Fake Disappearances | Sherri Papini & Madison Bell

There are some cases that captivate the attention of the entire world – Elizabeth Smart and Gabby Petito are names that we would all recognize.

I am sure that most of us also know the name Sherri Papini.  Sherri’s case got worldwide attention back in 2016 when she was abducted.  Her husband Keith raised the alarm when Sherri was not home when he finished work for the day.  She had also failed to pick up her two children from daycare.

The search for Sherri cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and went on for weeks.  On November 24, 2016, 22 days after she was reported missing, Sherri was found alive on the side of a road in Yolo County, California.  She was battered, branded and bruised but otherwise okay.

We all breathed a collective sigh of relief – thank goodness for a happy ending! 

Until more details emerged.  Allegations of Sherri’s racist background and details that did not add up made some of us wonder about the validity of her story.   As the years went on, I think many people assumed that Sherri had not told the truth about her experience, but that nothing would ever come of it. 

In March 2022, Sherri Papini was charged with making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer and mail fraud.  Her whole abduction was a lie and she schemed a plan at the time to run off to be with an ex boyfriend, leaving her husband and young children to worry for weeks.

In this episode of the True Crime Society Podcast, we discuss the ‘abductions’ of Sherri Papini and Madison Bell.  

Madison vanished in 2020 after she told her mother that she was ‘going tanning’.  Her car was found abandoned and the FBI got involved.  It turns out that Madison fled to be with a man that she had been speaking with online. 

You can view our blog for Sherri here - https://truecrimesocietyblog.com/2022/03/13/the-abduction-of-sherri-papini/

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