(Redding, CA) — The Redding mom who created a national frenzy when she concocted a phony kidnapping is out of prison. Officials say Sherry Papini is no longer in a federal prison and will be officially released from custody in late October. Papini created national headlines when she vanished in Redding in 2016 and emerged three weeks later in Southern California bruised and battered. Papini said at the time she had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Hispanic women. Investigators determined years later that Papini had actually had an ex-boyfriend pick her up in Redding and drive her to Southern California, where she concocted the whole bogus kidnapping story.

She was arrested early last year on multiple charges, including the fact that she had collected thousands of dollars in benefits by perpetuating the false kidnapping story.

Papini was ordered to pay over 300-thousand dollars in restitution