Sherri Papini Accused of Faking Her Own Kidnapping: "So many people, so many resources" — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:02coming up federal investigators say that
3. 0:04she faked this
4. 0:05that this was not
5. 0:07a kidnapping
6. 0:08that she willfully went with an
7. 0:10ex-boyfriend and made up a story for
8. 0:12vault studios i'm will johnson you're
9. 0:14listening to the daily crime
10. 0:17[Applause]
11. 0:22a northern california woman whose
12. 0:24disappearance and mysterious
13. 0:26reappearance set off a frantic search
14. 0:28more than five years ago was arrested
15. 0:30just last week this is the 9-1-1 call
16. 0:33her husband made when he discovered
17. 0:34sherry papini was missing back in
18. 0:36november of 2016. i just got home from
19. 0:38work and uh my wife wasn't there which
20. 0:41is unusual i found her phone and it's
21. 0:43got like hair ripped out of it in the
22. 0:45headphones so i'm like totally freaking
23. 0:47out thinking somebody like what's here
24. 0:49papini is now facing charges of lying to
25. 0:51federal agents and defrauding the
26. 0:53state's victim compensation board a
27. 0:55gofundme campaign raised more than 49
28. 0:57thousand dollars to help the family
29. 0:58which the couple used to pay off bills
30. 1:00and for other expenses according to the
31. 1:02court filing
32. 1:04the 39 year old mother from readings
33. 1:06being accused of making false statements
34. 1:07to a federal officer and mail fraud for
35. 1:10allegedly accepting tens of thousands of
36. 1:12dollars in victims assistance funds
37. 1:15those who aided in her search are
38. 1:17disappointed missing persons
39. 1:19investigator bill garcia out of san
40. 1:20diego has dedicated the past 30 years to
41. 1:23helping find missing children and women
42. 1:26help lead searches for papini so many
43. 1:29people so many resources so much
44. 1:31financial burden
45. 1:33was put out to find this young lady
46. 1:39i'm joined by investigative reporter and
47. 1:41anchor madison wade at abc 10 in
48. 1:43sacramento madison thanks for being here
49. 1:44with us yeah thank you so much madison
50. 1:47take us back to november 2016 and
51. 1:50what we heard what was reported back
52. 1:52then about sherry papini and a
53. 1:53kidnapping taking place yeah so what we
54. 1:56know about the timeline of the events
55. 1:58that led up to her now arrest is on
56. 2:01november 2nd 2016
57. 2:04she was reported missing by her husband
58. 2:06keith she was last seen jogging on
59. 2:09sunrise drive wearing a pink running
60. 2:11jacket and at the time what was
61. 2:13interesting is they found her headphones
62. 2:15allegedly that she was using while she
63. 2:18was jogging but her headphones were
64. 2:20neatly placed on the side of the road it
65. 2:22wasn't like they were ripped
66. 2:24there were just some interesting tidbits
67. 2:27when she initially was reported missing
68. 2:30and as you can imagine
69. 2:32reading is a very tight-knit community
70. 2:34so when she went missing this was big
71. 2:36big news um people in in reading don't
72. 2:39just get kidnapped often um there have
73. 2:41been some missing persons cases in
74. 2:43reading that have rose to national
75. 2:45attention but um her case really quickly
76. 2:48became a national story she was a mom
77. 2:51um or she is a mom rather she is a wife
78. 2:54um
79. 2:55she you know lived in a very rural area
80. 2:58and so this was just a very shocking
81. 3:01initial case to cover um when she went
82. 3:04missing and when her her husband
83. 3:06reported her not coming home after she
84. 3:08went on a draw a jog and madison people
85. 3:11not familiar with reading that's in
86. 3:13northern california
87. 3:15north of san francisco yeah yeah so it's
88. 3:17about two and a half hours north of
89. 3:19sacramento about uh you know three and a
90. 3:22half hours four hour drive to san
91. 3:24francisco um it's right on i-5 the
92. 3:27redding area but she wasn't reported
93. 3:29missing from reading she was actually
94. 3:30reported missing from the county and
95. 3:32again a very rural area was the an area
96. 3:35where they started to do the search was
97. 3:37old oregon trail and sunset drive i mean
98. 3:39that's a very remote area imagine
99. 3:42jogging along an area without a sidewalk
100. 3:45that's where she was somewhere very
101. 3:46remote and rural um only you know a few
102. 3:49neighborhoods out there it really wasn't
103. 3:52well developed where she was jogging so
104. 3:54a period of weeks go by right and she
105. 3:56she's missing and then all of a sudden
106. 3:57turns up yeah she was found on
107. 4:00thanksgiving morning
108. 4:02that alone was something a lot of people
109. 4:05were suspicious about even myself as a
110. 4:07journalist it seemed very coincidental
111. 4:09that someone who was missing for several
112. 4:12weeks
113. 4:13with just no trace of her at all
114. 4:16and her family doing several interviews
115. 4:18begging for attention and then for her
116. 4:21to be found on thanksgiving morning in
117. 4:24yolo county which is um about a two-hour
118. 4:26drive from the reading shasta county
119. 4:28area
120. 4:29everyone was just so grateful everyone
121. 4:31was so amazed that she was alive she was
122. 4:34okay
123. 4:35relatively speaking
124. 4:37her physical appearance was very
125. 4:38different but again she was found um she
126. 4:41was reunited with her family after
127. 4:43investigators interviewed her and then
128. 4:46an even bigger twist and this story
129. 4:48started to reveal itself and and we'll
130. 4:50get to that
131. 4:52her you mentioned her appearance and i
132. 4:53mean her hair
133. 4:54had been cut short right and she had
134. 4:56scratches and bruises and things like
135. 4:57that right yeah she was so according to
136. 5:01sheriff tom bisenko at the time with the
137. 5:02shasta county sheriff's office
138. 5:04she was found on the side of i-5
139. 5:08at the intersection of country road 17
140. 5:10and i-5 in yolo county again very rural
141. 5:13there is literally nothing around there
142. 5:16besides farmland and a deputy was
143. 5:19actually the one who came across her she
144. 5:21was bound with restraints according to
145. 5:23investigators she had a message branded
146. 5:25on her um in that message we don't know
147. 5:28really what it said and she was just she
148. 5:31had scratches on her bruises on her she
149. 5:33had a bruised nose her hair was cut
150. 5:36short um i think she was wearing minimal
151. 5:38clothing as well so this was very just
152. 5:42you know shocking to get those details
153. 5:44because then it made it seem like okay
154. 5:46well
155. 5:47who took her right if she was bound with
156. 5:49restraints i mean someone put those
157. 5:51restraints on her so of course as
158. 5:53journalists you know we started to try
159. 5:55our best to paint the picture of what
160. 5:57happened to her
161. 5:58and did investigators learn a lot more
162. 6:00about her alleged captors early on yeah
163. 6:04so at first the sheriff's office in
164. 6:06shasta county as well as yolo county
165. 6:09they believe whoever abducted her were
166. 6:11two hispanic female adults who were
167. 6:14driving an suv and they were armed with
168. 6:16a handgun um we also at one point had a
169. 6:20sketch
170. 6:21uh
171. 6:22drawn out about these two women um one
172. 6:24had like a mask covering her face with
173. 6:27with really shaven eyebrows um it just
174. 6:30seemed like a very
175. 6:32interesting twist to this whole
176. 6:34situation um but we were never told you
177. 6:38know what she was doing for those three
178. 6:40weeks that she was missing we we had no
179. 6:42idea we just know that you know the
180. 6:44search was on for two hispanic female
181. 6:47adults driving around in an suv a lot of
182. 6:50people were curious is this a human
183. 6:51trafficking case
184. 6:53what why was she kidnapped why was she
185. 6:55targeted so there was now a lot of fear
186. 6:58in the community over who did this to
187. 7:00her and madison one detail i wanted to
188. 7:02ask you about there was also
189. 7:04some discussion or information
190. 7:07i'm assuming it came from investigators
191. 7:09that she had had contact with another
192. 7:12man from out of state on or around the
193. 7:14time of her kidnapping is that right so
194. 7:16yeah initially of course a lot of people
195. 7:18were looking at keith her husband right
196. 7:20um because he was the last person to
197. 7:22have seen her he also reported her
198. 7:24missing he found her cell phone and
199. 7:26earphones well he passed a lie detector
200. 7:29test
201. 7:30they also cleared a detroit man that
202. 7:32they said papini had texted and planned
203. 7:34to meet shortly before she disappeared
204. 7:37so he was in california at the time of
205. 7:39her disappearance but told investigators
206. 7:41they never met though they had spent a
207. 7:43weekend together in 2011 five years
208. 7:46before she went missing so of course
209. 7:48that was interesting right but he was
210. 7:50cleared um he had an alibi and and so
211. 7:53really they were back to square one
212. 7:58so madison sherry papini goes missing
213. 8:00back in november of 2016. she turns up
214. 8:03on thanksgiving day she has this story
215. 8:05of captors and
216. 8:07really the years go by and people
217. 8:10sort of wonder what the heck happened to
218. 8:12her but but it's never determined we
219. 8:14never have heard much more as far as i
220. 8:16know bring us up to the latest
221. 8:18developments yeah so she had both male
222. 8:20and female dna on her body and clothing
223. 8:23when she was found
224. 8:24it's always the dna right the dna
225. 8:26eventually led to a former boyfriend in
226. 8:292020 that's all according to court
227. 8:31documents that we haven't been able to
228. 8:33see yet so the former boyfriend told
229. 8:35investigators that papini stayed with
230. 8:37him at his house during the time she was
231. 8:39gone during the whole time she was
232. 8:41missing and said that she had asked him
233. 8:43to come to reading to pick her up though
234. 8:45he said they never had sex so his
235. 8:47account was verified when authorities
236. 8:49tracked the locations of two prepaid
237. 8:51phones that they've been using to
238. 8:53secretly talk to each other as early as
239. 8:55december 2015 all according to again a
240. 8:5855-page court affidavit filed uh to
241. 9:01support these criminal charges we're now
242. 9:03talking about
243. 9:05so to even corroborate that story even
244. 9:07more a cousin of the former boyfriend
245. 9:09told investigators that he saw papini at
246. 9:12that man's apartment twice
247. 9:14we don't know
248. 9:16um exactly what the conditions you know
249. 9:18of of seeing her were like but
250. 9:21both times she was unrestrained so it
251. 9:24seemed like she was willfully there
252. 9:27about three weeks later records backed
253. 9:30the ex-boyfriend's story so it turns out
254. 9:33according to these records he rented a
255. 9:35car and drove papini back up to northern
256. 9:37california so according again to the
257. 9:40court documents he drove up to reading
258. 9:42to grab her
259. 9:43um and i don't mean grab by kidnapping i
260. 9:45mean
261. 9:46hey come with me we're going to go down
262. 9:47to southern california for a little trip
263. 9:51and then drove her right back up to
264. 9:52northern california
265. 9:54so that's what we know so far and again
266. 9:56these court documents are are sealed to
267. 9:58our knowledge because um she was just
268. 10:00arrested
269. 10:01and her family has actually released a
270. 10:04statement can you tell us about that um
271. 10:06so yeah the family has released a
272. 10:07statement to abc news they say
273. 10:10we love sherry we are appalled by the
274. 10:12way in which law enforcement ambushed
275. 10:14her this afternoon in a dramatic and
276. 10:16unnecessary manner in front of her
277. 10:17children if requested sherry would have
278. 10:20fully complied and come to the police
279. 10:21station as she has done multiple times
280. 10:24before where this could have been
281. 10:25handled in a more appropriate way sherry
282. 10:27and keith have cooperated with law
283. 10:29enforcement's requests despite repeated
284. 10:31attempts to unnecessarily pit them
285. 10:33against each other empty threats to
286. 10:35publicly embarrass them and other
287. 10:37conduct that was less than professional
288. 10:39we're confused by several aspects of the
289. 10:41charges and hope to get clarification in
290. 10:43the coming days
291. 10:44if these charges hold up uh
292. 10:47i mean it it seems that
293. 10:50a lot of time was wasted yeah and i mean
294. 10:53i think what is so interesting about
295. 10:56this is
296. 10:57dna i mean it comes down to just the
297. 10:59basic science that on her body
298. 11:03she had male and female dna
299. 11:06and they were able to track it down to
300. 11:08an ex-boyfriend i mean how much more
301. 11:09simple can it be
302. 11:11um this is again all according to court
303. 11:12documents we haven't seen she again is
304. 11:15arrested she hasn't hasn't gone to court
305. 11:17yet so you know we sh we shall see
306. 11:20what's going to happen but
307. 11:22dna is really hard to disprove
308. 11:25in a case like this
309. 11:26yeah and we hear it all the time solving
310. 11:29cold cases or you know murder cases
311. 11:32quite often but
312. 11:33i don't know if we've heard something
313. 11:34quite like this one yeah exactly and i
314. 11:37also want to pull up you know
315. 11:39a statement from the sheriff from shasta
316. 11:41county because i think
317. 11:43that alone also just just goes to show
318. 11:45that
319. 11:46this took a lot of time and research um
320. 11:50and and just something that you know the
321. 11:52sheriff's office dedicated so much time
322. 11:54to
323. 11:55and then you add in the amount of money
324. 11:58that was poured into a search like this
325. 12:00in an investigation like this and again
326. 12:02we're talking now because federal
327. 12:04investigators say that she faked this
328. 12:06that this was not
329. 12:08a kidnapping that she willfully went
330. 12:10with an ex-boyfriend and made up a story
331. 12:13and that's all according to the fbi
332. 12:16federal investigators but
333. 12:18um what's really interesting to me is is
334. 12:20the sheriff's office releasing a
335. 12:21statement saying how much this
336. 12:23exemplifies the fbi's commitment to
337. 12:25making sure that they are examining all
338. 12:27the facts and seeking the truth no
339. 12:29matter how long this process takes she
340. 12:31went missing in 2016. we're here in 2022
341. 12:34and now she's facing charges um
342. 12:36and it's just a very fascinating turn of
343. 12:39events for something
344. 12:41like this caliber this case really
345. 12:43captured so much attention across the
346. 12:45country all right madison wade we'll see
347. 12:47how this progresses through the legal
348. 12:48system madison wade at abc 10 in
349. 12:50sacramento thanks again for being here
350. 12:51with us we appreciate it thank you i
351. 12:53appreciate you
352. 12:57thanks for listening to the daily crime
353. 12:58be sure to check out our weekly show
354. 13:00true crime chronicles available wherever
355. 13:02you listen to podcast for vault studios
356. 13:04i'm will johnson