Keith and Sherri Papini celebrate Christmas together in an undated photo.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News America’s 20/20 program, the 34-year-old’s husband Keith Papini has gone into further detail about the extent of his wife’s injuries — which included a “message” branded onto her skin.

“She was bound … she had a metal chain around her waist,” Mr Papini told 20/20.

“She had a bag over her head ... she was chained anytime she was in a vehicle.

Mr Papini further described how his wife was “pushed out” of a vehicle on Thanksgiving morning, before she was found 250km from her abduction point.

“They opened the door, she didn’t know because she had a bag over her head,” he said.

“They cut something to free her restraint that was holding her into the vehicle, and then kind of pushed her out of the vehicle.”

Keith Papini, the wife of kidnapped jogger Sherri Papini, has given an exclusive sit-down interview to ABC America’s 20/20 program.Source:ABC

On Tuesday, Mr Papini left police investigating the alleged abduction “blindsided” after he released a graphic statement in response to accusations the incident was staged.

His statement described his wife’s horrific injuries in minute detail, from the “bruises ranging from yellow to black because of repeated beatings” to the “severe burns, red rashes and chain markings” on her emaciated, 39kg body.

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, who is leading the investigation into her alleged abduction, said his statement could “affect the integrity of the investigation.”

“I did not know that Keith was going to release this information until a short time before I did a media interview,” Mr Bosenko said.

“I do think that some of the details that he has provided could affect the integrity of the investigation.”

Earlier today, Mr Bosenko revealed how the branding that was left on Mrs Papini’s body was some form of message.

“I would think that was some sort of either an exertion of power and control and/or maybe some type of message that the brand contained,” Mr Bosenko told America’s ABC News on Wednesday morning.

“It is not a symbol, but it was a message.”

Keith Papini said his wife ‘was bound’ and had a ‘metal chain around her waist’.Source:ABC

During a press conference outside the Shasta County Police station, Mr Bosenko declined to elaborate on the brand’s appearance or its location on her body.

Former FBI special agent Brad Garrett believes the markings were a way for her captors to destroy her identity.

“The branding is so she will become part of their group; they want to eliminate her past. They cut her hair, they simply starved her, they beat her, maybe torture, etc. And it’s to make her part of whatever they are,” he told US breakfast show Good Morning America.

NEW DETAILS ON CAPTORS EMERGE: POLICE

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko has revealed further detail on Mrs Papini’s captors, who he has described as “two Hispanic women”.

In a press conference outside the Shasta County office, Mr Bosenko said an interview with Mrs Papini had revealed new details on physical descriptions of the suspects.

“Sherri described a sequence of events to the best of her recollection, remembering that she was held against her will and was isolated,” he said.

“Sherri described her assailants as two Hispanic female adults.

“She related that both of the subjects spoke in Spanish majority of the time during her captivity.”

Mr Bosenko, who said the suspects were armed with a handgun, concealed their faces in an attempt to hide their identity from Mrs Papini.

“Suspect one was the younger of the two suspects,” Mr Bosenko said.

“She had long curly hair and a thick accent. She had pierced ears and thin eyebrows.

“Suspect two was the older of the two suspects. She had straight black hair with some greying colour and had thick eyebrows.”

It is understood that a sketch artist has been consulted to assist with the investigation, but because both suspects and Mrs Papini had their faces covered most of the time — the process is challenged.

Mrs Papini told police she had been thrown from a dark coloured SUV by her captors, but Mr Bosenko admitted the security images shown to her of possible vehicles failed to match her description.

The Shasta County Police Department said they still did not have a motive behind the kidnapping, and are yet to confirm if she was a specific target or a random abduction.

POLICE ‘BLINDSIDED’ BY HUSBAND’S STATEMENT

Police investigating the alleged abduction were “blindsided” by a graphic statement released by her husband Keith Papini on Tuesday, in response to accusations the incident was staged.

Addressing the revelations regarding Mrs Papini’s physical appearance, Mr Bosenko described those responsible as “a very sick person”.

“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,” he said.

Keith and Sherri Papini’s marriage was rock solid, friends and family say.Source:Supplied

Mrs Papini was allegedly abducted while taking a routine jog along the Mountain Gate trail near her home in Redding, northern California, on November 2. She was found on the side of a highway on Thanksgiving Day morning — more than 240km from her home — after a passing motorist spotted her and called 911.

As the search for her alleged kidnappers intensifies, experts say the case is baffling for a number of reasons.

“Releasing this victim after holding her for a pretty extended period of time does not make sense to me, it just doesn’t,” former FBI agent Mary Ellen O’Toole told ABC News. “Because it really does increase the risk level of the offender exponentially.”

Former FBI special agent Brad Garrett said it was baffling that Mrs Papini’s alleged abductors decided to release her after 22 days.

“We don’t know the circumstances. Did these two women — are they part of this group, organisation, whatever it might be — decide this is too much? They pick her up and place her along the side of the road, so the context of these two women is unclear,” he told Good Morning America.

The Papinis have uploaded scores of photographs documenting their relationship.Source:Facebook

Mr Garrett weighed in on the possibility that more than two people were involved in Mrs Papini’s abduction, which he described as an “opportunity grab” and said appears to be a “random” attack.

“There’s too many steps. To go through the starvation, the branding, the cutting of the hair. It’s like, ‘I’m trying to make you part of whatever we are’. Whatever the group, whatever their extremist thinking might be, and the longer you do that, the person then becomes more dependent on you to survive and that’s what they want.”

Addressing a range of conspiracy theories that have surfaced, including speculation that the abduction was staged by the couple for financial gain and national fame, Mr Garrett said he didn’t believe it to be true.

“If you’re going to disappear, why go to this much trouble? Are you going to have someone brutalise you, brand you, starve you? Not likely.”

Mr Papini shocked police involved in the investigation when he went public with explicit details surrounding his wife’s injuries in a written statement to Good Morning America on Tuesday.

“There’s some unique information in there that was in his press release today that we were hoping to keep a tight rein on as far as what we were going to release to the public,” Shasta County Sheriff’s Office head of investigations Anthony Bertain said.

“It’s not the first hurdle in this investigation that we’ve had. We’ve overcome many of them, not just in this case, but there’s surprises in all investigations, so this just wasn’t good timing.”

According to the FBI, there were close to 85,000 missing persons cases in the US in 2015. Over 18,000 of those were involuntary abductions. Only half of those victims returned home alive.

Mr Bosenko said investigators interviewed Mrs Papini for a third time on Tuesday and are hoping to get more information on the description of the two suspects soon.

Shasta County sheriff Tom Bosenko addresses the media during a press conference. Picture: Andreas Fuhrmann /The Record SearchlightSource:AP