Sherri Papini Leaves Halfway House, Finishes Incarceration 8 Months Early After Faking Kidnapping

Papini was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in September 2022 for lying about being the victim of a violent abduction in November 2016

Sherri Papini, the California woman who made headlines for faking her own kidnapping in 2016, has been released from a halfway house.

Papini, 41, was released on Friday, eight months early in her 18-month prison sentence, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

She had been under community confinement at a halfway house after being transferred in August from a satellite facility of the Federal Correctional Institution Victorville Medium I in Victorville, California, according to CBS News. The Daily Mail obtained photos reportedly showing Papini leaving the halfway house. She will now remain on supervised release for three years.

Related: Sherri Papini Released from Prison After Sentence for Faking Kidnapping

In 2016, the then-34-year-old wife and mother of two, claimed to have been the victim of a violent abduction while she was out on a morning run in her Redding, California, neighborhood on Nov. 2. After her husband, Keith Papini, reported her missing that evening, an extensive search was conducted.

Twenty-two days later, on Nov. 24, Papini was spotted by a passing motorist, walking alongside a rural road near Sacramento, more than 150 miles from the site of her alleged kidnapping. She was bound with restraints at the time.

Papini told authorities that she had managed to escape her captors, who she described as two Hispanic women. She said the women abducted her at gunpoint and forced her into an SUV.

"These Hispanic females are armed, considered dangerous and they have a handgun, at least a handgun with them," Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko told reporters during a press conference at the time.

However, by the following year, Papini's story quickly began to unravel as investigators turned up key evidence that contradicted her kidnapping claim.

Related: The Piece of Evidence that Broke Open the Sherri Papini Case

Charging documents released later in the investigation revealed that DNA evidence taken from the clothing Papini was wearing when she was found did not belong to her supposed female abductors. Instead, the DNA was matched to an offender related to an ex-boyfriend of Papini's.

Investigators later pulled DNA from an iced tea bottle retrieved from the ex-boyfriend's trash. Upon being interviewed, the ex-boyfriend admitted to helping Papini "run away" because she alleged that her husband abused her.

While her family believed she was missing, Papini was actually hiding out in her ex-boyfriend's Costa Mesa apartment. After 22 days off the radar, Papini told her former boyfriend she missed her children and wanted to go home.

The ex-boyfriend told investigators Papini hit and burned herself to create injuries and asked him to drop her on the side of the road where she was later discovered.

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On April 12, 2022, Papini was charged with one count of making false statements to a federal agent and 34 counts of mail fraud. She pleaded guilty on April 18, 2022, admitting that her kidnapping claim was completely fabricated.

Two days later, her husband filed for divorce, claiming in the court filing obtained by PEOPLE that the family was traumatized by his wife's disappearance and kidnapping hoax.

Papini was sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release, on Sept. 19, 2022. She was also ordered to pay $309,902 in restitution for losses incurred during the search for her. Papini turned herself in to authorities on Nov. 8, 2022, to begin serving out her sentence.

During her trial, Papini told the courtroom she was "deeply ashamed" of her behavior and "sorry for the pain I've caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needlessly suffered… I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done."

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