Sherri Papini fabricated the story of the 2016 kidnapping in California, officials say

Sherri Papini, a California mother who disappeared for weeks in 2016 and claimed to have been kidnapped at gunpoint, fabricated the story and had stayed with an ex-boyfriend, authorities said Thursday.

Papini, now 39, was arrested Thursday. She is accused of lying to investigators in 2020 when she was presented with evidence that the kidnapping was fake; and California out of more than $30,000 in victim support funds, law enforcement officials said.

Papini’s disappearance in Northern California in November 2016 sparked a nationwide search involving the FBI.

Three weeks later, she was found along Interstate 5 in rural Yolo County with a chain around her waist and a “brand” on her shoulder that she said was inflicted by her captors, according to court documents.

“Ultimately, the investigation concluded that there was no kidnapping,” Phillip A. Talbert, US Attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in one statement. He said “untold hours” were spent not only searching for her but also the alleged kidnappers.

Papini is accused of providing false information to law enforcement and engaging in mail fraud, prosecutors said.

Papini was in custody on Thursday. Her case did not appear in online federal court records, and it was not clear if she had an attorney who could speak for her.

Papini, from Redding, was reported missing on November 2, 2016 after failing to pick up her two children from daycare. She was last seen jogging in her neighborhood, and her cell phone with headphones was found at an intersection.

On November 24, 2016, she was found along I-5 with injuries that authorities now say were self-inflicted.

She told investigators that two Hispanic women with a handgun were holding her captive, and investigators were looking for those people and hired an FBI sketcher, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit filed at the criminal case.

In 2020, DNA found on Papini’s clothing, which was entered into a database and routinely checked, eventually led investigators to her ex-boyfriend, according to the affidavit.

This ex-boyfriend told investigators that Papini asked him for help and had to leave, that he agreed to pick her up in Redding, and that she stayed at his home in Costa Mesa, in the Los Angeles area, the entire time, according to the FBI agent wrote in the document.

The ex said he didn’t know “what the ultimate plan was” or if they would get back together, the affidavit said.

Panini asked him to brand her once, which he did with a wood burning tool, and eventually she asked to be driven back to Northern California, sources say.

Investigators say the ex-boyfriend’s story was corroborated by rental car receipts and phone records, and the ex-boyfriend knew details that were not known to the public.

The ex-boyfriend told investigators he initially thought he was just helping a friend, but after seeing the news of the subsequent kidnapping claims, he became concerned, according to the affidavit.

He decided not to make any calls but assumed the police would come to him if the truth came out and he cooperated, the document said.

No charges against anyone else in the case were announced Thursday.

In August 2020, investigators interviewed Papini again and she repeated parts of her story about women with guns, and when denied, she stayed with her ex, according to the affidavit.

“Everyone involved in this investigation had a common goal; to find out the truth about what happened to Sherri Papini on November 2, 2016 and who was responsible,” Shasta County Sheriff Michael L. Johnson said in Thursday’s statement.