Sherri Papini has changed her kidnapping story yet again, and it is more complex than ever before
Nearly nine years after vanishing during a jog in Redding, California, and later admitting to staging her own abduction, Sherri Papini is offering yet another version of events.
The upcoming docuseries Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie will premiere on May 26, 2025, from 9 to 11 p.m. ET/PT on Max and Investigation Discovery. In the series, Sherri Papini alleges that her 2016 disappearance was not fabricated but the result of being kidnapped by her former boyfriend, James Reyes.
This account directly contradicts her 2022 guilty plea, when Papini admitted she fabricated the abduction to cover up an affair, citing fear of her then husband’s reaction. Papini now claims Reyes abducted and physically abused her after she invited him to Redding to end their relationship.
Authorities previously linked DNA on her clothing to Reyes, who told investigators and passed a polygraph test that Papini orchestrated the scheme. Despite serving time for fraud and false statements, Sherri Papini’s shifting claims continue to stir controversy as she reenters the public eye.
To hide her involvement with James Reyes, Sherri Papini alleges that she staged the kidnapping and kept it from her husband
Sherri Papini, who previously admitted to orchestrating her own kidnapping in 2016, has once again revised her account. In Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, Papini asserts that her 2016 disappearance wasn’t faked but was a genuine kidnapping by her former boyfriend, James Reyes.
She claims she initially fabricated the story about being taken by two masked women to conceal her extramarital relationship from her then-husband, Keith Papini.
Papini had vanished on November 2, 2016, while jogging near her home in Redding, California. She was found 22 days later, on Thanksgiving morning, reportedly battered, chained, and branded. At the time, she told investigators that she had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Hispanic women. That claim sparked national media coverage and an extensive investigation.
In August 2020, DNA found on Papini’s clothing matched Reyes, contradicting her original account.
According to federal court documents, Reyes admitted that Papini stayed with him voluntarily and even devised the branding herself using a wood-burning tool. He passed a lie detector test and told authorities she was a friend who needed support and was trying to escape her husband.
Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie reframes the entire incident
In Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, Papini now states she feared her husband would retaliate if he discovered her affair with Reyes, prompting her to fabricate a kidnapping narrative. In the exclusive clip released, she says:
“I was concealing an affair from my husband, who [was] threatening to take everything from me,”
She now claims Reyes abducted her after she invited him to Redding to end their relationship. According to Papini, she was drugged, physically assaulted, and later chained in a closet. She recounts in the trailer:
“I remember waking up briefly in the back of the vehicle and not being able to even keep my eyes open...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.”
Papini also alleges that Reyes eventually released her under the condition that she blame fictitious abductors.
Legal outcome and aftermath
In April 2022, Papini pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal agents and committing mail fraud. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to repay more than $300,000 in restitution to federal and state agencies. She completed a 10-month sentence and was released in August 2023.
Her husband, Keith Papini, filed for divorce in April 2022 and was granted full custody of their children. Papini currently resides in northern California and remains under supervised release until 2026. Her case remains one of the most complex hoaxes as new details emerge in Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie.
Stay tuned for more updates.
