| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Sherri Papini Sex-Trafficking Evidence Almost as Flimsy as PizzaGate Proof |
| 2016-12-12 |
| I first learned about Sherri Papini, the 34-year-old California woman who went missing for 22 days in November, from a Today Show headline asking: "Was Sherri Papini kidnapping linked to sex trafficking?" In People magazine's December 9 issue, John Kelly, "a noted serial killer profiler," said Papini's abduction had all the hallmarks of human trafficking, with her mistreatment typical of the "shaming and degrading" of victims that traffickers deploy. Other wide-reaching media outlets—NBC News, ABC News, Us Weekly, the Sacramento Bee—have likewise floated the idea that the mysterious duo of Hispanic women Papini fingered may have been part of a sex-trafficking ring. Yet there is almost nothing to support the idea that Papini's disappearance was related to sex or prostitution. The whole theory hinges on the fact that Papini was "branded," as her husband Keith initially put it. Police later confirmed that Sherri did have something burnt into her skin, specifying only that it was not a "symbol" but a "message." But even accepting the premise that sex-traffickers frequently "brand" their victims—a common claim also utterly lacking in evidence—Papini's burns could just as easily have been an act of torture or a way to relay a message to Papini, police, or the public. And the latter explanations certainly make more sense than the former when taken with the facts that nothing else about the abduction belied an intent to force Papini into commercial sex and, in fact, Papini's assailants eventually just let her go, according to what she told police. Fascinating read: A lot more at the link |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #6 @One Eyed Speaking for Boskone7919 I personally know someone that was killed on the mountain. There's a lot of money to be made trimming (however monotonous). But on the mountain, you cant F! up. These are multi million dollar operations. But on the other side of the coin, I know people who come home from the mountain with thirty grand cash in their pocket for three months of work. There's definitely an underground, but how dark it is is open for debate. |
| Posted by: mossomo 2016-12-12 18:46 |
| #5 But.. but.. but.. the trafficking story SELLS!!!! And that is all that counts in Journalism school these days. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2016-12-12 16:22 |
| #4 Cops, judges and DAs just hate being lied to. It never ends well. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2016-12-12 10:51 |
| #3 She was found near the illicit marijuana harvesting fields in the hills of northern California, where ruthless men camp out to protect the lucrative weed. Women are sometimes forced to service the camps, as in Colombia with FARC. The brands usually are marks of gang/cartel ownership...I read of young trimmers trying to make a buck and being terrified after being repeatedly raped and fleeing for their lives. There is a dark underground that many cannot fathom exists. |
| Posted by: One Eyed Speaking for Boskone7919 2016-12-12 10:47 |
| #2 There doesn't appear to be much there there. No witnesses, no one is talking, no investigations, no nothing. |
| Posted by: badanov 2016-12-12 10:19 |
| #1 nothing else about the abduction belied an intent to force Papini into commercial sex... Papini's assailants eventually just let her go, according to what she told police. The PizzaGate story, on the other hand, seems to have more legs than a centipede. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2016-12-12 08:32 |