Sherri Papini Interview: New Claims, Reyes Response, and Earnings

In her 2025 interviews, Sherri Papini says the 2016 kidnapping she pleaded guilty to faking was in some sense real after all: she now claims her ex-boyfriend James Reyes abducted and tortured her, and that she lied in 2016 only about who took her. Law enforcement, Reyes’s cooperation with investigators, and the federal case she pleaded guilty to in 2022 all contradict that account.¹

What Papini Is Saying Now

Papini returned to public view in the spring of 2025 across several platforms. ABC’s 20/20 aired “Sherri Papini: Where the Truth Lies” on May 24, 2025, featuring both Sherri and her ex-husband Keith Papini.² Two days later, Investigation Discovery premiered the four-part docuseries Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, now streaming on Max. It was her first on-camera interview since she disappeared in November 2016.³

On June 20, 2025, Papini sat down with Juju Chang on Good Morning America to promote a self-published book, Sherri Papini Doesn’t Exist, scheduled for release June 26, 2026.¹

Her core claim across these appearances: the physical abuse and torture she originally described were real, but her captor was Reyes, not two Hispanic women. In a People interview published May 1, 2025, she said: “I went missing in 2016, was gone for 22 days. I was tortured; I was branded; I was chained to a wall. All that is true. I did keep some secrets from you, though.”⁴

Papini also offered a new explanation for why she pleaded guilty in 2022 if the abduction was genuine. She told Chang that prison was preferable to Keith learning about an emotional affair with Reyes: “Prison was far safer than the consequences that I would suffer if my ex-husband found out I was having an emotional affair.”¹

How the New Story Compares to What She Pleaded Guilty To

Papini pleaded guilty on April 18, 2022, to one count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements to federal agents, admitting the kidnapping was a hoax.⁵ The federal case, United States v. Papini, No. 2:22-cr-00070, was filed in the Eastern District of California.⁶

In the 2022 prosecution, the government’s account was that Papini stayed voluntarily at Reyes’s apartment in Costa Mesa for the 22 days she was missing. Reyes told investigators she had asked him to help her “run away” after claiming Keith was abusive, and that she never left during her stay. He described her hitting herself to make bruises, burning herself, and asking him to brand her shoulder with a wood-burning tool from a craft store.⁷ Investigators corroborated his account using phone records, rental car receipts, toll records, his work schedule, and a statement from his cousin, who had seen Papini at the apartment.⁸

Her original 2016 story, which she maintained even after being confronted with the DNA evidence linking her to Reyes, was that two Hispanic women abducted her at gunpoint. She described details that evoked racial stereotypes, including hoop earrings, bandanas, and Spanish-language music.⁹ That description sent the community tips about “suspicious-looking Hispanic women” and left lasting fear among local Latinas, some of whom stopped walking in pairs, changed what they drove, and avoided contact with white women unless witnesses were present.¹⁰

Her new account keeps the branding and the restraints but reassigns authorship: she now says Reyes did these things to her against her will. She has not retracted the guilty plea.

What Law Enforcement and Reyes Say

The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office rejected Papini’s revised narrative in a statement to ABC News: “James Reyes was interviewed extensively by the FBI and Shasta County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit. Not only was he fully cooperative and forthright with his answers, but he passed a polygraph in verifying his statements.”¹

Reyes was never charged. Prosecutors concluded Papini had manipulated him into helping with the hoax. When investigators first questioned him he said he hadn’t spoken to Papini in years, but he later admitted she had contacted him, stayed at his apartment, and that the injuries on her body were largely self-inflicted or done at her request.¹ He has not responded to requests for comment on her book or docuseries.¹¹

Denise Farmer, the FBI’s lead investigator on the case, appeared in the Investigation Discovery series after her retirement, saying it was the first time she could speak freely without FBI restrictions on sensitive investigative techniques. Rolling Stone reported that investigators found no record of the masked women Papini originally described and corroborated through Reyes that she was at his home and had contacted him before vanishing.¹²

Keith Papini, who filed for divorce in 2022, has denied her claim that he was emotionally abusive. He told reporters: “She 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.”¹³

What Her Media Earnings Have to Do With the Case

Papini’s 2022 plea agreement contains a provision that directly affects her current media push: 75 percent of any payments she receives above $5,000 from media appearances or book deals must go to the federal government to be distributed to the agencies she defrauded.¹⁴

Her sentence included $309,686 in restitution, split among the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office ($148,866), the Social Security Administration ($127,783), the California Victim Compensation Board ($30,694), and the FBI ($2,558).¹⁵ As of November 2024, the sheriff’s office had been paid $1,003 of nearly $149,000. In March 2024, federal prosecutors filed an application for a writ of garnishment seeking roughly $340,221 including a 10 percent litigation surcharge.¹⁶

Where Her Life Stands Now

Papini served about ten months of an 18-month federal sentence at a satellite camp next to FCI Victorville before being released in August 2023, moving briefly to a Sacramento County halfway house, and leaving that facility by late September 2023.¹⁷¹⁸ She returned to the Redding area and remains on supervised release through roughly 2026.¹⁹

Keith has had custody of the couple’s two children for roughly nine years. As of March 2024, Sherri saw them only in supervised one-hour visits arranged by a court-appointed agency.¹⁹ A three-day custody trial in Shasta County Superior Court took place in August 2025, with Sherri seeking reunification with one child and more visitation with the other.²⁰ At an October 2025 status conference, Judge Kathryn Barton set a further hearing for December 2025 and directed the court to evaluate Sherri’s compliance with court-ordered obligations, including therapy. Keith’s legal team also alleged she had violated a court order by discussing the family on a podcast.²¹ The custody matter was unresolved as of late 2025.

1
ABC News. Sherri Papini Claims Boyfriend Abducted Her in 2016 Hoax Kidnapping
2
ABC. Sherri Papini: Where the Truth Lies
3
KRCR TV. Sherri Papini’s New Docuseries: What We Have Learned So Far
4
People. Sherri Papini Breaks Silence in First Interview
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ABC7 News. Sherri Papini Pleads Guilty in CA Kidnapping Hoax
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GovInfo. United States v. Papini
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People. The Piece of Evidence That Broke Open the Sherri Papini Case
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ABC7 News. Sherri Papini Sentencing: CA Kidnapping Hoax
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CNN. Sherri Papini Latino Bias
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Redding Record Searchlight. Sherri Papini Kidnapping: Painful Consequences Linger for Latinas
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KRCR TV. Sherri Papini Claims New Book Reveals Harrowing Truth of 2016 Disappearance
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Rolling Stone. Sherri Papini Docuseries: ID Hoax Kidnapping
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ABC News. Sherri Papini’s Husband Reflects on Living the Hoax
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KRCR TV. Sherri Papini’s $300K Debt Looms as She Makes Public Push
15
Redding Record Searchlight. Sherri Papini Still Owes California Sheriff’s Office $148K
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People. Sherri Papini Kidnapping Hoax: Mom Owes Money in Restitution
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People. Sherri Papini Released From Prison
18
CBS News Sacramento. Sherri Papini Released From Halfway House
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Redding Record Searchlight. Sherri Papini Plans for Future Post-Kidnapping Hoax Prison Release
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KRCR TV. Papini Custody Case Goes to Court for 3-Day Trial
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KRCR TV. Custody Case Status Conference Held for Papinis