Sherri Papini, the California mom convicted of faking her own kidnapping in a bizarre hoax that invoked comparisons to the book-turned-movie Gone Girl, has changed her story once again.
Papini, who disappeared in November 2016 while on a run near her Redding, Calif., home and emerged 22 days later with claims she’d been kidnapped and abused by two masked Hispanic women, admitted to concocting an elaborate lie in a plea deal in 2022.
However, the 42-year-old is now claiming that she was, in fact, kidnapped, accusing her ex-boyfriend James Reyes of being her abductor and saying she was kidnapped by him while trying to end an emotional affair the two were having behind her now ex-husband’s back.
Papini’s about-face comes in a new documentary, Sherri Papini: Caught in a Lie, which is airing on Investigation Discovery. In it, Papini gives her first on-camera interview since admitting it was a hoax three years ago and claims she’s finally ready to tell the full story of what happened in 2016.
Papini’s original story
Papini’s husband at the time, Keith Papini, reported her missing on Nov. 2, 2016, kicking off a statewide search for the stay-at-home mom. Three weeks later, on U.S. Thanksgiving, Papini was found alone on a California interstate suffering from injuries including rashes, bruises, ligature marks and a “brand” on her right shoulder.
After Papini was found by police, she told an elaborate story about how she had been kept chained in a closet by two women who wore masks, spoke in Spanish, held her at gunpoint and branded her with a heated tool. She also added that the women played mariachi music and fed her mostly tortillas and rice.
The story shifts
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Papini was found with male and female DNA on her body and clothing, and the male DNA led investigators to her former boyfriend, Reyes, according to prosecutors.
Reyes confirmed to authorities that Papini asked him to pick her up from her home in Redding, and stayed with him during the period she was missing. His account was verified with cellphone records obtained by investigators that showed secret communication between the two as early as December 2015.
At the time, Reyes told FBI agents that he was only trying to help his ex-girlfriend and admitted to using a wood-burning tool to brand her shoulder and throwing a hockey puck at her leg, but insisted it was Papini’s idea and that she had planned “everything.”
“I didn’t kidnap her. She was just a friend in need asking for help. She was trying to get away from her husband,” he told investigators.
A plea bargain
In 2022, it was revealed by Papini’s lawyer that his client had accepted a plea deal and she admitted she had made up the hoax.
“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,” she said in a statement through her lawyer in 2022. “I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done.”
Papini pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and making false statements as part of the plea deal in exchange for her confession. She was initially charged with 35 felonies.
In September of 2022, she was sentenced to a year and a half in prison, with three years of supervised release following the completion of her sentence. She served just under 11 months in prison.
The new story
While Papini was linked to Reyes in the investigation and authorities knew she was with him when she claimed to have been abducted by the women, Papini now says it was Reyes who kidnapped her and inflicted physical and psychological torture.
She says she concocted her story about the masked women to cover up the affair with Reyes because she was afraid of what her husband would do if he found out about the relationship.
She says that shortly before she was kidnapped by Reyes, she had invited him to Redding in an attempt to end their long-distance affair.
“I remember waking up briefly in the back of the vehicle and not being able to even keep my eyes open,” she says. “And then the next time I woke up was when he was getting me out of the vehicle to go inside, and it was dark. He had one hand underneath my arm trying to help me walk. And I just remember thinking, ‘This is not where I’m supposed to be. I’m supposed to be picking my kids up from day care. I am not supposed to be here.’ The injuries that occurred . . . the bites on my thigh, the footprint on my back, the brand, the melting of my skin — I am telling you there was no consent.”
In her interview, she says she was still afraid of Reyes and felt compelled to come up with the hoax because he was threatening her, saying he’d be watching to see if she named him as her kidnapper and abuser.
“I lied about James’ identity for several reasons. First and foremost, I was in danger; I was terrified of James, and keeping his identity concealed was keeping me safe,” she claims in the interview. “On top of that, I couldn’t tell my husband I was having an affair.”
“James had let me off the chain,” she tells the camera. “I said, my husband’s going to find me. He’s never going to stop looking for you . . . You need to let me go. He was like, ‘Well, there’s too much has happened.’ So it all came down to me. It all came down to my coverup, and that’s [when] I agreed to . . . make up that someone else did it.”
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