Sherri Papini is an American housewife who vanished from her home in Redding, California, on November 2, 2016.
The then-34-year-old disappeared while out for a jog a mile from her house, before resurfacing three weeks later on Thanksgiving.
She claimed to have been freed by two female captors at 4:30am that morning.
Supposedly cut loose while still wearing restraints, she said she was left on the side of County Road 17 near Interstate 5 - and made the 150 mile journey back home herself.
The story years later was found out to be a hoax, leading her to be jailed in 2022. Now free, her story has since become the focal point of several truecrime documentaries, and her ex recently appeared on GMA to describe how he too was fooled by her schemes.
Sherri Papini is an American housewife who vanished from her home in Redding, California, on November 2, 2016. She is seen her wrapped up in a warm embrace with her now ex husbdand Keith, who said on national TV Monday that the convicted fraudster remains unrepentant
The then-34-year-old disappeared while out for a jog a mile from her house, before resurfacing three weeks later, erroneously claiming to have kidnapped. Her story was soon found to be a lie, and is set to be the center of a new documentary releasing this week titled Perfect Wife
What happened to Sherri Papini?
Sherri, now 41, was jailed in 2022 for a Gone Girl style plot where shefaked her own kidnappingand vanished for three weeks in 2016, lying to cops and giving herself injuries to match in the process.
The scheme thus captivated much of the nation - partially due Papini being painted as a picture-perfect stay-at-home mother, with two young kids.
In reality, she was wrapped up with an affair with James Reyes, all while her husband Keith was left in the dark.
She stayed with Reyes over the course of her alleged kidnapping, after which she was sentenced to 18 months in prison starting in September of 2022.
The big breakthrough in the case that saw her story unravel came when officers found her ex-boyfriend's DNA on her clothes in 2020 and discovered she had been holed up with him the whole time she had been pretending to be missing.
Sherri, now 41, was jailed in 2022 for a Gone Girl style plot where she faked her own kidnapping and vanished for three weeks in 2016, lying to cops and giving herself injuries to match in the process. She is seen here with her now-ex husband Keith on their wedding day
Seen here with their two kids Tyler and Violet, now 14 and 12, the couple finalized their divorce last year, a month after she was released nine months early from prison for lying to cops about the phony kidnapping. They are now wrapped up in a custody battle, despite a judge awarding Keith full custody last year
She was released early in August of last year,after a judge ruled she was no threat to her community.
A day earlier, Shasta County Sheriff Michael Johnson recalled how he and others handling the investigation grew suspicious of her almost immediately, upon interviewing her after her reappearance.
'It is a case of calculated deception, driven I think by her narcissistic behavior,' he said as he painted the Northern California mom as confident and unrepentant.
'It really had an impact on this community.'
Her family reportedly footed her $120,000 bond, after which her husband filed for divorce the very next month.
Where is Sherri Papini now?
Today, Papini lives with her 49-year-old auto dealer boyfriend Shawn Hibdon, in a lush, four-bedroom property in Shingletown, 30 miles from the home she shared with her family.
She began dating the widowed businessman before her 10-month stint in prison even started, and was seen sharing a kiss outside their home just last week
She is also set to be the subject of soon-to-be released Hulu docuseries titled Perfect Wife, which will revisit her case in-depth.
Set to start streaming Thursday, the retelling comes on top of a feature film aired last year by Lifetime, in which Pearl Harbor's Jaime King played the storytelling spouse.
The 41-year-old mom currently resides in Shingletown, 30 miles from the home she once shared with her family
She lives there with her 49-year-old auto dealer boyfriend Shawn Hibdon, in a lush, four-bedroom. She began dating widowed businessman before her 10-month stint in prison in Victorville, California. The pair are seen sharing a kiss outside the home just last week
The Hulu series, however, will feature real interviews with those affected by her lies, includingex-husband Keith.
As a sort of precursor, he appeared on Good Morning America to speak about the scandal following seven years of silence, during which the pair took to court to settle a several months-long split.
To this day, the pair are still locked in a bitter custody battle over their two kids - 14-year-old and 12-year-old Violet.
What did Sherri Papini's ex-husband Keith say about her?
On Monday, a clean-cut Keith told GMA of his liar former love: 'I think she wanted me to be her knight in shining armor and run to her.'
He also said his exhas never apologized to him or their children for what they went through, stating: 'She has no remorse that I have ever witnessed or seen.'
Even when police accused her of lying, Keith recalled how Sherri continued to insist she was telling the truth, recalling openly on the program: 'She made us believe that her story was true. Every single day she committed to the lie.'
He added that the purpose of his participation in the anticipated document is so that all canknow 'how convincing' Sherri was 'all those years' and how he believed everything she said.
Sherri Papini's ex-husband Keith Papini has broken his silence to reveal how he was duped by her fake kidnapping scheme
He said: 'I think she wanted to plan a fake kidnapping, but in her version I was supposed to find her.'
He added how now all he wants now is to be able to 'move past [the scandal]' even though the events are 'always going to be there'.
With the Hulu series surely set to reopen old wounds, he concluded: 'I do want to provide my children an amazing childhood, but I think it will always be there.'
What is her Hulu documentary Perfect Wife about?
Formally called'Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini', the three-part series details Keith's own battle to uncover the truth about Papini's disappearing act.
Episode one is set in 2016, and covers the initial stages of Papini's abrupt disappearance.
Told from the point of view of Keith, it will follow his frantic search for his-then wife just as the case began to make national headlines.
Episode 2 is set three weeks later, followingPapini being found in the middle of a interstate highway elsewhere in Northern California.
That segment will follow the story - as she told it - of her supposedlyviolent abduction, and 'nightmarish' few weeks in captivity.
The big breakthrough in the case that saw her story unraveled came when officers found her ex-boyfriend's DNA on her clothes in 2020 and discovered she had been holed up with him the whole time she had been pretending to be missing
It will also show how her account leads to a sprawling search for two Hispanic women, who she painted as the kidnappers.
The search of course came up empty, but investigators did not immediately suspect the unseemly housewife.
The third and final installment begins in 2020, four years after the scandal rocked the family - and the year that cops finally began to hone in on the con woman.
It follows Keith's struggle to support his spouses trauma and rebuild their family, which is ultimately upended by unexpected call from law enforcement that leads to his world being 'turned upside down'.
In his petition for divorce, a devastated Keith recalled this stage of his life, and how he and his kids had been 'victimized' by his ex-wife - whom he billed as a liar and a thief.
'On April 11 2022, I learned that I and my children had been victimized,' he wrote before being awarded full custody. '[And] that my wife was a skilled liar, an accomplished thief, a manipulator of others without empathy for their pain and loss.'
Keith was subsequently awarded the couple's home and custody of the kids, as well as the lion's share of the couple's possessions.
Papini, meanwhile, is currently in the midst of battling for more access to Tyler and Violet while Keith wants her to undertake a psychological evaluation and be barred from seeing them unsupervised.
She is also demanding he hand over an array of items from the marital home in Redding, among them ‘Grandpa’s truck, an inflatable water slide, a leaf blower and a smart TV'.
All three episodes of Perfect Wife will be available to stream on June 20.
