Sherri Papini, the so-called “Super Mom” charged with faking her own kidnapping six years ago, has agreed to a plea deal admitting that she orchestrated the hoax.
Papini released a statement through her attorney on Tuesday saying she was “deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so sorry for the pain I’ve caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needless suffered because of my story,” the Sacramento Bee reported.
“I will work for the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done,” she said.
Papini, 39, was reported missing on November 2, 2016, and told investigators when she was found 22 days laer that a pair of Hispanic women kidnapped her at gunpoint, as CrimeOnline previously reported. She provided a description for a sketch artist and provided detailed desciptions of how the two women treated her.
Papini was arrested last month after a lengthy investigation determined that the entire story was false and that she had actually been at an ex-boyfriend’s home 600 miles away from her own in Shasta County.
Federal prosecutors filed a charging document on Tuesday afternoon charging her with 34 counts of mail fraud and one count of making false statements.
Papini signed the plea agreement Tuesday morning, her attorney, William Portanova, told the Bee.
“Defendant Sherri Papini knowingly planned and participated in her own hoax kidnapping and then made materially false statements to FBI agents about the circumstances of her disappearance and committed mail fraud based on her hoax kidnapping,” the plea agreement documents filed in federal court say.
The Bee said that Papini is expected before a magistrate judge this week, at which time she will plead not guilty. She’ll then return to court before a district court judge to change her plea to guilty of one count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements.
Papini said her kidnappers abused her and then shoved her out of a car on Interstate 5 in Yolo County, where she was found tied around the hands and ankles with a metal chain around her waist. She was emaciated, her hair was cut shorter, and she had cuts and bruises all over her body.
But prosecutors said she caused the injuries herself. The case was broken in 2020 when DNA led investigators to Papini’s ex, who told them she had been with him the entire time and had not been kidnapped.
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[Featured image: Sherri Papini/Handout]
