When local officials first responded to the public outrage on 28 January, they dismissed human trafficking claims, saying the woman was legitimately married to a local man - Mr Dong.
They identified her by her surname Yang and said she had been diagnosed with a mental health illness.
They admitted authorities had not properly intervened when the couple had more than two children - in breach of China's then family planning laws.
But this response left netizens enraged that officials had not done more to help the woman. Under public pressure, authorities said they would investigate the family further.
On Tuesday, they said they had found Ms Yang's true identity, and named her as "Xiaohuamei" - a woman from the south-western Yunnan province.
Xiaohuamei means "Little Plum Blossom", an unusual name for a Chinese person, and is more likely to be a nickname.
Officials said they had sent investigators to the region because a village there had been named in the woman's marriage certificate.
There, they said locals told them that Xiaohuamei had been previously been married and her mental illness had emerged after she returned home after a divorce in 1996.
Xiaohuamei's parents, who have since died, then apparently asked another villager known as Ms Sang to take her to Jiangsu province to help her seek treatment and find a husband.
Ms Sang said she and Xiaohuamei then embarked on the cross-country train ride but she lost her companion when she arrived in Jiangsu. She never informed police or told Xiaohuamei's parents, authorities said.
Some netizens suggested that this was a "most euphemistic way of describing abduction". Chinese officials on Thursday finally charged Ms Sang and her husband with human trafficking. The person claiming to be the woman's husband has been charged with "illegal detention".