Sherri Papini pleads guilty to kidnapping hoax that led to massive search

The California native pleads guilty to scheme that triggered three-week search before she resurfaced on Thanksgiving day in 2016

Sherri Papini, the California woman whose disappearance made national headlines and sparked a massive search before she reappeared on Thanksgiving day in 2016, pleaded guilty on Monday to faking her own kidnapping and lying to the FBI.

The 39-year-old from Redding, in the state's far north, did not offer any explanation for the elaborate hoax or why she claimed two Hispanic women" had kidnapped her at gunpoint and chained her to a pole for three weeks while depriving her of food, beating and branding her.