SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Nearly six years after her kidnapping made headlines worldwide, a California woman has admitted she faked the whole thing.
Sherri Papini, 39, issued a statement in which she confesses that she wasn't abducted when she disappeared for 22 days in 2016.
"I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so very sorry for the pain I've caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needlessly suffered because of my story and those who worked so hard to try to help me," the statement reads. "I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done."
Papini agreed to plead guilty to making materially false statements to FBI agents about the circumstances of her disappearance and committing mail fraud based on her being a kidnapping victim, according to the Department of Justice. She hasn't offered a reason for the hoax.
Papini, then a 34-year-old stay-at-home mom with two young children, was reported missing on Nov. 2, 2016 after she seemingly vanished while jogging near her home in Shasta County, near Redding. Her disappearance gained worldwide attention and hundreds of tips were submitted to police, who conducted extensive searches in California and several other states
Three weeks after she disappeared, on Thanksgiving Day, an injured Papini was found nearly 150 miles away walking along an interstate. Her hair had been cut short, she was bruised all over and had been branded on her shoulder. She claimed she was kidnapped and held captive by two Hispanic women.
In reality, prosecutors say Papini was actually staying with a former boyfriend nearly 600 miles away in Southern California. Her injuries were self-inflicted to support her kidnapping claims, prosecutors added.
Four days after Papini returned from her alleged abduction, she applied for victim assistance money. The California Victim's Compensation Board ultimately granted her request based on her kidnapping story. From 2017 to 2021, Papini collected 35 payments totaling more than $30,000, according to a criminal complaint.
Although the case faded from headlines, law enforcement never stopped trying to find Papini's purported kidnappers. In March 2020, investigators took another look at DNA that was recovered from Papini's clothing in 2016. Detectives had never gotten a hit before, but this time a familial match was identified in a national database that led to Papini's former boyfriend.
The criminal complaint shows the unidentified ex-boyfriend admitted to federal investigators that he traveled to Redding at Papini's request to pick her up. He said Papini claimed that she was being abused by her husband and he thought he was helping a friend, adding that "it was not a sexual thing," according to the complaint. Papini stayed with him at his apartment in Orange County until she asked him to take her back home. Investigators say his account was corroborated by car rental records and historical cell site analysis.
When law enforcement confronted Papini in August 2020, she was presented with their evidence, including her ex's confession, and was warned that it was a crime to lie to federal agents. Instead of retracting her kidnapping story, investigators say Papini continued to make false statements about her purported abductors and denied her ex-boyfriend's involvement.
She was arrested on March 3 and indicted in April on one count of making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer, and 34 counts of mail fraud for taking victim compensation.
Papini agreed to plead guilty to a single count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements, though the court has not yet scheduled a date for her to enter the guilty pleas. If convicted as charged, she faces up to 25 years in prison.
"The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.
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