Private Investigator Who Looked for Sherri Papini Speaks Out About Her Arrest: 'I've Been Hoaxed'

The case of Sherri Papini has taken a dramatic turn — and those close to the Redding, Calif., mom are now left searching for the truth.

Papini was originally reported missing on Nov. 2, 2016, after she was last seen going for a jog. She was found 22 days later on Thanksgiving Day when a motorist discovered her on the side of the road in Yolo County, about 150 miles south of her home.

Papini told law enforcement she was abducted and held at gunpoint by two Hispanic women, of which she provided details to an FBI sketch artist.

But the Department of Justice had suspicions about the case, and now believe that Papini fabricated the story and was allegedly staying with a former boyfriend in the Southern California town of Costa Mesa, even going so far as to harm herself to support the claims.

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Papini faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted of making false statements to a federal officer, as well as up to 20 years and $250,000 for mail fraud. She has not yet entered a plea.

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While Papini was missing, the family hired private investigator Bill Garcia to help find her. Speaking to PEOPLE after Papini's arrest, Garcia shared some of the suspicions he had about her story.

"Well, it's definitely surprising news," Garcia says. "I mean, there was always a little bit of a hint of something awry."

Garcia's first indicator of doubt: a pair of headphones that were found near where Papini allegedly vanished. While some of her hair was on the headphones to indicate a struggle, the cord had been neatly wrapped up before the headphones were discarded.

"Typically if someone's taken against their will, you're not going to find an item like the headphone cord tightly wound and sitting on top of a tuft of grass," Garcia says. "Usually they may be broken, they may be absent, some sort of a struggle possibly."

"So for them to have been found the way they were, where they were found, was interesting to me," he says. "And we never really forgot about that and kind of carried that in the back of our mind as we conducted our search."

Now that Papini has been arrested, Garcia is asking why she might have made up such a dramatic story.

"I'm sure she did it for a reason, which we may not ever know what that reason was," he says. "Did she feel that she wasn't getting enough attention from her family and husband and friends? Was she seeking attention? Had somebody made her upset?"

Garcia is most disturbed about who Papini allegedly blamed for her kidnapping. "I think the part that makes me most upset is she implicated two Hispanic women," Garcia says, adding that he received several calls about innocent Hispanic women who tipsters suspected were kidnappers. "To me, that's probably what was the most painful."

As Garcia pieces together what happened, he thinks about the time he volunteered to find Papini.

"Because she was a mother of two small children, I felt I needed to [volunteer]," he says. But now, he can't shake the feeling that he's been duped. "This is the first time I've been hoaxed in 30 years."