It’s a small world, in any case.
A contestant on the brand new season of “Survivor” allegedly dated Sherri Papini, the California lady who was sentenced to 18 months in jail for faking her kidnapping in Sept. 2022.
Shauhin Davari was introduced as one of many 18 individuals competing on “Survivor 48,” premiering Feb. 26, by CBS on Wednesday.
Davari is a 38-year-old debate professor who lives in Costa Mesa, Calif.
However essentially the most surprising truth about Davari is his previous connection to Papini.
In 2016, Papini disappeared for 22 days whereas allegedly on a jog in Redding, Calif. When she resurfaced, she claimed she was kidnapped by two masked Hispanic girls.
Nevertheless, after a years-long investigation, authorities found that Papini orchestrated the kidnapping along with her ex-boyfriend. She was arrested in 2022 and launched from jail in Aug. 2023.
After the reality about Papini got here out, Davari revealed in a 2022 interview with Inside Version that they allegedly dated when she was 20 and he was 15.
“She’s a compulsive liar,” Davari mentioned about Papini. “She would not talk to you for three or four days, and then all of a sudden there’d be some fantastical story about what happened.”
Davari claimed Papini instructed a number of lies once they dated, together with that she surfed and had a coronary heart situation. He additionally mentioned he didn’t consider the preliminary information that she was kidnapped.
“I was like, there’s no way. She’s fine. I promise you she’s fine. There’s just no chance that she got kidnapped,” he mentioned.
Davari additionally clarified to Inside Version that he wasn’t the ex-boyfriend who helped Papini commit the kidnapping hoax.
To drag off the crime, considered one of Papini’s exes, a person named James Reyes, helped her escape her house in Redding to cover in Costa Mesa – 600 miles south of her house – for 3 weeks.
When she reappeared, she instructed police that two Hispanic girls kidnapped her at gunpoint and tortured her whereas in captivity.
However her lies fell aside after investigators discovered DNA on a chunk of clothes that might lead again to Reyes, who dropped her off in Woodland when she determined to reappear.
In March 2022, Papini was arrested and charged with making false statements to federal brokers and mail fraud. A month later, she formally pleaded responsible, admitting her kidnapping claims have been a hoax.
Papini’s case was explored within the 2024 Hulu documentary sequence “Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini,” which featured interviews with Papini’s husband, Keith, who filed for divorce and for sole custody of their children after she pled responsible.
