The woman often referred to as the original Gone Girl, who was incarcerated for falsely alleging she was abducted by two individuals, has now made a startling new claim about what truly occurred.
Sherri Papini, aged 42, was found guilty of orchestrating a fake kidnapping in 2016, but in a surprising twist, she has asserted in a new Investigation Discovery docuseries titled Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, that she was genuinely kidnapped.
Her story began on November 2, 2016, in Northern California when she went for a jog and never returned home.
During the period she was reported missing, her husband, Keith, launched a media initiative with the aim of bringing her back to reunite with him and their two small children.
“If she is listening, I want to say, ‘We are trying. We are trying the best we can, and I am sorry I’m not there,” he said in a tearful interview.
“I’m doing everything I can, and I love you.”
Sherri was found 150 miles away from her home, three weeks later, on Thanksgiving.
She was spotted running across a church parking lot with a chain around her waist.
Her hands were zip-tied together and her body was bruised and burned.
She claimed that two Hispanic women abducted her, however, after four years of investigating the case, police couldn’t find the alleged perpetrators.
The first significant breakthrough occurred when law enforcement detected male DNA on her clothing.
The DNA belonged to her ex-boyfriend James Reyes, leading police to discover that Sherri had spent the past three weeks having an affair with her ex, not being held in captivity.
Reyes claimed that Sherri asked him to help her get away from Keith, and he didn’t have any part in the staged kidnapping.
The case drew similarities to the 2012 novel Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, in which the lead stages her abduction to spite her husband.
On March 3, 2022, Sherri was charged with lying to the FBI.
She pleaded guilty to lying and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
NEW REVELATION
Now, nearly a decade after she first disappeared, Sherri is changing her story.
In the new series premiering on HBO Max, the convicted criminal claimed that Reyes was the one who actually kidnapped her.
What has Sherri’s husband said?
Sherri Papini’s ex-husband, Keith, spoke out about the hoax shortly after her arrest.
Speaking to ABC 20/20, Keith Papini said Sherri “took advantage of everybody’s kindness and so many people were hurt.
“She made us all believe that her story was true … Every single day, she committed to the lie.”
Reflecting on the saga with his ex-wife, Keith said he felt “there was always something that wasn’t right” about Sherri’s story.
He said he had doubts, even when first encountering Sherri in the hospital.
“When I pulled back the curtain and I saw her and I saw the look in her eyes, I felt in that moment that she was lying,” he shared.
“And it wasn’t until I went to her to embrace her and I could just see the amount of injuries, bruises, burns to her body.
“It was a shock to me. And I remember thinking how horrible of me to even think that she could’ve done this to herself.”
Keith said he and Sherri are still working out a custody agreement for their two children, who are now 11 and 9.
He said he will forever be haunted by his ex-wife’s actions.
“I think it’s always going to be there, but we do want to move past it,” Keith said.
“I do want to provide my children an amazing childhood, but I think it’ll always be there.”
“I’m so tired of keeping this secret and living the lie,” Papini said in the first episode.
“Now I get to tell the truth.”
In Sherri’s story, she maintains that she contacted Reyes to help her escape her marriage to Keith, who she said was “threatening to take everything” from her.
“Keith was [a] ‘what are you wearing, who are you talking to, how long are you gonna be gone, did you check in, keep in touch with me every 10 seconds’ kind of situation,” Sherri previously said about her marriage.
In the documentary, Sherri claimed that due to a previous affair, she and Keith had agreed to a post-nuptial agreement.
The agreement would give Keith full custody of their children if Sherri was caught in any sexual or emotional relationships.
However, once she left to be with Reyes, she claimed everything got worse.
Reyes allegedly kept Sherri tied up in a boarded room where she had no idea of what was happening.
Sherri insisted that while she willingly went to Reyes for help, he ended up kidnapping and abusing her.
Sherri agreed with Reyes that she would “make up that someone else” was behind the kidnapping so he would release her.
“It wasn’t the right choice and I know that,” she said in the documentary.
“I wish I would’ve told the truth from the day I was in the hospital — that it was James.”
She claimed that she only pleaded guilty because she felt pressure to do so.
Reyes did not appear in the film and did not give a comment to the filmmakers regarding Sherri’s claims.
He has not been charged with any crimes.
