Sherri Papini, whose alleged kidnapping and reappearance three weeks later made national headlines in 2016, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of lying to the FBI, federal prosecutors said.
Federal law enforcement officials allege that the entire incident was a hoax, according to a release from the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento, California. Papini, 39, faces charges of making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer and engaging in mail fraud.
Papini had vanished Nov. 2 while she was out for a jog in the small Shasta County town of Mountain Gate. She reappeared on Nov. 24, Thanksgiving Day, emaciated and injured.
“In truth, Papini had been voluntarily staying with a former boyfriend in Costa Mesa and had harmed herself to support her false statements,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in the release.
She could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if convicted of mail fraud and up to five years if convicted of lying to federal law enforcement. She also faces fines of $250,000 for each charge.
“Ultimately, the investigation revealed that there was no kidnapping and that time and resources that could have been used to investigate actual crime, protect the community, and provide resources to victims were wasted based on the defendant’s conduct,” U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said in the release.
As a result of the alleged kidnapping, Papini had been granted over $30,000 in about 35 payments from the California Victim Compensation Board, officials said.
In August 2020, during an interview with a federal agent and a Shasta County Sheriff’s Office detective, Papini was presented with evidence that showed she had not been abducted and was warned that lying to federal law enforcement officials is a crime, prosecutors said.
But Papini stuck to her story and continued to make claims about her abductors.
The twists and turns of her alleged kidnapping and reappearance were widely reported years ago, drawing nationwide attention even as some observers expressed disbelief at her story.
Her husband, Keith Papini, gave a statement to “Good Morning America” in the days after her reappearance rejecting the internet speculation. “We are not going to allow those people to take away our spirit, love, or rejoice in our girl found alive and home where she belongs,” he wrote. “I understand people want the story, pictures, proof that this was not some sort of hoax, plan to gain money, or some fabricated race war. I do not see a purpose in addressing each preposterous lie.”
Papini’s husband reported her missing after he came home from work and found that she hadn’t picked up their children from day care, officials said. Her cellphone and headphones were found near where she had last been seen, about a mile from her home, investigators said.
She was found before sunrise on Thanksgiving on the side of Interstate 5 in Yolo County with a quarter-inch-thick chain around her waist, hose clamps around her wrists, her face bruised and her nose broken from beatings she sustained during her time in captivity, her family said.
She was emaciated and weighed only 87 pounds when she flagged down a motorist, who dialed 911.
She claimed her captors branded her shoulder and cut her hair to shoulder length, officials said. Her kidnappers covered their faces and usually had a bag over Papini’s head, she said.
They freed her by simply kicking her out of their car on the side of the road, she told authorities.
Papini described her captors as two women who spoke Spanish most of the time. She described one of the captors as having long curly hair, pierced ears, thin eyebrows and a thick accent.
In 2017, investigators said that the DNA of two other people was found on Papini when she was discovered.
Papini’s husband had also taken and passed a polygraph test, investigators said.
“We are relieved that the community is not endangered by unknown, violent kidnappers, and thank the public and media for their patience and strong support for this case since the initial reports of Sherri Papini’s disappearance,” Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan of the FBI’s Sacramento field office said in the release.
Local officials said news of the kidnapping and the tense days and years that ensued took a toll on the community.
“The 22-day search for Sherri Papini and subsequent five-year search into who reportedly abducted her was not only taxing on public resources but caused the general public to be fearful of their own safety, a fear that they should not have had to endure,” said Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta applauded the work of investigators into the case.
“No matter the circumstances, our team is committed to the facts. While this case deals with a tough situation, we'll continue to do our part to help secure justice,” he said.
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