REDDING, Calif. — The California mom found beaten and bloody on a highway after going missing for three weeks has skipped town with her husband — and left their two dogs behind.

Sherri and Keith Papini left their home in Redding with their two kids but decided not to bring the dogs, friends said.

A “buddy of Keith’s” was at the Papini home on Sundust Road on Saturday around noon — and told a Post reporter he was there to “walk the dogs.”

He then took the smaller dog on a leash and said he “couldn’t answer any questions” and “I’m going to go walk her now.”

He said he was there “just helping out.”

A neighbor who has lived next to the Papini house, which is Keith’s childhood home, and has known him since he was 5 years old, said, “I don’t think they’re ever coming back here again.”

Another neighbor said “they’re way up north, in cold country” where there’s “snow on the ground” and “wealthy relatives” who have given them a place to stay.

Keith was seen driving a new truck on Thursday. One of the neighbors claimed it was a “friend’s” and he was using it to stay under the radar and hidden from people who may be trying to harm his wife.

Sherri went missing Nov. 2 and claims two Hispanic women forced her into a car at gunpoint and “chained” and “branded” her.

She mysteriously turned up alive 140 miles from her home on a freeway on Thanksgiving morning.

She has not been seen in public since.

When she was found, her body showed signs of extreme torture: