A California mother who faked her own kidnapping is out of prison after spending more than a year behind bars, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Sherri Papini, 41, was released from prison last week and is said to be residing in a halfway house during her transition from state custody.
Papini’s husband reported her missing in November 2016 when she vanished after going for a run in Redding. She reappeared three weeks later, on Thanksgiving Day. Papini had a chain wrapped around her waist and what investigators later determined were self-inflicted wounds.
Papini claimed she was kidnapped by two Hispanic women and chained inside a closet. She alleged her captors had even branded her on a shoulder.
None of it was true.
In 2020, police determined that Papini made up the story after DNA evidence from her clothing was linked to an ex-boyfriend. Authorities determined that she had stayed with the former lover during the alleged kidnapping and that he dropped her off along an interstate when she expressed a desire to return home, according to NBC News.
Papini’s husband later filed for divorce and sought full custody of their two kids.
She was later indicted and pleaded guilty to mail fraud and lying to law enforcement, in part for defrauding the California Victim Compensation Board. Authorities alleged that she used more than $30,000 from the board for therapy sessions, ambulance services and to buy window blinds.
Papini also received Social Security disability payments and more than $49,000 from GoFundMe donations.
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A judge in September sentenced the mother of two to 18 months in prison and fined her about $310,000.
“Papini planned and executed a sophisticated kidnapping hoax, and then continued to perpetuate her false statements for years after her return without regard for the harm she caused others,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum, according to CNN. “As a result, state and federal investigators devoted limited resources to Papini’s case for nearly four years before they independently learned the truth: that she was not kidnapped and tortured.”
Papini was assigned to serve her prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institute in Victorville, California, where she was released August 16 according to SFGate.
She is scheduled to be fully released from custody on October 26.
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[Feature Photo: Sherri Papini/Handout]
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