California mother Sherri Papini, who claimed she was kidnapped in 2016 before suddenly reappearing three weeks later almost 200 miles away from where she was last seen, has signed a plea deal in which she admits that she orchestrated the hoax.
Papini, 39, was finally arrested last month with prosecutors alleging she had made up the entire kidnapping story and had, in fact, been staying with an ex-boyfriend during the period she was believed to be missing.
She has been charged with lying to federal investigators and fraudulently obtaining $30,000 from the state's victim compensation board.
Papini will now plead guilty to one count of lying to a federal officer and one count of mail fraud with a hearing scheduled for later this week.
"We are taking this case in an entirely new direction,' said William Portanova to the
Sacramento Bee, a former federal prosecutor, now serving as Papini's defense attorney. 'Everything that has happened before today stops today.'
Papini issued a statement through her attorney expressing remorse.
'I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so sorry for the pain I've caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needlessly suffered because of my story and those who worked so hard to try to help me,' Papini said in her statement. 'I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done.'
Papini was accused of lying to authorities during an August 2020 interview.
FBI agents warned her in advance that lying to the FBI is a crime
'She was presented with evidence that showed she had not been abducted,' U.S. Attorney Phil Talbert's office said in a statement announcing the charges.
"Instead of retracting her kidnapping story, Papini continued to make false statements about her purported abductors.'
Authorities now say that Papini's disappearance was nothing to do with kidnapping at all but was staying at an ex-boyfriend's apartment in Costa Mesa.
When the FBI further investigated, items from his home were analyzed for DNA which ultimately matched that collected from Papini's clothing.
Upon speaking with the Bureau the ex, James Reyes, 37, told agents that he helped Papini 'run away' after she had told him her husband Keith was abusing her and that she needed to escape - despite no reports ever alleging such abuse being filed.
He told cops that he had hidden Papini in his apartment and purchased the branding equipment from a local branch of Hobby Lobby – even driving the 'supermom' back to Northern California when she decided to end her disappearance.
Three weeks later, Papini was discovered wandering along a highway near Woodside, California 150 miles away from her home.
She told cops she had been kidnapped by two Hispanic women. She had been branded on one shoulder, had her long blonde hair cut short and had suffered a broken nose.
'She appeared to have lost a considerable amount of weight. She had been branded on her right shoulder, although the exact content of the brand was indistinguishable.
'Papini's nose was 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 her pelvis and the fronts of both legs.'
Papini's disappearance saw headlines around the world together with rallies supporting her. A GoFundMe account raised $49,000.
She also received $30,000 from the California Victim Compensation Board, and used the money for therapy sessions, ambulance services and $1,000 to buy window blinds for her home, court documents say. The use of those funds is the basis for the mail fraud charge.
The charges could have netted Papini up to 20 years and a $500,000 fine. Prosecutors have not yet filed a sentencing memo that details their recommended sentence.
Papini initially was held in the Sacramento County Main Jail for five nights before a judge released her to home confinement and her family posted a $120,000 bond.
Papini's husband Keith reported her missing on November 2, 2016, after returning home to find her gone and their kids still at daycare, where their mother would have collected them.
On the day she went missing, Keith said he had first become concerned about her whereabouts when she stopped answering her phone.
For weeks, America watched in angst as police tried to find her. She appeared on Thanksgiving Day, some two weeks later, miraculously showing up on the side of the road where she claimed she'd been dropped off by her Hispanic kidnappers.
Sherri then spun a tale of violence at the hands of her two female captors who she claimed beat her, fed her 'tortillas', forced her to use kitty litter and who she said played 'that annoying Mexican music' all the time.
She spent the 22 days hidden away her ex's apartment in Costa Mesa, a seven-hour drive south of where she lived, starving herself and inflicting injuries on herself before convincing him to drive her home because she missed her kids.
The ex-boyfriend says he only became aware of what she had involved him in after he returned her home and saw news stories.
He said they used to date in 2006 and that he assumed their relationship would be romantic when she made contact again in 2016, but that they never slept together while she was in his home.
For the next two weeks, they lived in his apartment in Costa Mesa. There was no TV, so he did not see the news reports about her disappearance, but he became suspicious when she started injuring herself.
She spent most of her days locked away in his bedroom after claiming it while he was forced to sleep on the couch, the man said.
She cut her hair, burned herself, and asked him to shoot her with a pellet gun to inflict a small bruise on her leg.
Papini - who he said was 'already tiny' - starved herself while she was living with him, eating only 'small portions'.
In the days before Thanksgiving, she told him she was ready to go home to her kids. Before they left, she convinced him to burn a 'phrase' into her skin with a heated tool.
He then drove her seven hours north, back to Shasta County, and dropped her off on the side of the road. She hid in the backseat again for that journey.
She brought with her a bag that contained hand ties which she wrapped around herself in the car to make it look as if she had been bound.
After he dropped her off, the ex-boyfriend drove himself back to San Pedro, had Thanksgiving Dinner at his aunt's house and then returned his rental car the next day.
It was only when he saw the intense media coverage of Papini returning home that he started to panic, he said.
He said he never came forward because he thought that police would approach him if he had done something wrong, so he stayed quiet.
In August 2020, police confronted Papini with the evidence but she continued to deny it and say there is 'no way' it could have been the ex-boyfriend.
She admitted speaking with him over text, as she did with other men, but said it was merely a mistake and nothing criminal.
'When I went out of town for work. I talked with other guys ... I made a mistake and I talked to other men and I shouldn't have,' she said.
In the five years since she allegedly faked the disappearance, Papini claimed $30,000 from the Victim Compensation Board.
Papini now faces a mail fraud charge related to the reimbursement requests that carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, while lying to a federal officer has a maximum five-year sentence.
'Everyone involved in this investigation had one common goal: to find the truth about what happened on Nov. 2, 2016, with Sherri Papini and who was responsible,' said Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson.
That 22-day search and five-year investigation not only cost money and time, he said, 'but caused the general public to be fearful of their own safety, a fear that they should not have had to endure.'
Her fake abduction claims cost the public more than $230,000 and police time that could have been employed solving 'actual crimes'.
Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson said Papini cost public safety 'in excess of $150,000 dollars in resources to investigate her knowingly false claims and staged abduction.'
Federal prosecutors, in a 55-page criminal complaint against Papini, also detailed how Papini and her husband spent $11,000 of the $49,000 raised to 'bring her home' on GoFundMe to pay off their credit cards.
If convicted, Papini could face up to five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 for making false statements. If convicted of mail fraud, she faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000.
'Not only did this charade take valuable resources away from real criminal investigative matters,' Sheriff Johnson wrote in a statement on Facebook last month.
'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.'
'Ultimately, the investigation revealed that there was no kidnapping,' a press release by the Department of Justice said.
'And that time and resources that could have been used to investigate actual crime, protect the community, and provide resources to victims were wasted based on the defendant's conduct.'
Johnson also hinted that other charges against people close to her may be looming, and that she did not 'pull it off on her own'.
