Sherri Papini admits she’s ’embarrassed’ she staged kidnapping during tearful police interrogation
A MOM who staged her own kidnapping admitted she was "embarrassed" by the hoax during a tearful police interrogation.
Sherri Papini, 39, spoke of her shame after her abduction was revealed to be a fake plot so she could be with a secret ex-boyfriend.
She pleaded guilty in April to mail fraud and making false statements after sparking a frantic search in November 2016.
The mum eventually reappeared 22 days later, found bound and gagged on the side of Interstate 5, claiming two Hispanic women had abducted her while she was out on a jog.
But she had actually been staying with a former flame, James Reyes, around 600 miles away from her California home.
Papini even faked various injuries and even a branding mark, until cops realized they were "self-inflicted".
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It transpired that she had recruited her lover to help her hurt herself and brand her to bolster her fabricated story.
After cops confronted her during an interrogation in August 2020, which aired on ABC's 20/20 on Friday, she began sobbing to detectives.
Papini wept: "That's another thing I'm scared about. I don't know you guys. I don't know if you're in my corner.
"I know my husband's in my corner, but … there was a lot of other things, and I know that you guys know everything about everything, and it's embarrassing and yucky, and that's weird for me."
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Her husband Keith Papini had desperately searched for his wife and has been left "traumatized" after discovering her web of lies.
Reyes said of the plot in the 20/20 episode: "She was trying to get away from her husband."
Papini was wearing a bandage over her nose, which was broken as part of her ruse, in the recorded interview with officers.
While moving the nation with her harrowing fake kidnap story, Papini also allegedly lied to the California Victim Compensation Board and the Social Security Administration to receive financial benefits.
Police began to poke holes in her tale, discovering DNA belonging to her ex-boyfriend Reyes on the mum following her disappearance.
In a separate August 2020 interview, the mum pleaded with cops not to pursue charges against one of her fake abductors, before officers revealed they knew she was lying.
They explained they had spoken to Reyes and that his account had been corroborated by a polygraph test.
I know that you guys know everything about everything, and it's embarrassing and yucky, and that's weird for me.
Sherri Papini
Investigators told her: "We talked to him. We’ve been on a polygraph. We talked to everybody around him. We have the rental agreements.
"Phone rental, car rental agreements. We have everything that says that he said he told the truth."
They went on to explain away her deceit with the real reasons for her alleged injuries.
The 39-year-old began to break down and wailed in fear, crying "No," as the damning evidence was presented to her.
The mum had managed to fool the community into thinking she had been abducted before her claims were proved to be a complete fallacy.
Ahead of her sentencing, she admitted to the "awful hoax" and said her guilt is "already intense and feels like a life sentence".
Her husband, Keith Papini, filed for divorce two days after his wife's guilty plea and demanded custody of their two children.
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Papini was sentenced to 18 months in prison in her case and ordered to pay more than $300,000 in restitution to federal, state and local agencies.
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She was ordered to turn herself in by November 8 to begin serving time in jail.
