GUILTY CA - Sherri Papini, 34, Redding, fake abduction Nov 2016, ARREST MAR 2022 #25

[Niner]

SP's total bond was set at $120K.

For whatever reason, the article only provided details about the $5ok unsecured bond provided by SP's parents and did not include details on the $70K secured bond by her husband (secured probably by their property).

Okay- thanks for the explanation - correcting my notes....

 

[scapa]

Even before we knew she was FOS, the picture gave me major creeps.

Yep. In pretty every one of those pix she is the focus and he is the prop (which is, of course, perfectly fine), and the look to camera is both direct and charged -- more like a 40s film noir poster than a family-album wedding shot.

I think she was likely bored and done with the whole "supermum" trip with just enough cash to get by and no one new to be fascinated by her, since she seems like someone who might not be as beloved in the Mumsnet community as she might have wished, and wanted new challenges and new suitors.

Those are pretty common feelings and desires of course -- not many who feel them are moved to set up a hoax kidnap plot with strongly divisive and racist elements and then cash in on it.

But as I posted before, I don't doubt that we get some version of SP as an amoral but interestingly subversive antiheroine with a clever and boundary-pushing plot to hatch in a fictionalised version of her (actually dull and self-obsessed) merry life and crime(s).

 

[Hoosier952]

I've been gone a long time and was so happy to read Sherri had been arrested.

However, I am having a hard time not feeling like the Papini children are being let down by not only Sherri, but KP, SP's family, and the courts as well. No one is considering the children's best interests in this entire ordeal and they are going to be the ultimate victims in all of this. While most of her violent tendencies have been restricted to pretty extreme self-harm and likely some creative writing, she does have a history of blaming others for those actions. People who are willing to blame their mother or their husband for their own self-harm/actions are going to be just as willing to blame their children. And it seems like there's a whole lot of enabling and maybe cashing in on SP's antics.

I wish part of the conditions of her release included mandatory therapy for the children. But since that never happens, I hope KP can wake up and see through SP's BS and do what's best for his children.

 

[Kemug]

Well, we don't really know what's going on with the children, do we? I have no reason to believe that their father isn't a good father, and perhaps his family are helping out with the kids. I also can't vilify KP for supporting his wife, as that's what he promised to do in his marriage vows. That's not to say that he doesn't (at last) see right through her.

 

[Cascadia Mount]

It's a good sign that we don't know what is going on with the children. It means their privacy is being respected which counts for a lot.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Come clean - did anyone here believe her story when this first happened?

Many did. It was an issue on the thread many many times, when folks were not in agreement on what the facts were actually pointing to. I haven't, but it would be interesting for sure, to scroll through the first pages of the thread, to get a feel for what was being said at the time. And who the first one was to publicly call BS, on the thread. Or in our case, the first one to mention the "Hinky Meter" going off.

 

[MrsWatson]

Come clean - did anyone here believe her story when this first happened?

Nope. Didn't comment much, or at all, on the thread, though I've always thought she faked the whole thing. I give her husband a big stink-eye as well, but he's not been charged so enough about him.

 

[Vacajoe]

Anyone familiar with the “abduction” area knew it was not likely. This was doubly-assured by those of us near the “recovery” area. Two very random places that didn’t fit the storyline in any way.

 

[RANCH]

Anyone familiar with the “abduction” area knew it was not likely. This was doubly-assured by those of us near the “recovery” area. Two very random places that didn’t fit the storyline in any way.

You say not likely. So it's not unfair to say it was okay for some to feel it was possible that SP was telling the truth. JMO.

 

[Seattle1]

You say not likely. So it's not unfair to say it was okay for some to feel it was possible that SP was telling the truth. JMO.

Huh? The truth?

I don't understand:

SP was collected by her former boyfriend at an arranged place and time where she remained with him at his home the entire time she was gone until he took her to the recovery location. Investigators have verified his account.

This very much pales from SP's version that she was abducted by two Hispanic women and kept in a closet until they deposited her at the fence.

Is this the 'truth' OP is referring to?

 

[RANCH]

Huh? The truth?

I don't understand:

SP was collected by her former boyfriend at an arranged place and time where she remained with him at his home the entire time she was gone until he took her to the recovery location. Investigators have verified his account.

This very much pales from SP's version that she was abducted by two Hispanic women and kept in a closet until they deposited her at the fence.

Is this the 'truth' OP is referring to?

I'm talking about before her arrest and the information about her fake abduction was released.

 

[ShHolmz]

You say not likely. So it's not unfair to say it was okay for some to feel it was possible that SP was telling the truth. JMO.

IMO… Absolutely, we are here to share ideas and hopes for all the victims.
Many on this forum believed her, many here did not.

That being said, she definitely got the side-eye from me!

 

[RANCH]

IMO… Absolutely, we are here to share ideas and hopes for all the victims.
Many on this forum believed her, many here did not.

That being said, she definitely got the side-eye from me!

Thank you. It doesn't really matter who was right or who was wrong in their feelings about this case. JMO.

 

[Lilibet]

I tried hard to believe that she had been abducted when she went missing, but I also believed, based on other cases, that she could have abandoned her family (as my grandmother did) or gone missing to commit suicide (Leanne Beardon). There was no real evidence she had been abducted other than her headphones with strands of hair, which says nothing. The “reverse ransom” and other fund raising didn’t set well with me, but it also means nothing. When she reappeared “on schedule” and her husband gave the “abducted by two Hispanic women” account, I thought “Hmmmmm” and my suspicions increased over time. But initially I would rather be wrong and victim-friendly than be suspicious and right.
JMO

 

[MsMarple]

I tried hard to believe that she had been abducted when she went missing, but I also believed, based on other cases, that she could have abandoned her family (as my grandmother did) or gone missing to commit suicide (Leanne Beardon). There was no real evidence she had been abducted other than her headphones with strands of hair, which says nothing. The “reverse ransom” and other fund raising didn’t set well with me, but it also means nothing. When she reappeared “on schedule” and her husband gave the “abducted by two Hispanic women” account, I thought “Hmmmmm” and my suspicions increased over time. But initially I would rather be wrong and victim-friendly than be suspicious and right.
JMO

Good points! The reverse ransom was bizarre IMO.

The whole "Supermom" stuff and the "signature hair" didn't help but other than gut feelings there really wasn't a lot early on that said hoax. I can see why some got suspicious while others believed the story.

The turning point for me was the story after SP's return. For some reason her descriptions smacked a bit to me like Willie Wilson's story about being attacked by a couple in an alley who took his newborn son and ran off. Video showed it never happened.

Too many questions remained. Most of all I never understood the point of the abduction. Sherri didn't fit the profile of someone a trafficker would choose. She was in her mid 30's. She came from a stable middle class home and would certainly be reported missing and searched for.

Why the branding? (Although that threw me as it didn't occur to me that someone would self harm to boost credibility). And why suddenly let her go after going to the trouble of imprisoning her in a boarded up house, feeding her, giving her clothes, etc.?

There have been a few cases here that turned out unexpectedly - Isabel Celis, Heidi Broussard for example. Cases like that remind us not to jump to conclusions. But it's hard to ignore the old hinky meter, even when it's wrong. In Sherri's case it was right on. MOO.

 

[minusfour]

I did at the start. I was really scared for her when she went missing. I couldn't imagine a happy ending. As it turned out, I was right about the ending only.

 

[Arkay]

At the beginning I certainly thought it was another abduction while a woman was out jogging alone.

I only recall something tingling in my brain because of her phone and accoutrements being neatly placed on the ground. That didn't add up for me--if she were violently grabbed while running, her phone and cords should have landed in some haywire fashion, probably broken.

But it seemed too incredible that it was fake, so I believed it.

When she was "found," again a lot of her story didn't seem rational, like her too vague description of her kidnappers, but the brand on her made me still kind of believe her, because she couldn't have done that to herself.

Never guessed that she was voluntarily with an old boyfriend. Super Villain Mom.

 

[Stripehaven]

I didn’t exactly suspect a hoax at first but the neatly wrapped headphones made me go hmmmm. Wasn’t sure if I suspected the husband or if she ran off.

 

[Iona]

If she has a mental or personality disorder, maybe I can condone her behaviour. But she is such a racist!

Hate to say this but in my own cryptic way I told you guys so…

 

[Iona]

Certainly Papini was NOT trafficked and she was ignorant of the subject. Pity she isn't sharing a cell with Ghislaine Maxwell, an expert on trafficking.

Education is the key to opportunity…