Authorities have received 400 tips but have few leads in the disappearance of a woman in California. An apparent stranger hopes to change that. An anonymous donor has set up a website offering a $50,000 "ransom reward" if "the person who has Sherri Papini" will let her go. Papini disappeared while jogging in Redding on Nov. 2; police aren't sure if her disappearance was voluntary or involuntary but her family maintains she was abducted. According to SherriPapini.com, anyone holding the 34-year-old mother of two should contact Cameron Gamble, an apparent kidnap and ransom consultant. "We are offering this reward with no strings attached," Gamble tells the Record Searchlight, adding that he and the anonymous donor are working separately from police and Papini's family.
If such a kidnapper exists, that person better act fast. According to a letter posted to the site, which KRCR reports it received on Nov. 6, the offer is only available until Wednesday when the anonymous donor, who claims to be a visitor to Redding, will leave the area "on my next business trip." Papini's husband—who passed a lie-detector test and has an alibi for the day of his wife's disappearance, per the Record Searchlight—says he has no link to SherriPapini.com, while a sheriff appears wary. "We think we or the family would have been contacted by the abductors by now if they wanted to hold her for ransom," he says. (More missing person stories.)