Frightening details are being revealed of the trauma and apparent abduction of California mom Sherri Papini, who was found alive on Thanksgiving after missing for three weeks.

Among her injuries, Papini, a 34-year-old mother of two, had a message branded on her, Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told ABC News.

"I would think that that was some sort of either an exertion of power and control and/or maybe some type of message that the brand contained," he said on ABC News' "Good Morning America." "It is not a symbol, but it was a message."

Her husband, Keith Papini, told "GMA" in an exclusive statement that she endured mental and physical abuse while being held captive for three weeks.

"Her now emaciated body of 87 pounds was covered in multicolored bruises, severe burns, red rashes and chain markings," he said.

Keith Papini also said the bridge of his wife's nose was broken and her hair had been chopped off.

"Obviously, a very sick person who may have wanted to not only to cut it off to change her physical appearance but also as to humiliate them, wear her down," Bosenko said.

Authorities are hunting for the alleged kidnappers, who Sherri Papini said dropped her off 150 miles from her California home on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24. She was able to flag down help, even though she was bound with restraints.

She described them as two Hispanic female adults driving an SUV and armed with a handgun, Bosenko said.

Investigators interviewed Papini for a third time Tuesday. Police hope to get more details about the suspects, he said.

(abcNEWS)

CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) - More than 2,000 U.S. military veterans plan to form a human shield to protect protesters of a pipeline project near a Native American reservation in North Dakota, organizers said, just ahead of a federal deadline for activists to leave the camp they have been occupying.

It comes as North Dakota law enforcement backed away from a previous plan to cut off supplies to the camp – an idea quickly abandoned after an outcry and with law enforcement’s treatment of Dakota Access Pipeline protesters increasingly under the microscope.

The protesters have spent months rallying against plans to route the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying it poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.

Protesters include various Native American tribes as well as environmentalists and even actors including Shailene Woodley.

State officials issued an order on Monday for activists to vacate the Oceti Sakowin camp, located on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, citing harsh weather conditions.

The state's latest decision not to stop cars entering the protest site indicated local officials will not actively enforce Monday's emergency order to evacuate the camp issued by Governor Jack Dalrymple.

Dalrymple warned on Wednesday that it was "probably not feasible" to reroute the pipeline, but said he had requested a meeting with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council to rebuild a relationship.

"We need to begin now to talk about how we are going to return to a peaceful relationship,” he said on a conference call.

The 1,172-mile (1,885 km) pipeline project, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP , is mostly complete, except for a segment planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River.

Veterans Stand for Standing Rock, a contingent of more than 2,000 U.S. military veterans, intends to go to North Dakota by this weekend and form a human wall in front of police, protest organizers said on a Facebook page. Organizers could not immediately be reached for comment.

"I figured this was more important than anything else I could be doing,” Guy Dull Knife, 69, a Vietnam War Army veteran, told Reuters at the main camp.

Dull Knife, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota, said he has been camping at the protest site for months.

Morton County Sheriff's Office spokesman Rob Keller said in an email his agency was aware of the veterans' plans, but would not comment further on how law enforcement will deal with demonstrators.

Former U.S. Marine Michael A. Wood Jr is leading the effort along with Wesley Clark Jr, a writer whose father is retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark.

U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii and a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard, has said on Twitter she will join the protesters on Sunday.

The Army Corps, citing safety concerns, has ordered the evacuation of the primary protest camp by Dec. 5, but said it would not forcibly remove people from the land.

Local law enforcement said on Tuesday they planned a blockade of the camp, but local and state officials later retreated, saying they would only check vehicles for certain prohibited supplies like propane, and possibly issue fines.

Dalrymple on Wednesday said state officials never contemplated forcibly removing protesters and there had been no plans to block food or other supplies from the camp. "That would be a huge mistake from a humanitarian standpoint," he said on the conference call.

He also warned protesters that while emergency responders will try to reach anyone in need, that would be contingent on weather conditions.

Protesters, who refer to themselves as “water protectors,” have been gearing up for the winter while they await the Army Corps decision on whether to allow Energy Transfer Partners to tunnel under the river. That decision has been delayed twice by the Army Corps.

(Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Houston and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Writing by Ben Klayman; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Matthew Lewis)

(Yahoo News)

By Claire Bernish

In what could only be termed a potential gross violation of human rights, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department announced today it plans to block all supplies from entering Standing Rock camps — including deliveries of food.

Reuters reports: “Supplies, including food and building materials, will be blocked from entering the main camp following Governor Jack Dalrymple’s signing of an ‘emergency evacuation’ order on Monday, said Maxine Herr, a spokeswoman from the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.”

Herr flatly stated, according to Reuters, “They have deliveries, retailers that are delivering to them – we will turn around any of those services.”

Although the governor’s order went into effect immediately, North Dakota Department of Emergency Services spokeswoman Cecily Fong noted no deliveries to the camps had yet been turned away as of Tuesday morning.

However, ‘The building materials intended for the site are a top priority because the camp is not zoned for permanent structures,’ Reuters reported she said. ‘Propane tanks also will be blocked because they have been used in attacks against law enforcement.’

The latter claim has been proven false by eyewitness video from the night of November 20-21, when law enforcement assaulted peaceful water protectors for over six hours in a non-stop barrage of rubber bullets, tear gas, impact and concussion grenades, and even weaponized water — in temperatures dropping into the low 20s Fahrenheit. Sophia Wilansky’s arm was nearly ripped from her body when an impact grenade exploded. But the sheriff denies police used any weapon that could have caused such damage, despite evidence collected from the scene and by surgeons working to repair her traumatic wound.

Shortly after issuing the notice it would block supplies, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department backed away somewhat, saying it would take a passive role to try to prevent supplies from reaching the camps, by issuing hefty $1,000 fines for vehicles attempting such deliveries — saying it had interpreted the evacuation order as a reason for a blockade.

“That is the understanding that we had initially but we had to get that clarified,” Herr told Reuters. “The governor is more interested in public safety than setting up a road block and turning people away.”

This startling announcement of any attempt at a supply blockage from the Morton County Sheriff’s Department comes during a week of shocking news for Standing Rock Sioux water protectors and their allies camped near the Missouri River to block construction of the highly contentious Dakota Access Pipeline.

An eviction notice letter sent by the Army Corps of Engineers to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Dave Archambault II and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier on Friday sparked furious outrage from around the world — and was met with firm resistance from both tribes.

Clarifying later that no force would be used to effect this eviction, the Army Corps stated, “Those who remain will be considered unauthorized and may be subject to citation under federal, state, or local laws.”

Before the shock wore off from that letter, on Monday, North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple confounded matters further with the issuance of an emergency evacuation order for the same Army Corps-managed, water protector-occupied land as a winter storm advanced on the area.

Although neither U.S. government-issued order would apply had treaties from the 1800s been honored, the attorneys scrambled to determine if the governor’s evacuation supplanted the Army Corps’ eviction — as the date for the camps to become officially illegal would be moved forward significantly from December 5. Archambault denounced Dalrymple’s order as an intimidation tactic and determined it invalid.

However, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department appears to have opportuned the current evacuation order to escalate its curtailment of the basic human rights of the thousands of water protectors estimated to now occupy camps north of the Cannonball River.

Legally and technically speaking, both orders effectively close the camps — except for Sacred Stone Camp, located south of the river — to access by both the public and emergency services.

Thousands of veterans have been planning to arrive at the camps on December 4 to defend water protectors from brutal police tactics employed by the multi-state coalition of police led by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department — and they haven’t yet changed those plans.

According to an update from Reuters, Governor Dalrymple’s spokesman Jeff Zent said, “There is not going to be any blockade of supplies.”

While so much about these breaking developments remains unclear thanks to a lack of information from authorities and officials, one thing is certain. Blocking food and supplies, by any means, from reaching water protectors who have vowed to stay through the winter is not only a violation of human rights and basic decency — if effective, it has the potential to be an horrific tragedy in the making.

Claire Bernish writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.

Image Credit: Unicorn Riot/Facebook

You have seen his live videos all over Facebook about his time down at Standing Rock, the man has been a dedicated water protector, there on the front lines telling the world the story the mainstream media refuses to cover. And we love him for it.

But not everyone has warm feelings about Kevin it seems. Pro DAPL workers and locals of Bismarck, the closest major city where the pipeline is being constructed in North Dakota, have not been happy about the resistance to the pipeline’s construction. Water protectors have been peacefully and prayerfully protecting their land and water from the inevitable oil leaks that would destroy their drinking water and millions more. It is these people who have not taken liking to Kevin’s work in spreading the water protectors message.

I spoke to Kevin yesterday about a recent development. He has been receiving death threats and nuisance calls so frequently that he had to change his phone number. We spoke about what the nature of those calls were and he had a message to those sending him those calls that was incredibly touching and powerful.

The Latest

As of now Kevin does not have access to his Facebook account as it was flagged and he was locked out. Early signs show it might have been a jointed attack by many pro-DAPL people reporting his account as abuse or as a phishing scam. Since Facebook’s policy is ‘shoot first and ask questions later,’ he is left trying to figure out how to get back online.

Watch below: