

This was more than double what the prosecutors had asked for. In September 2022, a judge sentenced Sherri, about 40 years old, to serve 18 months in federal prison. Furthermore, Keith filed for divorce and custody of their two children in the aftermath of the events. At that time, she talked in court about being treated for anxiety, depression, and PTSD since 2016. The following month, Sherri pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements and one count of mail fraud. However, the police arrested her in March 2022. When the authorities confronted Sherri Papini with the new evidence, she didn’t budge from her story. However, she claimed that someone else took over her account and posted that. Later, it was also reported that a MySpace account associated with Sherri had a racist rant from many years prior targeting the Latino community. So, James dropped her off at the rural road, where she was eventually found. However, around Thanksgiving that year, Sherri wanted to go home because she missed her kids. James added that the injuries Sherri had were self-inflicted and that she had asked him to help brand her. He stated that Sherri asked him to pick her up on November 2, 2016, before driving her to his Costa Mesa, California, home. James said he agreed to help her get away from her husband. When James was questioned, he told the police that Sherri had contacted him and claimed that Keith was abusing her. It was at this point that the investigation took a shocking turn. In 2020, they matched the biological evidence to James Reyes, an ex-boyfriend of Sherri’s. The authorities also collected Sherri’s clothing, and analysis revealed the presence of male DNA. Furthermore, her phone records indicated that she had been talking to multiple men in the time leading up to her disappearance. Some friends also mentioned Sherri making up things like being abused. Upon talking to people who knew Sherri, it appeared that she had a propensity to lie and during her younger years, she had often run away. However, the authorities found several inconsistencies in her stories, including her explanation for why she got branded Sherri claimed that it happened because she tried to escape and later said that it was requested by the man who was supposed to buy her. But Sherri asserted that she was let go three weeks after being held captive. She claimed that the kidnappers even made her wear an adult diaper. They’re never gonna find you.'” Sherri later talked about being kept chained in a closet and fed very little food. In it, Sherri was heard saying regarding one of her purported kidnappers, “She was laughing at me. According to Sherri, the women told her that the police were involved with her abduction.Īt the time, the investigators gave Keith a recording device to document everything she told him. However, they did learn that she claimed to have been kidnapped by two Hispanic women. Sherri was initially reluctant to speak with the authorities. Sherri also had branding on her shoulder, that appeared to be a Bible verse. Apart from that, she lost weight, her hair was cut, and she had several bruises all over her body. Sherri appeared to have a chain around her waist, and her wrist and ankles were bound. Image Credit: ABC Newsīut on November 24, 2016, she was located on a rural road in Yolo County, about 146 miles from her house. Despite aerial and ground searches, Sherri was nowhere to be seen. A few hours later, the 34-year-old was reported missing, leading to an extensive search for her whereabouts. Sherri had gone for an afternoon jog at around 2 pm near their home in the Mountain Gate area and was not seen after that.

Keith Papini, her then-husband, used the Find my iPhone app to trace her phone and earbuds to an intersection in Redding, California. On November 2, 2016, Sherri Papini, a young mother of two, didn’t show up at the children’s daycare to pick them up.
