How Sherri Papini's Kidnapping Hoax Unraveled and What Happened Next - E! Online (2024)

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Sherri Papini's Ex-Husband Keith Breaks Silence 7 Years After Kidnapping Hoax

"Everybody who knows my wife knows that there's no reason for her to leave...She was definitely taken against her will."

So Keith Papinitold Good Morning America on Nov. 6, 2016, four days after his wifeSherri Papiniwent out for an afternoon jog and didn't come home.He first realized something was seriously wrong when she failed to pick up their kids, then-4-year-old son Tyler and 2-year-old daughter Violet, from daycare.

"She could drop her phone," Keith said, "but she would never, in a million years, not pick up our children on the time that she normally would've."

The missing-person casein theNorthern California city of Redding quickly became a national story, themystery of what happened to the 34-year-old"supermom," asher sister-in-law Suzanne Papini described her,proving hot grist for thetrue crimeheadline mill.

The fact thatSherri faked her own abduction, a still baffling decision that ultimately blew up her marriage, is explored in the new Hulu docuseriesPerfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini.

"I would say that this process of looking back, it forced me to confront a lot of the things I'd never dealt with," Keith reflected in the series, his first time speaking in depth about what transpired during the days his now-ex-wife was gone and what happened after she came back. "And that helped me start connecting dots."

Sherri's attorney declined to comment when reached by E! News.

"What if I'd come home that day for lunch?" Keith ponderedin The Perfect Wife. "I mean, are we here right now?"

Returning to an empty houseand soon finding out the kids hadn't been picked up—"On normal days, I would open the door and my family comes, runs and give me a hug," Keith told KRCR-TV—he useda phone-finder app to trace Sherri's cell.

He found her mobile near the intersection of Old Oregon TrailandSunrise Drive, about a mile away from their residence,along with her earbuds, which had a few strands of blonde hair tangled amid the wires.

What happened during the search forSherri Papini?

Search teams scoured nearby woods and trails,authorities looked at security footage from local businessesand family and friendscame into town from all over to support Keith, Tyler and Violet and help any way they could.

"She has a family that loves her," Sherri's sister, Sheila Koester, told ABC News. "Please just bring her home."

Naturally, the Internet insisted it knewwhat really happened—the No. 1suspicion was that Keith totally had something to do with it, followed closely by Sherri up and abandoned her family—as the usual spots where true crime conspiracies are hatched, such as Reddit, lit up with theories. Within days, authorities received more than 200 tips.

Investigatorswerelooking into the possibility that Keith had something to do with Sherri's disappearance,a romantic partner routinely being No. 1 on the list of people to look at,but hepassed a lie-detector test and his alibi checked out to their satisfaction.

"The results of the polygraph examination indicate he has no involvement with the disappearance of his wife," Shasta County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Anthony Bertainsaid in a Nov. 11, 2016, statement. "Sheriff's Office detectives have confirmed his whereabouts on the day in question, and there is no physical evidence at this time suggesting he had any involvement."

Bertain added, "Detectives are still trying to determine if her disappearance is voluntary or involuntary."

As the days went by, the Facebook pageHelp Find Sherri Papini became the go-to spot for updates, while a "Bring Sherri Home Safe" GoFundMe, set up toaid search-and-rescue efforts,attracted more than $49,000 in donations.

"Thank you all so much for your donations," Keith wrote on the fundraising pageNov. 7. "Your generosity, concern and prayers are very much appreciated by the Papini family."

In a Nov. 29, 2016, statement toGood Morning America, Keith thanked the "incredible humans" around the world who'd shown their support for his family over the course of their "torturous journey," and shouted out a number of individuals and organizations by name.

Calling the attention paid to their case a "double-edged sword," he continued: "Rumors, assumptions, lies and hate have been both exhausting and disgusting. We are not going to allow those people to take away our spirit, love or rejoice in our girl found alive and home where she belongs. I understand people want the story, pictures, proof that this was not some sort of hoax, plan to gain money or some fabricated race war. I do not see a purpose in addressing each preposterous lie."

When he first sawSherri in her hospital bed, Keith described,her face was "covered in bruises ranging from yellow to black because of repeated beatings, the bridge of her nose broken.Her now emaciated body of 87 pounds was covered in multicolored bruises, severe burns, red rashes and chain markings. Her signature long blond hair had been chopped off. She has been branded, and I could feel the rise of her scabs under my fingers. She was thrown from a vehicle with a chain around her waist, attached to her wrists and a bag over her head. The same bag she used to flag someone down once she was able to free one of her hands."

Sherri "suffered tremendously, and all the visions swirling in your heads of her appearance, I assure you, are not as graphic and gruesome as the reality." He asked for privacy, noting they had "a long road of healing" ahead of them.

However, when Keith first drew back the curtain around his wife's hospital bed and saw her for the first time since she was found, he said in The Perfect Wife, "the way she looked at me, in that moment, I felt like she was lying."

But, he continued, oncehe "started really looking at her"and saw the extent of her injuries, "any doubt I had just disappeared."

Sherri said that for three weeks she was chained to a metal pole ina bedroom closet, with enough give to reach the bed, and they gave her a bucket of kitty litter to use as a toilet. She could hear "really annoying Mexican music" playing around her and, though her captors mainly spoke Spanish, she said she overheard snippets of conversation about branding her for a potential "buyer," leading investigators to firstsuspecther abduction could've been connected to human trafficking (as noted in a footnote in the March 3 filing).

She said she tried to escape on several occasions, and that she was branded on her shoulder after the first attempt.

Investigators interviewed Sherri multiple times, but as months went by, they continued to be unable to corroborate her story.

On June 22, 2017, she gave descriptions of the women to FBI sketch artists for "wanted" posters that were widely circulated.

Talking to theFBI onAug. 13, 2020, she recalled that "the older kidnapper was really abusive and really mean and did all of the really terrible things," but the younger, nicer woman ultimately let her go, dropping her off on the side of I-5 near Woodland, Calif.

Shetold atherapist, who diagnosed her with acute post-traumatic stress disorder, that she was "physically and emotionally tortured, beaten, burned, branded, and drugged."

How did Sherri Papini's kidnapping story fall apart?

When the three-year anniversary of Sherri's disappearancecame around in 2019, the Shasta County Sheriff's Office said that the case remained under investigation and, according to KRCR TV, the FBI was offering a $10,000 reward for information that could identify the two womenSherri described as her abductors.

But bythe time of her August 2020 interview with the FBI,authorities had determined thatSherri's kidnapping story was a fabrication. Shehad disappeared for 22 days, but that's where her version of events and reality diverged.

And when investigators confronted her with what they'dbeen told just several days prior—that her ex-boyfriend had picked her upfrom Reddingand driven her to Costa Mesa, Calif., where she voluntarily stayed with him until she wanted to leave—she denied it.

Reviewing phone records, authorities found that Sherri had been in contact with Reyes since as early as December 2015, both of them using prepaid cell phones.

Sherri stayed at his apartment and never left for the entirety of the three weeks she was gone,Reyes told investigators. She didn't eat much and at one pointshe had him brand her shoulderwith a wood-burning tool that she had instructed him to go out and buy from Hobby Lobby. And, he added, though he didn't have a TV, shekeptupwith the news on her phone and, knowing that people were looking for her, didn't want to be seen in public.

She cut her own hair, the ex continued, and self-inflicted most of her own bruises and burns. He never laid hands on her, he added, but when asked for help, such as to "'bank a puck'" off her leg as she requested, he complied.

Reyessaid he drove Sherri back up to Northern California after she told him she missed her kids, and on the way back she tossed her prepaid phone out the car window. He also told investigators that he didn't call authorities himself once he saw the news of the alleged kidnapping, considering thatto be turning himself in "for nothing," but he told himself that he "would not fight it" if police eventually got in touch.

When wasSherri Papini arrested?

Sherri was arrestedMarch 3, 2022, and charged with lying to federal investigators and 34 counts of mail fraud.

"When a young mother went missing in broad daylight, a community was filled with fear and concern," U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert said in a statement announcing the charges. "Shasta County Sheriff's Office immediately began investigating, calling on the assistance of the FBI. Countless hours were spent following leads, all in an effort to bring this woman back to her family."

In the end, the prosecutor said, the investigation "revealed that there was no kidnapping and that time and resources that could have been used to investigate actual crime, protect the community, and provide resources to victims were wasted based on the defendant's conduct."

In a statement issued March 4, 2022, herfamily said they were "appalled" by how Sherri had been treated by authorities in front of her children.

"If requested, Sherri would have fully complied and come to the police station, as she has done multiple times before, where this could have been handled in a more appropriate way," the statement said, per theLA Times. "Sherri and Keith have cooperated with law enforcement's requests despite repeated attempts to unnecessarily pit them against each other, empty threats to publicly embarrass them and other conduct that was less than professional. We are confused by several aspects of the charges and hope to get clarification in the coming days."

Initially deemed a flight risk, Sherri spentfive nights in Sacramento County Jail, but a judge allowed her to bereleased on a $120,000 bond March 8.

When did Sherri Papini admit she lied?

Facing a possible 25-year prison sentence if convicted on all charges, Sherri agreed to plead guilty to one count ofmaking false statements to a federal officer and one count of mail fraud, appearing in court April 18, 2022, to officially enter her plea.

"I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so sorry for the pain I've caused all 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," she saidin a statementreleased by herattorneyWilliam Portanova's office. "I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done."

The plea agreement mandated thatSherri pay more than $300,000 in restitution to various government entities, and prosecutors said they wouldrecommend she be sentenced to the "low end of the applicable guideline range as determined by the Court."

DidSherri Papini go to prison?

On Sept. 19, 2022,Sherri was sentenced to 18 months in prison, to be followed by 36 months of supervised release.

She ended up serving 11 months at the medium-securityFederal Correctional Institution Victorville before being released in August 2023 into community confinement overseen by Sacramento's residential reentry management field office.

Sherri stayed at a halfway house in Sacramento until Sept. 29, 2023, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons' inmate locator.

But, King continued, no one seemed interested in getting to the root of Sherri's behavior, which frustrated her to no end.

And then, less than 24 hours after shestarted researchingthe case on her own, King was offered thechance to play Sherri. After which, she had 24 hours to say yes or no.

Ultimately she said yes and appreciated the opportunity to humanize someone who'd been relentlessly villainized.

"Everybody has a reason for doing something," King said. "Nobody is a perfect individual, and I just really needed to know more of the whys. I don't like people being exploited."

"I don't make contact with her at all," he toldPeoplein 2024."And I don't even allow it. She's tried but I just can't. That is her power, her voice, and her manipulation."

Tyler and Violet talk to Sherri on the phone, he said, and he abides by the court-allowed visitation rights.

"They're very happy kids," Keith said. "A lot of theirchildhood years were, in my opinion, stolen from them. So my biggest goal is giving them a happy and healthy life and surrounding them with loving people."

InPerfect Wife, he reminisced about asking his son, as if they were playing a game, what he would want his last name to be if he could pick a new one.

And Tyler "just kinda is like, 'Is this about mom orsomething'" Keith recalled. '"I like our last name. I don't think we should have to change our last name because of what she did.'"

(Originally published April 23, 2022, at 5 a.m. PT)