The California mom-of-two who was discovered “bound with restraints” on the side of the road last Thanksgiving can be seen unshackled and running toward safety just minutes earlier in new video released Tuesday. / Shasta Co. Sheriffs Office
The footage is so grainy it seems impossible to identify the ghostlike figure scuttling along the highway on the edge of the church carpark but police say this is Sherri Papini moments after kidnappers freed her.
Shasta County Sheriff's Office released the footage overnight - more than two weeks afterthey flagged the existence of the video, taken from CCTV from the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses Church in Yolo County, California, news.com.au reports.
Major Crimes Unit Sergeant Brian Jackson said Ms Papini was captured on tape between 4.15am and 4.22am on November 24, 2016, some 22 days after she was abducted while jogging on a dirt track near her Redding, northern California home more than 200km away.
The video shows a slender figure clad in light coloured sweatpants and a dark top running towards the church along the highway, then disappearing from view for several seconds before reappearing on the Interstate 5 northbound on ramp.
"Upon review of the video surveillance, only one camera located on the south side of the building captured Sherri Papini walking in the area of the Highway 99W and the Interstate 5 northbound interchange," Sgt Jackson said in a statement from the Sheriff's Office overnight.
Police have released long awaited footage showing Sherri Papini moments after having been dumped by kidnappers. Photo / Shasta County Sheriff's Office
"Sherri Papini can be seen running to the church north on Highway 99W and then south on Highway 99W until she goes out of view, heading toward the Interstate 5 northbound on ramp."
Ms Papini, 35, told detectives she was abducted by two Hispanic women who held her captive for 22 days last November before inexplicably releasing her alive on Thanksgiving morning.
A truck driver called emergency services after spotting her on the roadside. She was found chained, beaten, branded and malnourished.
Detectives investigating the bizarre case, which has been plagued by speculation it was staged by the petite blonde mother-of-two, appear no closer to tracking down and arresting the perpetrators.
However, last month authorities dropped sensational new details uncovered in the investigation so far.
They included revelations both male and female DNA was recovered from the clothes Ms Papini was wearing she was found.
They also released sketches of two partially masked female suspects based on vague descriptions provided by the mother-of-two in the wake of her release.
In another twist, investigators disclosed that in the lead up to her disappearance, Ms Papini exchanged text messages with a man in Michigan.
Sgt Jackson told reporters that Ms Papini and the male acquaintance texted each other plans to meet when he was in California on business.
However, detectives flew to Michigan to interview him and subsequently ruled out his involvement in the case, he said.
The revelation explains the mystery trip made by detectives to Michigan between November 9 and November 11 last year, while Ms Papini was still missing.
The Sacramento Bee leaked details of the trip in December after obtaining travel receipts showing Shasta County detectives travelled to Detroit and its suburbs of New Hudson, Northville, Plymouth and Canton.
Investigators had previously had refused to explain why they went out of state.
Ms Papini and her family have been in hiding since she was discovered bound and beaten by the side of a highway in Yolo County more than 200km from where she last seen jogging near her Redding home.
The petite blonde had lost a significant amount of weight and bore the scars of having been branded - a skin modification sometimes employed by sex traffickers to signify ownership.
Investigators provided the new details on Wednesday morning local time, along with a pair of FBI sketches of her abductors and a 911 call made by her husband, Keith, recorded on November 2, the day she disappeared.
It is the first new information released by the Shasta County Sheriff's Office about the case since a November 30, 2016 press conference.
