SACRAMENTO >> Sherri Papini disappeared from her Northern California neighborhood in November 2016, but she made it home in time for Thanksgiving.

Missing for 22 days, Papini reappeared bruised, branded and emaciated. Her blond hair was sloppily cut. She claimed two Latinas had kidnapped her at gunpoint and held her captive before having a sudden change of heart and releasing her.

Papini could not immediately recall many details from the ordeal and initially refused to talk with police. But less than a year after his wife returned home, Keith Papini contacted a federal agent. It was March 2017. His wife had had a breakthrough; she remembered that the room where she was held had orange carpet.

More details about her ordeal came about during therapy sessions.

But nearly six years after she disappeared, federal prosecutors said none of it was real.

She continued to lie about the incident even when confronted with the evidence by investigators. Until finally, in April, Papini pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents and mail fraud.

On Monday, Papini, 40, was sentenced in a Sacramento courtroom to 18 months in prison in connection with what her own attorney called a “non-sensical fantasy” that she had orchestrated herself.

Before Papini’s disappearance became national news, before her husband even knew she was missing, a man in Orange County set out to rescue her.

Not from her kidnappers. But from her allegedly cruel husband.

Only referred to as the “ex-boyfriend” in court documents, Papini’s childhood friend and former fiance talked to her in the months leading up to her disappearance. She claimed she was in an abusive relationship and that local police were not helping her, according to a criminal affidavit.

The week before the 2016 general election, she asked her old friend to come get her. On Nov. 2, the day of her disappearance, he set out from Costa Mesa.

When he drove to the outskirts of Redding, he found Papini walking along a two-lane road.

She later claimed that two Latinas had kidnapped her at gunpoint on the side of the road and forced her into a dark-colored SUV with tinted windows and no seats. During an interview with investigators after she returned home, her husband tried to get her to describe any details about the car ride after she was kidnapped.

Papini told her husband, “I don’t remember a lot. ... I’m missing time. ... The car smelled really bad. ... Like sewage. ... She stuck me with something. I kept falling asleep.”

In reality, prosecutors said, Papini had slipped into her ex-boyfriend’s Dodge and took a nap in the back seat as he drove them to his apartment in Costa Mesa. For 22 days, Papini lived in her ex-boyfriend’s apartment as Shasta County authorities and federal investigators followed leads.

But Papini was roughly 600 miles south.

The ex-boyfriend told investigators he didn’t know what to make of their arrangement He thought they would get back together. He said it was “not a sexual thing” and said he slept on his couch while she claimed his bedroom.

Just before she decided to go back home to Redding, Papini started to hurt herself, according to the ex-boyfriend, who told investigators she only ate small portions of food.

“Ex-boyfriend explained that Papini created the injuries while staying with him, including hitting herself to create bruises and burning herself on her arms,” according to a federal investigator’s criminal affidavit.

She told investigators her kidnappers had burned her after she tried to pull a board off a window during an escape attempt.

In reality, she had asked the ex-boyfriend to brand her, according to court documents.

By this time, Papini had told her old friend that she missed her family and two kids, who were 2 and 4 years old. She wanted to go back to Northern California.

So he drove her north from Costa Mesa. Prosecutors said the ex-boyfriend dropped Papini off in Yolo County near Interstate 5 and headed, alone, to a relative’s for Thanksgiving.

At around 4:30 a.m., the California Highway Patrol responded to calls of a woman running in the middle of the highway in Woodland, nearly 150 miles south of Redding. A truck driver stopped to help her. When police arrived, they found Papini with a chain around her waist, one of her arms bound and other bindings around her wrist and ankles, according to court documents.

“I know she was taken. My family knows she was taken,” her husband, Keith, told ABC’s “20/20” shortly after she returned home. “But you’re obviously not going to come out and say abduction, because you don’t have the evidence. That was a little rough for me to hear.”

It wasn’t until March 2020 that investigators found a possible relative of the man whose DNA had been found on Papini’s clothes. The person had two biological sons. One was Papini’s ex-boyfriend, according to prosecutors.

During an interview with investigators, the ex-boyfriend admitted he had helped Papini “run away.” But he didn’t come forward after he learned of the nationwide search and her claim that she had been kidnapped.

Papini was confronted by investigators during an interview in August 2020 and reminded that it was a crime to lie to federal officers. But she continued to claim she was abducted, according to the criminal affidavit. Investigators showed her photos from the ex-boyfriend’s apartment and told her that they spoke to the family of the people who knew she was there.

She continued to deny that her ex-boyfriend was involved and said she had not spoken to him in years. Then her husband left the interview, according to court records, and she continued to deny that she was with her ex-boyfriend.

Investigators said Keith Papini, now 38, used a portion of $50,000 raised from a GoFundMe campaign meant to pay for her search to pay off credit card bills. He has since divorced her. Papini also received more than $30,000 from a state victim’s compensation fund, which she used to pay for medical bills, including therapy, and to purchase blinds for her home.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Veronica Algeria said in court filings that Papini’s “kidnapping hoax was deliberate, well-planned and sophisticated.”

“Papini’s false reports about being kidnapped were not something she invented after her return to avoid the repercussions of running away from her husband and family,” Algeria wrote. “Rather, the evidence shows that Papini planned this hoax before her disappearance.”

Her attorney, William Portanova, said in a court filing that his client has “chameleonic personalities” and her life was painful until she was married and began a family.

On Monday, Papini apologized in court just before U.S. District Judge William Shubb sentenced her to 18 months in prison and ordered her to pay more than $300,000 in restitution.

“I’m so sorry to the many people who suffered because of me,” Papini said through tears. Friends and family from Redding watched from the audience as she apologized to the court.

“I am guilty, your honor. I am guilty of lying, guilty of dishonor,” Papini said. She said she was willing to accept the court’s judgment. She thanked the government for exposing her hoax and for allowing her to take a plea agreement.