Sherri and Keith Papini before her alleged abduction.
She said that her captors had leashed her to a pole inside a closet, a bucket of kitty litter serving as her toilet. Then came the beatings. And when she tried to escape, she told investigators, she was branded.
That is how Sherri Papini explained to investigators what happened during her disappearance in 2016, a three-week ordeal that prompted an intense and costly search across Northern California, where she had been living, and several other states.
The widely reported missing person case wound down after a truck driver spotted Papini wandering along an interstate, but the investigation was not over.
Federal prosecutors said this past week that Papini's claims that two masked women had abducted her at gunpoint while she was on a run in Redding, California, had been made up, and that she continued her deception when investigators confronted her.
In fact, prosecutors say, Papini, who is married with two children, was staying with an ex-boyfriend and had used prepaid cellphones to arrange for him to whisk her some 600 miles (965km) away to his home in Southern California.
Her bruises and burns were self-inflicted, said prosecutors, who announced that Papini, 39, had been arrested Thursday on felony charges that included making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer and mail fraud. The fraud charges stem from more than US$30,000 (NZ$43,726) in therapy and ambulance services that prosecutors said the California Victim Compensation Board paid for.
Michael L. Johnson, the Shasta County sheriff, said in a statement on Thursday (Friday NZT) that Papini had cost taxpayers more than US$150,000 in resources used to investigate her claims and staged abduction.
"Not only did this charade take valuable resources away from real criminal investigative matters," he wrote on Facebook, "but in a time where there is serious human trafficking cases with legitimate victims Sherri Papini used this tragic societal phenomenon to gain notoriety and financial gain."
Prosecutors said Papini had said that her kidnappers were part of a human trafficking ring and had told her that she would be sold. "The buyer's a cop. They're never going to find you," she said one of her captors told her, according to the criminal complaint.
In a statement released on Thursday by a public relations firm, the Papini family criticised the nature of the federal investigation and the tactics investigators employed in questioning Papini and her husband, Keith. The statement did not address whether Papini had faked her abduction.
"We love Sherri and are appalled by the way in which law enforcement ambushed her this afternoon in a dramatic and unnecessary manner in front of her children," the family's statement said. "Sherri and Keith have cooperated with law enforcement's requests despite repeated attempts to unnecessarily pit them against each other, empty threats to publicly embarrass them and other conduct that was less than professional."
The statement added that the family was "confused" by several aspects of the charges and was seeking clarification.
Prosecutors said that Papini's ex-boyfriend, who was not identified, had admitted to taking part in the fake kidnapping. DNA found on Papini's clothing led investigators to him, according to the criminal complaint. It matched the DNA of one of the ex-boyfriend's parents, which had been collected for ancestry research.
Investigators said that the ex-boyfriend told them that Papini had instructed him to brand her with a tool for making crafts.
"When a young mother went missing in broad daylight, a community was filled with fear and concern," Phillip A. Talbert, the US attorney for the Eastern District of California, said in the statement announcing Papini's arrest. "Countless hours were spent following leads, all in an effort to bring this woman back to her family."
Prosecutors declined to comment further on the charges against Papini, who appeared in court Friday. She was ordered detained as a danger and flight risk, and her next court appearance is Tuesday. Her lawyer, Michael Borges, was not immediately available on Friday night.
Papini faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine up to US$250,000 if convicted of making false statements to a federal investigator. The second charge of mail fraud carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine up to US$250,000.
Papini went for a jog on November 2, 2016, according to the complaint. Her husband had returned home from work that day to find his wife was missing and that their children had not been picked up from daycare. Using the Find My iPhone app, Keith Papini located his wife's phone and her earbuds, with strands of hair attached, about 1.6km from their home.
Keith Papini made a public plea for his wife's safe return. "Bring her home," he repeatedly said in an interview with KRCR-TV, a local television station in Redding. "I'm coming, honey. I'm trying. I'm doing everything I can, and I love you." A US$50,000 reward was also offered.
Sherri Papini mysteriously turned up three weeks later on November 24 in Yolo County, more than 225km south of where she had disappeared, the US attorney's office said. She had bindings on her body and had injuries, including a brand on her right shoulder. Sherri Papini told authorities that she had been abducted by two Hispanic women and provided descriptions to an FBI sketch artist.
Authorities in August 2020 again questioned Sherri Papini about her claim that she had been abducted, prosecutors said. She was presented with evidence that showed she had not been kidnapped and was warned that it was unlawful to lie to federal agents. Instead of retracting her story, she continued to make false statements, authorities said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Derrick Bryson Taylor and Neil Vigdor
© 2022 THE NEW YORK TIMES
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