Sherri Papini, a 34-year-old woman, left her husband and two kids at home in Redding, California, on November 2nd, 2016, and disappeared for three weeks.
Later, she was found by the side of a highway with a bag over her head and very thin, weighing only 40kg. She said two Hispanic women had kidnapped and hurt her.
Two strange DNA samples were found, but they didn’t match anyone in the police database. Between 2017 and 2021, Sherri got thousands of dollars from the California Victim Compensation Board.
The police kept searching for the kidnappers until March 2022, when one DNA sample matched Sherri’s ex-boyfriend, James Reyes.
James said the whole story was fake.
Sherri was sentenced to 18 months in prison and had to pay a $300,000 fine for making up the kidnapping and lying to federal agents.