Sherri Papini, a 40-year-old woman from California was given 18 months in prison on September 19, 2022. She was accused of making up her abduction in 2016.
Fox said that on November 2, 2016 Sherri Papini, who was a mother of two, went missing. She turned up again on Thanksgiving, November 24, 2016 near Sacramento. She was hurt and tied down. Papini told police in California that she was violently taken from her job in the morning. Police have been looking into her claims for 6 years.
Sheila Koester, Sherri Papini’s sister, said that she thought Papini was found with the help of many people, including people on social media.
Koester said, “I feel like it was a whole world effort, just with everyone posting on Facebook and the news coverage we got. It was an amazing Thanksgiving.”
Papini was also accused of mail fraud because she got money from the California Victim Compensation Board after saying that her kidnapping gave her post-traumatic stress disorder.
At her court hearing on Monday, she told the judge that she faked being taken away because she had mental health problems that made her angry with her family.
Sherri Papini Wanted to Escape her Abusive Husband
Sherri Papini’s first statement to the police was that she was taken by two Hispanic women. Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told sources a summary of what Papini said about the so-called “abductors.”
Bosenko said, “These Hispanic females are armed, considered dangerous and they have a handgun, at least a handgun with them.”
Authorities began to have doubts about Sherri Papini’s story in 2017 as they continued their search for the ‘abductors.’ A DNA test was done on Papini’s clothes from the time he was thought to have been taken. It showed that she might not have been talking to a group of Hispanic women but rather to an old boyfriend.
BBC reported that Papini had asked her ex-boyfriend to help her get away from her abusive husband. After 22 days on the run with him, Papini said she wanted to go back to her kids, according to her boyfriend.
Papini was arrested in California on March 3, 2022 for mail fraud and lying to an officer. She is accused of hurting herself to make it look like she was taken by force.
Papini admitted in the US District Court in Sacramento on Monday that she faked being kidnapped and stole money from the victim compensation board by saying she had PTSD.
She said, “I am so sorry to the many people who have suffered because of me – the people who sacrificed for the broken woman I was, the people who gave willingly to help me in a time that I so desperately needed help.”
Papini has also been told to pay $300,000 to the government agencies that helped with the search and the investigation that followed.
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