Sherri Papini, a California woman who initially lied to the FBI about being kidnapped by two women in 2016, has now shifted her story and claims that it was her ex-boyfriend who actually abducted her.
In a widely publicized case from 2016, Papini alleged that two Latina women had kidnapped her at gunpoint and held her captive for three weeks. She was discovered on Thanksgiving Day, battered and bruised, on the side of the road.
However, in 2022, Papini confessed that the kidnapping was fabricated as part of a plea agreement with the FBI, revealing that she had actually been staying with her former boyfriend, James Reyes, in Costa Mesa during the period she was reported missing. Papini was handed an 18-month prison sentence for the deception.
During her sentencing, Papini admitted her guilt, stating, “I am guilty of lying. I am guilty of dishonor. I stand before you willing to accept, to repent, and to concede.”
Now, Papini is asserting that it was Reyes, the ex-boyfriend she was residing with during the 2016 kidnapping hoax, who had actually abducted her at that time.
“To clarify, there was one aspect that I fabricated,” Papini informed ABC News in a recent interview. “Everything else was accurate and true. I falsified the identity of my captor.”
Reyes has refuted allegations of his involvement in Papini’s disappearance, contending that Papini’s injuries were self-inflicted. He was never formally charged. JS was unable to reach him for comment.
Papini’s latest claim coincides with her promotion of a self-published book detailing the hoax she orchestrated. She asserts that she refrained from disclosing the truth to law enforcement out of fear that her then-husband, Keith Papini, would react negatively to her “emotional affair” with Reyes.
“Prison seemed safer than facing the consequences of revealing my emotional affair to my ex-husband,” Papini disclosed to ABC News. “I preferred incarceration over confessing to Keith Papini about my emotional affair.”
In a previous interview with ABC News, Keith Papini expressed that his ex-wife has never apologized for deceiving him and their children with the fabricated story, which they believed for years until her 2022 admission. He initiated divorce proceedings that same year.
“She led us to believe that her narrative was genuine. Every day, she perpetuated the falsehood,” he remarked at the time.
