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

[ilovewings]

Wow!! About time. Hope she has to pay back all the money associated with searches, LE’s time, the courts time, the people that donated for search efforts, the victim money she got, compensation to all family affected, they are victims now, the list is endless!!! How can you go about your life knowing you did this awful thing that affected so many people. Blaming two Hispanic women is also a horrible thing to do. Disgraceful behaviour, I hope the punishment is as horrible as she made her family feel while she was gone. Moo

What she did was evil--- she is a piece of work-
I hope the punishment is severe-- I feel sorry for her husband
(x husband???)---- and her children

 

[LeeJay55]

What the heck took so long!
I never believed her story!
Will her boyfriend face charges for not.coming forward?

 

[ilovewings]

Wow!! About time. Hope she has to pay back all the money associated with searches, LE’s time, the courts time, the people that donated for search efforts, the victim money she got, compensation to all family affected, they are victims now, the list is endless!!! How can you go about your life knowing you did this awful thing that affected so many people. Blaming two Hispanic women is also a horrible thing to do. Disgraceful behaviour, I hope the punishment is as horrible as she made her family feel while she was gone. Moo

What she did was evil--- she is a piece of work-
I hope the punishment is severe-- I feel sorry for her husband

Wow!! About time. Hope she has to pay back all the money associated with searches, LE’s time, the courts time, the people that donated for search efforts, the victim money she got, compensation to all family affected, they are victims now, the list is endless!!! How can you go about your life knowing you did this awful thing that affected so many people. Blaming two Hispanic women is also a horrible thing to do. Disgraceful behaviour, I hope the punishment is as horrible as she made her family feel while she was gone. Moo

I think she has a sociopathic personality and most likely is unaffected
by her behavior-- she hurt so many people and continues to spin
her web of lies---
(x husband???)---- and her children

 

[Gardenista]

Sherri Papini arrest: Kidnapping was faked, officials say

Asked if Keith Papini is suspected of any involvement, U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Lauren Horwood said she is unable to make statements such as that. "What I can say is he's not being charged," she said.

 

[LeeJay55]

Its absolutely morally wrong, but his acts weren't criminal. Adults have the right to disappear and start a new life elsewhere if they want too and they have no legal obligation to tell anyone if their life that their leaving, thus there was no duty for him to tell police she was there.

It became a crime when she lied to presented them with false evidence. (misdemeanor, normal punishment small fine, so very rarely charged because prosecutors dont have time to focus on it)

that being said she was only offered support payments because they thought she was a kidnapping victim. accepting the payments on a known lie is fraud. she can be held liable:
criminally (pushishment with potential jail time) and
civilally (court can order her to pay back the money she accepted)

How about.Obstruction?
She was.all.over the news from the time she vanished!
The BF knew they believed she was kidnapped!

 

[LeeJay55]

Her sisters never seemed concerned....they said something about her pies lol which was odd. I think they had an idea.she took off!

 

[Angleterre]

Ha! It's about time. I never thought we'd see the day.

Sherri Papini arrested for making false statements about her kidnapping


Officials announced that 39-year-old Sherri Papini of Redding was arrested Thursday on charges of making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer and engaging in mail fraud.

<snip>


According to the criminal complaint filed in this case, on Nov. 2, 2016, Papini was reported missing, and extensive searches were conducted for her in Shasta County and California as well as in several other states.

<snip>

The DOJ says that in truth, Papini had been voluntarily staying with a former boyfriend in Costa Mesa and had harmed herself to support her false statements.

<snip>

According to the DOJ, in an interview conducted by a federal agent and a Shasta County Sheriff’s Office detective in August 2020, Papini was warned that it was a crime to lie to federal agents. She was presented with evidence that showed she had not been abducted. Instead of retracting her kidnapping story, Papini continued to make false statements about her purported abductors. In addition, Papini caused the California Victim’s Compensation Board to pay victim assistance money based on her kidnapping story. From 2017 through 2021, Papini’s request for victim assistance caused approximately 35 payments totaling over $30,000, including for visits to her therapist and for the ambulance that transported her to the hospital after her return.

I kept relatively quiet on this but I will now say ( and I know the rule of hindsight and it’s easy for me to say this now but….) that my gut told me from the off that she was lying. From an investigation viewpoint, there were so many parts that made no sense and in some cases ,contradicted themselves. Then you add in the lack of witnesses and the ‘almost never’ fact of only two people being involved who were both women ( I’m not being sexist here or saying that there are not evil women out there who commit atrocities but usually, crime pattern analysis and history of crime tells us that a woman is almost never involved in such a crime like this without there being male involvement) and then no real leads or suspects or people coming forward to claim the massive reward. Then the timing of her release and where when and how found and lastly her previous reports of her actions whereby deception and misdeeds and lack of knowledge of what the truth is, all played their part . Well done LE

 

[Angleterre]

@RANCH thanks for providing the Criminal Complaint. Just read through it now.

Whatever the ex-boyfriend believed at first, once he was aware that she was a missing person, is there a crime he committed by not informing LE? I know she wasn’t a fugitive so he wasn’t guilty of harboring one, and she’s an adult, but it doesn’t seem right that he could just allow her to stay there while knowing she was considered missing.

Morally wrong I know, but criminally, I’m unsure.

However, he admitted to branding her since she wanted him to, and I cannot understand any thinking adult who would go along with that.

In the U.K. caselaw this would be an offence of Obstruction

 

[Angleterre]

How about.Obstruction?
She was.all.over the news from the time she vanished!
The BF knew they believed she was kidnapped!

Spot on @LeeJay55

 

[LeeJay55]

In the U.K. caselaw this would be an offence of Obstruction

Here also!

 

[Angleterre]

Its absolutely morally wrong, but his acts weren't criminal. Adults have the right to disappear and start a new life elsewhere if they want too and they have no legal obligation to tell anyone if their life that their leaving, thus there was no duty for him to tell police she was there.

It became a crime when she lied to presented them with false evidence. (misdemeanor, normal punishment small fine, so very rarely charged because prosecutors dont have time to focus on it)

that being said she was only offered support payments because they thought she was a kidnapping victim. accepting the payments on a known lie is fraud. she can be held liable:
criminally (pushishment with potential jail time) and
civilally (court can order her to pay back the money she accepted)

This may be caselaw in the USA , I can’t comment on that because I don’t know but in the U.K. this is ABSOLUTELY the offence of Obstruction because there’s a criminal investigation taking place about the alleged abduction of a young mum who was subsequently missing and because of the details and circumstances of the case ( you have to go back and read up on the way she staged various things to add to LE thinking it was an abduction), and the fact that her (ex) boyfriend knew that she was reporting missing and probably the subject of an abduction, then he continued to allow her to stay with him and took part by branding her, and at no time once he became aware of the police investigation into her whereabouts , did he contact LE to tell them otherwise or to say she is safe and not abducted, he has embroiled himself into the offence . It could even be a joint enterprise offence if he knew her intentions from the start. And then we have offences of wasting police time and resources. This is not a case of a person missing and being allowed to be missing thus what has he done wrong. The reason it’s not is because of the way in which the investigation started based upon the way it was staged by Papini to look like an abduction, not simply a missing person. And even if you’re not convinced about that part, once she was found, she never told the truth and continued to let LE investigate for years and he comes into that also because he knew and said nothing, even when she went public and said I WAS ABDUCTED and it was all over news , social media etc and she continued the charade and at that point he definitely knew and got involved with the offence by branding her to make it seem more probable that an abduction took place potentially for human trafficking and yet he still DID NOT contact LE and tell them what he knew . He’s either a material witness or Co conspirator . So I’m sorry but I don’t agree with you when you ask what has he done wrong and you don’t believe he has any culpability and these are my reasons why . However I do accept that you are absolutely allowed to have a different opinion. I wish you well and respect your right to feel the way you do.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Yes, and as I mentioned earlier, I don't 'get' how the male DNA found on her underwear 'matches up' with the DNA later found on a bottle in the ex boyfriend's garbage with him; if he says in the statement that he did not have sexual relations with her. Obvious answer to that is that he was lying, but interesting nonetheless.

It is possible that the "ex-boyfriend" handled her underwear at some point, e.g. took them out of the dryer, moved them. It would not mean sex, necessarily.

 

[LeeJay55]

Im wondering if the (Branding) was a tattoo?
When exactly did she cut her hair? I kind d of believe she did it early on because she knew they were.looking for a log haired Sherri.
She should have fessed up because
"Oh what a Tangled web we weave"

 

[J. J. in Phila]

What the heck took so long!
I never believed her story!
Will her boyfriend face charges for not.coming forward?

My guess is no.

As pointed out, it was perfectly legal for Papini to vanish. It is perfectly legal to help someone do something perfectly legal.

I am surprised that LE did not check her prior contacts when she was missing.

 

[meanmaryjean]

I really want the State of California to charge her with SOMETHING so I can see a mug shot. (C'mon Feds- get it together!)

 

[scdiv]

Wow. Also, so weird to see those old articles and sketches - the masks and bandana coverings. I think I forgot there was a time when a faux description of those would have been associated with an intent to hide identity.

What a piece of work she was. But did not see this coming today. I always figured she would get away with it.

 

[LeeJay55]

Remember the mysterious anonymous person with the reward by a certain time?

 

[Fleur-de-lis]

Not-quite-instant karma gonna getcha, "Supermom." The "Hispanic women did it" part particularly was offensive and vicious; we've seen that "blame a minority" game plan before in true crime. And all that guff about "they cut my (SIGNATURE) long blonde hair!" I recall quite a few WS'ers were onto her, meself included...true crime is very weird but it just didn't ring true. Some WS'ers were onto the "gotta be a boyfriend" angle that I missed completely.

 

[TTF14]

After reading the affidavit I have a few questions and observations.

• There were a few people besides Sherri and the ex who knew about this. That's very curious. Really, nobody turned her in? Now, why would they do that?

• Ex made it sound like this was just something she instructed him to do with little say in the matter, yet they were talking for about a year with burner phones. Curious.

• She is sure to throw Cam Gamble in there and under the bus by mentioning the word Gamble, huh? I don't think he was involved other than trying to jump on the bandwagon and make a name for himself.

• Did she decide all on her own to go home and then somehow just had a bag of chains and whatnot? Thought she wasn't leaving the house so how did she get that?

• Pretty sure the affidavit says they cut pieces of her underwear to test, but it also said ex's DNA was found on her clothing. I don't recall it specifying it was found on the underwear so I suppose it is true this wasn't sexual, which of course then leads to the idea of more people than SP being involved and I'll leave it at that.

 

[CocoChanel]

Remember the mysterious anonymous person with the reward by a certain time?

Yes, and that is a part of this tangled tale I still have questions about.
The actions of this fraudster are more evidence to me to never underestimate the deception and damage a person with a serious mental health condition can do. Whether SP had an officially diagnosed mental health condition or not, I believe it is painfully obvious she has one. The havoc she left in the wake of this is one for the books, and IMHO only explainable with a deep-seated personality disorder. AND those are he!! to live with, both for the person with the disorder, PLUS and ESPECIALLY for everyone else in that person’s life.

Please note I am not a professional mental health expert, nor can ANYone diagnose from afar. Speculation about a specific disorder should only be done by VIs with this expertise, and my guess is they would hesitate to do so without personally examining the person. My comment is just to posit that IMHO something in SP’s emotional make-up is acutely off to have engaged in such a far-reaching, dramatic and damaging scam.