SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California woman whose disappearance and mysterious return more than five years ago sparked a hectic three-week search was arrested Thursday on charges of lying to federal agents about kidnapping and defrauding the police. $30,000 state victim compensation commission.
Sherri Papini, 39, of Redding, was found on Thanksgiving Day in 2016 after weeks of searching California and several nearby states, with bands to her body and injuries, including a broken nose and a “mark” on her right shoulder.
She was reported missing on November 2. She told authorities at the time that she had been abducted at gunpoint by two Hispanic women, and even gave descriptions to an FBI cartoonist.
In reality, authorities said, she was staying with an ex-boyfriend nearly 966 miles from her home in Orange County, Southern California, and hurting herself to support her false statements.
“When a young mother went missing in broad daylight, a community was filled with fear and anxiety,” U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said in a statement. “Ultimately, the investigation found that there was no kidnapping and that time and resources that could have been used to investigate the actual crime, protect the community and provide resources to victims were wasted.”
Papini doesn’t have a lawyer yet because she was just arrested, Talbert’s office said. Her first appearance in court has not yet been determined.
She was still lying about the August 2020 kidnapping when she was interviewed by a federal agent and a Shasta County detective, it is alleged. They showed her evidence that she had not been kidnapped and warned her that lying to a federal agent was a crime.
But she still made false statements, the charges allege.
She was also compensated more than $30,000 by the California Victim’s Compensation Board based on the false story, the indictment said. They include money for visits to her therapist and for the ambulance ride to the hospital after she turned up near Sacramento.
She faces a charge of mail fraud in connection with the refund requests which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, while lying to a federal officer carries a maximum sentence of five years.
“Everyone involved in this investigation had one common goal: to find out the truth about what happened to Sherri Papini on November 2, 2016 and who was responsible,” said Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson.
That 22-day search and five years of investigation not only cost money and time, he said, “but also caused the general public to become afraid for their own safety, a fear they should not have endured.”
Before she disappeared, Papini had gone for a jog near her home, about 350 kilometers north of San Francisco. Her husband, Keith Papini, found only her cellphone and earphones when he went searching after she failed to pick up their children from daycare.
Investigators said he passed a lie detector test. They also acquitted a Detroit man they said Papini had texted and planned to meet shortly before her disappearance.
Papini’s nose was broken and she was wearing a chain tensioner around her waist when she was found off Interstate 5, about 100 miles from her home. Her blond hair was cut to shoulder length and a “brand” had been burned into her right shoulder, authorities said at the time.
She had both male and female DNA on her body and clothing. But the DNA eventually led to the ex-boyfriend, according to a court file.
At the time, she was a stay-at-home mom and her husband worked at Best Buy. No ransom was ever demanded and the family was not wealthy, officials said at the time.
In retrospect, we are relieved that the community is not threatened by unknown, violent kidnappers, said Sean Ragan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Sacramento Field Office.
