California mother Sherri Papini whose 2016 disappearance mimicked the plot of Gone Girl has been released from prison after serving just half of her 18-month sentence.
Papini, 41, was jailed nine months ago in November 2022 after pleading guilty to faking her own kidnapping and lying to the FBI.
In November 2016, Papini disappeared from her Redding, California, neighborhood while out for a jog.
The married mom-of-two returned weeks later hundreds of miles away 'dazed, battered and bruised,' and insisted she was held captive for 22 days by two fictional Latina women.
Investigators began to uncover Papini's past leading up to her disappearance, including the involvement of her ex-lover, James Reyes, who prosecutors said she convinced to help her amid domestic abuse allegations against her husband.
Papini was finally arrested in March 2022 and pleaded guilty to the allegations in April 2022. She will now remain under probation for the next 36 months.
Papini arrives at the federal courthouse for sentencing accompanied by her attorney, William Portanova, in Sacramento
Papini pictured as he leaves the court after being sentenced to 18 months in prison
Keith - with whom she shares children Tyler, 8, and Violet, 10 - filed for divorce on Wednesday - two days after she pleaded guilty
Papini served her sentence at the Federal Correctional Institute in Victorville until being moved earlier this month on August 16 to a facility run by Sacramento's Residential Reentry Management field office - essentially a halfway house.
It's not clear where Papini was placed following her release, but the Federal Bureau of Prisons website continues to list her release date as October 29, 2023.
During a sentencing hearing, prosecutors said that it was vital that Papini serve out her full sentence in prison. In court filings they wrote: 'There needs to be just punishment for her conduct.'
While her lawyers argued that a house arrest would be more appropriate, in addition to one month behind bars.
The mother of two was arrested in March 2022 after fooling the whole world about her disappearance.
Her husband reported her missing in November 2016 when she failed to pick their children up from school. Her cell phone and earbuds were later found on the running track she used.
Weeks later she was found after allegedly being tortured and starved by her captors, whose faces she said she never saw, before being dumped by the side of the road on Thanksgiving.
When Papini was found, she had bindings on her body and self-inflicted injuries including a swollen nose and blurred 'brand' on her right shoulder. She had other bruises and rashes on many parts of her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm.
Her signature blonde hair had been cut.
Police said she made up the whole story to get attention and was staying with her ex-boyfriend for the 22 days she went missing.
Papini's antics were eerily similar to those of the main character in Gillian Flynn's smash-hit thriller novel Gone Girl, which was later turned into a thriller starring Rosamund Pike as a vanishing wife.
Sherri Papini leaves the federal courthouse after her arraignment in Sacramento in April 2022
Sherri Papini is pictured in a relative's Facebook post from November 2016
Sherri Papini is seen in a Facebook photo posted by her sister, Sheila Koester
Police and the world were on the lookout for Sherri when she went missing in 2016. When Papini arrived back in 2022 she told the hoax of her disappearance and convinced the world of her story before she was formally charged earlier this year
Sherri Papini of Redding is pictured leaving the federal courthouse accompanied by her attorney, William Portanova, right, in Sacramento, Calif., on April 13, 2022
Papini, a mother of two, faked her kidnapping in 2016, including a number of self-inflicted injuries that she presented to police and medical examiners
Her plot was ultimately foiled when law enforcement discovered she had been sheltering with her ex-boyfriend, who helped her inflict some of the wounds she re-emerged with
James Reyes told police that Papini caused self-inflicted injuries while staying with him, including hitting herself to create bruises and burning herself on her arms
The mother of two convinced James Reyes, her ex-boyfriend, to pick her up and drive her to his Southern California apartment after telling him her husband Keith was 'abusing' her.
Reyes, 37, previously confessed to the plot after being identified by DNA found on Sherri's clothes through a familial match.
He told police how he and Sherri dated in 2006 and 'loved' each other. She randomly got in touch with him in 2016 again, he said, and told him that her husband was abusing her.
Papini and Reyes then spoke on pre-paid cell phones, arranging for her to run away for months before November 2, when he collected her from Redding and the alleged hoax started.
The ex-boyfriend admitted to investigators that he thought their relationship would become romantic once they were back at his apartment in Costa Mesa, but that it never did.
Instead, Sherri took over his bedroom and he slept on the couch. She locked herself away in the room, starved herself and cut off her hair then started inflicting injuries on herself.
Reyes said how she convinced him to brand her with a hot tool, then asked him to drive her seven hours north, back to her home in Redding, on November 24. He also said Papini caused her self-inflicted injuries while staying with him.
He was unaware of the media storm that had brewed over the three weeks because he did not have a TV, he said.
Keith said he was duped by his wife and later filed for divorce in April - two days after she pleaded guilty to faking her own kidnapping.
The couple married in 2009 and share two children, Tyler, 10, and Violet, 12.
Sherri with her husband Keith on their wedding day. The mother of two told her ex-lover she had to run away because Keith was abusing her
Sherri Papini and husband Keith
Sherri Papini and husband Keith are seen in a Facebook photo posted online
Keith and Sherri Papini with their kids, Tyler and Violet
In a statement issues last year, Papini apologized for the pain she caused her family and friends.
'I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so very sorry for the pain I've caused my family, my friends, all the good people who needlessly suffered because of my story, and those who worked so hard to try to help me.
'I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done,' Papini said in the statement.
Papini had received psychiatric care for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder ever since her return - more than $30,000 worth of treatment for which she billed a state victim compensation fund and which is now part of her restitution.
In their criminal complaint, police detailed how Papini and her husband spent money donated to them by strangers on her therapy and on improving their home.
Roman Catholic Deacon and news anchor Mike Mangas revealed in the upcoming HLN investigation documentary, Runaway Mom: The Sherri Papini Story, that investigators found a new marking on the supermom's shoulder when she returned from her 'abduction.'
'The sheriff asked me, because I'm a deacon in my church, asked me about a certain Bible verse,' Mangas said in an exclusive clip of the documentary obtained by DailyMail.com.
'And so I told him it's Exodus 21:16, and it says something to the effect of 'if anyone has kidnapped someone, they should be put to death.' That was branded onto Sherri's shoulder.
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