Back In 2016, She Claimed To Have Been Kidnapped For Several Weeks And Held At Gunpoint, But Now She’s Being Accused Of Faking The Entire Thing While Staying At Her Ex-Boyfriend’s House
Redding, California. Back in November of 2016, Sherri Papini disappeared for several weeks from Redding, California, spurring a search for her that reached across the entire country.
It was November 2nd of that year at 5:50 in the evening when Sherri’s husband called up the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office to report that Sherri had gone out for a run but never came home.
Additionally, Sherri had not picked their children up from daycare that day, which led him to believe that something was seriously wrong.
Sherri’s husband was able to use Find My iPhone to figure out what Sherri’s phone was, and he later discovered it discarded a few feet from the side of the road, along with Sherri’s earbuds and some of her blonde hair.
Sherri’s husband thought that it looked like someone intentionally set Sherri’s phone down where he found it, which didn’t sit right with him.
Later on, detectives searched through the house that Sherri shared with her husband, only to find that nothing seemed strange or disturbing to them.
Weeks after Sherri vanished into thin air, she was found on November 24th at 4:30 in the morning and she was “running” down the center of Interstate 5.
A truck driver, along with several other individuals, called 911 to report what they saw that morning, 146 miles away from where Sherri originally disappeared from.
California Department of Justice; pictured above is the photo circulated after Sherri went missing
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An officer with the California Highway Patrol quickly rushed to the scene, where he discovered that it appeared Sherri had been abused by whoever had kidnapped her.
“PAPINI had a chain around her waist that one arm was bound to, 24 with additional bindings around her other wrist and each ankle,” an affidavit explained.
“PAPINI was transported to Woodland 25 Hospital where she underwent several physical examinations. She appeared to have lost a considerable 26 amount of weight, and her long blonde hair had been cut much shorter.”
“She had been branded on her 27 right shoulder, although the exact content of the brand was indistinguishable.”
“PAPINI’s nose was 28 swollen, she had bruises on her face, rashes on her left arm and left upper inner thigh as well as other parts of her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, burns on her left forearm, and bruising on 2 her pelvis and the fronts of both legs.”
Sherri stated in an interview with authorities that she had been kidnapped and held hostage by two women with a gun.
They were Hispanic, according to Sherri, and she was able to give enough information that a sketch was completed by the FBI of the women.
After 5 entire years of searching for Sherri’s kidnappers, investigators released a shocking statement; Sherri allegedly made the entire thing up.
“The investigation eventually showed, however, that this was a false narrative Papini fabricated,” the California Department of Justice said in a statement after arresting Sherri and charging her with engaging in mail fraud as well as making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer.
“In truth, Papini had been voluntarily staying with a former boyfriend in Costa Mesa and had harmed herself to support her false statements.”
It’s pretty wild to think that Sherri faked the entire thing, especially since she gave a lot of details regarding her supposed imprisonment by these Hispanic women. Sherri was arrested a few days ago on March 2nd, and if she is found guilty of the charges against her, she’s looking at a $250,000 fine and as many as 5 years in prison.
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