A Northern California woman who claimed to have been kidnapped and held for three weeks in 2016 was arrested Thursday and accused of making up the whole thing. Sherri Papini, 39, disappeared Nov. 2 of that year after going jogging near her home north of San Francisco; her husband went looking for her when she didn't pick up their kids at day care and reported her missing when all he could find were her phone and earphones. After a frantic 22-day multi-state search, she was found on Thanksgiving Day, injured and almost 150 miles from her home, USA Today reports. She told authorities two Hispanic women abducted her at gunpoint and she ultimately made a harrowing escape.
But authorities now say she faked her own kidnapping, and actually spent the time with an ex-boyfriend in Southern California, the AP reports. Papini, who claimed she had been abused, branded, and tortured by her captors, was actually allegedly picked up by the ex at her request, he told police. He then took her to his apartment, and three weeks later drove her back up north. As for the wounds Papini suffered, police say they were self-inflicted. She had both male and female DNA on her clothing when found, and by 2020, the male DNA had led police to question the ex-boyfriend. He told them his story, and authorities also found that he and Papini had been communicating via prepaid cellphones since Dec. 2015.
A witness also placed Papini in the man's apartment during the period of time she was missing. But even after authorities in 2020 presented Papini with evidence that her story was false, she allegedly continued to lie to them under questioning. She is charged with lying to federal agents about being kidnapped and defrauding the state's victim compensation board of $30,000, which carry maximum penalties of 5 and 20 years behind bars, respectively, as well as fines of up to $250,000 each. "Time and resources that could have been used to investigate actual crime, protect the community, and provide resources to victims were wasted," a US attorney says in a statement. A GoFundMe campaign also raised more than $49,000 for Papini's family. (More Sherri Papini stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
