Posted at 12:14 PM, May 23, 2025
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Court TV) — The California mom who faked her own kidnapping has broken her silence. Sherri Papini admits she kept some secrets about her 2016 disappearance, but she’s doubling down on her insistence that she was tortured during the three weeks she was away.
Sherri Papini leaves the federal courthouse after Federal Judge William Shubb sentenced her to 18 months in federal prison, in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. Federal prosecutors had asked that she be sentenced to eight months in prison for faking her own kidnapping in 2016. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Papini, who initially told authorities that she was abducted by two Hispanic women, is now saying her ex-boyfriend snatched her while she was jogging near her home in Redding.
Papini, 42, spoke out in the four-part docuseries “Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie,” which premieres May 26 on Investigation Discovery.
WATCH | Sherri Papini Takes Lie Detector Test In New Docuseries
On Nov. 2, 2016, Papini’s apparent disappearance prompted a frantic search that ended on Thanksgiving Day, when she was located along a highway with a chain around her waist. She was bruised, emaciated, and branded with the word EXODUS on her shoulder. She told the FBI that two Hispanic women grabbed her at gunpoint and tortured her for the next three weeks.
In March 2022, Papini admitted to detectives that she was staying 600 miles away at the Orange County home of her ex-boyfriend, James Reyes. Her wounds, police said, were self-inflicted. Papini was promptly arrested, and admitted to lying. Papini’s husband, Keith Papini, filed for divorce in April 2022, the month following her arrest. He was also granted sole custody of their two children. In Sept. 2022, Papini was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.
WATCH | Sherri Papini Admits Hoax in Stunning Interrogation Video
Fast-forward to today, and Papini is once again switching up her story, pointing the finger at Reyes despite previously admitting she stayed at her ex-boyfriend’s home voluntarily. In the docuseries, she claims she didn’t name her abductor out of fear. Reyes, who appears in the docuseries, denies it.
