
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  Speaker 1: since she was kidnapped, and she is emaciated looking. She's
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  Speaker 1: very thin, weak, pale. She's wearing a baseball cap with
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  Speaker 1: a hoodie over that and a jacket over that. The
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  Speaker 1: jack is huge, swallows her up and she's with her
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  Speaker 1: children and her husband. So at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 1: miracles do happen, Alan do miracles you happen? It could
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  Speaker 1: be very well that that is what this is. It
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  Speaker 1: is a miracle. The odds of her coming back. We've
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  Speaker 1: seen a couple of the really sensational cases where somebody
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  Speaker 1: emerges after years and years after a kidnapping. A couple
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  Speaker 1: of weeks is pretty remarkable in itself. This is one
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  Speaker 1: thing I think when I see a picture like these
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  Speaker 1: photos that we're seeing, I'm thankful to see that she's
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  Speaker 1: doing okay, But I'm wondering, are people stalking her trying
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  Speaker 1: to get pictures of her this crime victim in order
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: to make a little money. Now does she have to
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: worry about that? Well? I can answer that right now. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: they are. They certainly are. That is something she's going
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: to have to endure for quite a while until this
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  Speaker 1: case is finally put to rest. You either have to
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  Speaker 1: believe her or believe she could have done this all
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  Speaker 1: as some sort of hoax and left behind her children.
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  Speaker 1: And I gotta tell you something, Alan, I thought I
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  Speaker 1: knew what love was until I had the twins, and
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  Speaker 1: there is nothing compared to a mother's love. And maybe
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  Speaker 1: I'm projecting, but I find it very hard to believe
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  Speaker 1: that she would willingly leave for children as part of
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  Speaker 1: some hoax. Find it hard to believe. So, just for
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  Speaker 1: right now, Alan, can we stop analyzing Sherry Peppini in
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  Speaker 1: the possibility she pulled a hoax and just be happy.
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  Speaker 1: I agree with that. I'm with you on that that,
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  Speaker 1: Alan Duke, I will sign off and say goodbye friends
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  Speaker 1: and thank you for being with us.