When Sherri Papini found herself alone on an interstate highway nearly 150 miles from her home on Thanksgiving 2016, the mother of Northern California told police she had been abducted while jogging by two Hispanics at gunpoint and marked with a heated tool. Papini, whose husband said she weighed less than 90 kilograms when she was discovered, told authorities that masked kidnappers kept her chained to a closet for three weeks in a case that sparked a nationwide investigation. But in reality, Papini was never abducted, according to the Ministry of Justice. Authorities, meanwhile, discovered last month that Papini was staying with an ex-boyfriend and received more than $ 30,000 in victim assistance money from the state as a result of an elaborate hoax, according to court documents. Authorities say the bruises and burns suffered by her “kidnappers” are believed to be suicidal. Now, the self-proclaimed “super mom” from Reading, California, admits her big lie more than five years later. The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that Papini, 39, had signed an admission agreement that she was planning and participating in her own kidnapping. Papini, who was arrested on March 3, agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud and making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer. He had initially faced 34 charges of mail fraud. Her lawyer, William Portanova, confirmed that Papini had signed the Sacramento Melissa protest agreement, the first to mention the story. “I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and I am very sorry for the pain I caused to my family, my friends, all the good people who suffered unnecessarily because of my story and those who worked so hard to help me. ». Papini said in a statement released through Portanova. “I will work the rest of my life to make up for what I have done.” Neither Portanova, a former federal prosecutor, nor Keith Papini, Sherri Papini’s wife, responded immediately to requests for comment early Wednesday. Portanova told Bee on Tuesday that her legal team “took this case in a whole new direction.” “Everything that happened before today stops today,” he said. If convicted of mail fraud, Papini faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $ 250,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern California. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $ 250,000 if convicted of making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer. Papini will pay more than $ 300,000 in compensation to local, state and federal agencies under the objection agreement. Prosecutors have indicated they would recommend reduced sentences. A court date has not yet been set for Papini to plead guilty, but Portanova told the Associated Press she will likely declare them next week. On November 2, 2016, Papini went jogging late in the morning while her husband was at work, then Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told reporters. Her husband began to worry when she did not pick up their children from kindergarten or return home that night. After finding her cell phone and her ears about a mile from their home, Shasta County Sheriff’s Office listed her as a missing person. As search and rescue teams conducted ground and air searches in California and several nearby states for three weeks, Papini’s family and friends begged for her safe return. A GoFundMe page created to help with search and rescue efforts raised more than $ 49,000. Her case made headlines nationwide, including the Washington Post. Then, at 4:30 p.m. On November 24, 2016, the sheriff’s office learned that Papini had been found safe near Interstate 5 in Yolo County – 146 miles south of her home – in what authorities then described as an “absolute miracle” on Thanksgiving. Keith Papini said in a statement to ABC “Good Morning America” that his wife weighed 87 kilograms and “was covered with colorful bruises, severe burns, red rashes and chain marks.” Her hair was cut and scarred. on her right shoulder, her husband said in November 2016. “My reaction was great happiness and overwhelming nausea, as my eyes and hands scanned her body. “I was filled with so much relief and disgust immediately,” Keith Papini said in a statement. “Sherry has suffered a lot for me and all the visions swirling in your head about her appearance, I assure you, are not as picturesque and horrifying as reality.” The sheriff’s office released few details when Sherry Papini was found, but promised that “he will not calm down until the kidnapper or kidnappers of Sherry are identified and brought to justice.” But years after the alleged abduction, authorities concluded that Sherri Papini had made the whole point. “The investigation finally… showed that this was a false narrative fabricated by Papini,” said Phillip A. Talbert, the U.S. attorney general for the Eastern District of California, in a statement last month. “In fact, Papini had voluntarily stayed with an ex-boyfriend on the Costa Mesa and hurt herself to support her false statements.” In August 2020, Papini was interviewed by a federal agent and a detective in Shasta County Sheriff’s Office. She had been warned at the time that it was a crime to lie to a federal agent, according to the Justice Department. Investigators said they found that she was living with an ex-boyfriend nearly 600 miles away in his apartment in Costa Mesa, California, and that she had been injured. FBI agents found that items in the ex-boyfriend’s garage had DNA that matched one that had been collected from Papini’s clothes, court documents show. The man later told authorities he helped Papini “run away” when she claimed her husband was abusing her, according to court documents. No police reports of abuse were reported, Bee said. However, when Papini was presented with evidence that she had not been abducted, she did not retell her story. Instead, it doubled and “continued to make false statements about its alleged abductors,” the justice ministry said last month. Authorities noted that the California Victims Compensation Council made 35 payments to Papini between 2017 and 2021, totaling more than $ 30,000 in victim assistance. “Eventually, the investigation revealed that there was no abduction and that the time and resources that could have been used to investigate the real crime, protect the community and provide resources to the victims were wasted based on the accused’s conduct,” he said. Talbert. Portanova described his client’s case in the AP as “a very complex mental health condition, but a condition that needs to be addressed and dealt with – and that includes acceptance and acceptance and punishment.” The lawyer admitted that he still finds it difficult to understand why Papini pretended to be abducted. “Honestly, I do not know if anyone does,” he said. “I do not know if he knows.” Lindsey Bever and Sarah Larimer contributed to this report.
