Latest news with #Papini
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Yahoo
Sherri Papini, Convicted In 2016 Kidnapping Hoax, Again Claims She Was Kidnapped
Sherri Papini, a California woman who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about being kidnapped by two women in 2016, now claims it was her ex-boyfriend who actually kidnapped her. Papini, 43, made national headlines in 2016 after she told police that two Latina women had kidnapped her at gunpoint and taken her hostage for three weeks. She was found on Thanksgiving Day on the side of the road, covered in bruises. In 2022, she admitted that the kidnapping was fake in a plea deal with the FBI after investigators found she'd actually been staying with a former boyfriend, James Reyes, in Costa Mesa during the time she was missing. Papini was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the hoax. 'I am guilty of lying,' Papini said during her sentencing. 'I am guilty of dishonor. I stand before you willing to accept, to repent and to concede.' Now Papini is claiming that it was Reyes ― the ex-boyfriend she was staying with during her 2016 kidnapping hoax ― who had really kidnapped her at the time. 'To be clear, there was one thing that I lied about,' Papini told ABC News in an interview published Friday. 'Everything else was accurate and true. I lied about the identity of my captor.' Reyes has previously denied allegations that he kidnapped Papini and told police that Papini's bruises were self-inflicted. He was never charged with a crime. HuffPost could not reach him for comment. Papini's new accusation comes as she hawks a self-published book about the hoax she perpetrated. She claims she was afraid to tell police the truth over fears that her then-husband, Keith Papini, would be upset over her '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,' Papini told ABC News. 'I'd prefer prison over telling Keith Papini that I was having an emotional affair.' In an interview with ABC News last year, Keith Papini said his ex-wife has 'never apologized' for the lie she told him and their two children, which they believed for years until her 2022 plea deal. He filed for divorce that year. 'She made us all believe that her story was true. Every single day, she committed to the lie,' he said at the time. Sherri Papini's Ex-Husband Claims She Got Their Kids Sick With Rubbing Alcohol California Mom Sherri Papini Sentenced In 2016 Kidnapping Hoax California Mom Sherri Papini Admits 2016 Kidnapping Was Fake In Plea Deal
New York Post
20-06-2025
- New York Post
Sherri Papini, who admitted to faking her own kidnapping, claims she actually was abducted
Sherri Papini, the California woman who was convicted of faking her kidnapping in 2022, now claims she actually was abducted — this time saying her ex-boyfriend was the culprit. Papini, 43 — who lied to the FBI in 2016 by claiming two Hispanic women had held her captive for three weeks — said she was in fact kidnapped during that time period by her former boyfriend James Reyes. Papini took a lie detector test for a documentary. ID Papini said she never told police the truth about her disappearance because she was afraid of Reyes and also afraid of her then-husband. 'I'm not actually asking anyone to believe anything,' Papini told ABC News in an interview promoting her memoir. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! 'I just am free now, and I have the capacity to speak for myself without being afraid and without having to lie and not being as fearful as I have been before.' Papini was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the hoax. AP During their investigation, the feds found that Papini was secretly staying with Reyes while her husband, two children and officials desperately searched for her. She pleaded guilty in April 2022 to lying to the FBI about the fake kidnapping and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Reyes could not immediately be reached for comment by ABC Friday.
NBC News
20-06-2025
- NBC News
Sherri Papini, convicted of faking her own kidnapping, claims again she was kidnapped
Sherri Papini, the California woman who was convicted in 2022 for faking her kidnapping and lying to the FBI, is again claiming that she was in fact kidnapped. Papini, 43, told authorities in 2016 that she was abducted by two Hispanic women and held captive for three weeks that year. In 2022, she pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the fake kidnapping and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. But in an interview with ABC News on Friday to promote her new memoir, Papini is saying she was indeed kidnapped after all. This time, she's claiming that she was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, James Reyes. During the investigation into her lies, authorities concluded that Papini was staying with Reyes in secrecy while her husband, two children and officials searched for her in 2016. 'I'm not actually asking anyone to believe anything," she told ABC News. "I just am free now, and I have the capacity to speak for myself without being afraid and without having to lie and not being as fearful as I have been before." Reyes could not immediately be reached for comment. Papini said that she lied to authorities about who kidnapped her because she was in an emotionally abusive relationship with her now ex-husband. "Prison was far safer than the consequences that I would suffer if my ex-husband found out I was having an emotional affair,' she said. "I'd prefer prison over telling Keith Papini that I was having an emotional affair." Authorities began to question Papini's kidnapping claims when they found male DNA on her clothing. The DNA belonged to Reyes, who, at the time, told authorities that Papini had asked him to hit her to make it appear that she was abused during her fake kidnapping. Instead, he held a hockey stick for her to run into and branded her upon her request, he told officials. Reyes then dropped Papini along Interstate 5 when she said she wanted to go back home, according to authorities. Authorities found her about 145 miles south of where she had vanished. She was emaciated with a chain around her waist and self-inflicted injuries, according to officials. When asked what she would like to say to Reyes, Papini told ABC News that "it's time to tell the truth." "I've done it. I've suffered for it. You watched me burn for it, go to prison and lose custody of my children ... and it's time to come forward and tell the truth to everyone. He knows what happened," she said.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Sherri Papini Says Her 'Poor Mother' Was Taken 'Wildly Out of Context' in Doc: 'She Knows I Was Kidnapped'
In HBO's 'The Curious Case of Sherri Papini,' her mother Loretta Graeff is heard saying "It was not an abduction" Papini claimed during a new episode of 'The Viall Files' podcast that the quote was edited out of context and didn't reflect her mother's true beliefs She said her mother "definitely knows" she was kidnapped, despite Papini's 2022 guilty pleaSherri Papini — the California mom who admitted to faking her 2016 kidnapping — is pushing back on how her mother was portrayed in a new docuseries, claiming a quote that made headlines was taken "wildly out of context." In The Curious Case of Sherri Papini, Papini's mother Loretta Graeff is shown saying: 'It was not an abduction.' The quote appears to show Graeff doubting her daughter's version of events — a sentiment echoed by law enforcement and federal prosecutors, who ultimately revealed that Papini had orchestrated the entire disappearance herself. But now, Papini says the scene doesn't tell the whole story. 'My poor mother… when you don't have control over your own audio and it gets cut and clipped… it can be taken wildly out of context,' Papini, 42, said during a new episode of The Viall Files podcast. Pressed on whether her mother had changed her mind after initially expressing skepticism, Papini replied: 'Oh, no. My mom definitely knows that I was held captive and that I was kidnapped.' She added that while things were 'very confusing in the beginning,' her mother came to understand what 'actually happened' — and that the quote used in the documentary omitted that supposed clarification. The docuseries recounts the story that once gripped the nation: Papini disappeared while jogging near her Redding, Calif., home in November 2016. She resurfaced 22 days later on Thanksgiving morning, battered and shackled, claiming she had been abducted at gunpoint by two masked Hispanic women. That story unraveled in 2022 when federal investigators revealed Papini had been hiding out with a former boyfriend. She was charged with mail fraud and making false statements, later pleading guilty in a plea deal that sent her to prison for 18 months. She was released in 2023 to community confinement and remains under supervised release. In recent interviews — including the HBO project and her podcast appearance — Papini has positioned herself less as a manipulative hoaxster and more as a woman misrepresented by a hostile media, overzealous prosecutors and edited footage. The 42-year-old divorced mother-of-two says that her kidnapping wasn't a hoax, and that she only lied about the identity of her purported captor: her ex-boyfriend. She said she feared for her safety, and that her ex-husband Keith Papini would revoke her access to their children if she told the whole truth. (Papini's ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, has never been charged with a crime. He declined PEOPLE's request for comment in May, around when the documentary began airing.) Her alleged capture was preceded by a months-long emotional affair with James, she said, and she felt partially responsible for her circumstances after "leading him on," she said in the documentary. "I agreed with James to make up that someone else did it [in exchange for my release]," Papini claims. "It wasn't the right choice and I know that... I wish I would've told the truth from the day I was in the hospital — that it was James." Related: Why Sherri Papini's Own Mother Doesn't Believe Her New Story About Supposed Kidnapping Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. She calls the HBO project a 'trial by media,' noting that she never faced a criminal trial, and describes herself as living under a 'life sentence' of judgment. She also alleges that key evidence — such as interrogation audio in which, she claims, law enforcement guided her ex-boyfriend's responses — was left out of the final cut. Papini says she hopes her mother will publicly clarify her purported position if given the chance. 'I think given the opportunity, sure,' she said. But for many, the words spoken on-camera in the HBO series stand in sharp contrast to Papini's revised narrative. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Sherri Papini Says Her 'Poor Mother' Was Taken 'Wildly Out of Context' in Doc: 'She Knows I Was Kidnapped'
In HBO's 'The Curious Case of Sherri Papini,' her mother Loretta Graeff is heard saying "It was not an abduction" Papini claimed during a new episode of 'The Viall Files' podcast that the quote was edited out of context and didn't reflect her mother's true beliefs She said her mother "definitely knows" she was kidnapped, despite Papini's 2022 guilty pleaSherri Papini — the California mom who admitted to faking her 2016 kidnapping — is pushing back on how her mother was portrayed in a new docuseries, claiming a quote that made headlines was taken "wildly out of context." In The Curious Case of Sherri Papini, Papini's mother Loretta Graeff is shown saying: 'It was not an abduction.' The quote appears to show Graeff doubting her daughter's version of events — a sentiment echoed by law enforcement and federal prosecutors, who ultimately revealed that Papini had orchestrated the entire disappearance herself. But now, Papini says the scene doesn't tell the whole story. 'My poor mother… when you don't have control over your own audio and it gets cut and clipped… it can be taken wildly out of context,' Papini, 42, said during a new episode of The Viall Files podcast. Pressed on whether her mother had changed her mind after initially expressing skepticism, Papini replied: 'Oh, no. My mom definitely knows that I was held captive and that I was kidnapped.' She added that while things were 'very confusing in the beginning,' her mother came to understand what 'actually happened' — and that the quote used in the documentary omitted that supposed clarification. The docuseries recounts the story that once gripped the nation: Papini disappeared while jogging near her Redding, Calif., home in November 2016. She resurfaced 22 days later on Thanksgiving morning, battered and shackled, claiming she had been abducted at gunpoint by two masked Hispanic women. That story unraveled in 2022 when federal investigators revealed Papini had been hiding out with a former boyfriend. She was charged with mail fraud and making false statements, later pleading guilty in a plea deal that sent her to prison for 18 months. She was released in 2023 to community confinement and remains under supervised release. In recent interviews — including the HBO project and her podcast appearance — Papini has positioned herself less as a manipulative hoaxster and more as a woman misrepresented by a hostile media, overzealous prosecutors and edited footage. The 42-year-old divorced mother-of-two says that her kidnapping wasn't a hoax, and that she only lied about the identity of her purported captor: her ex-boyfriend. She said she feared for her safety, and that her ex-husband Keith Papini would revoke her access to their children if she told the whole truth. (Papini's ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, has never been charged with a crime. He declined PEOPLE's request for comment in May, around when the documentary began airing.) Her alleged capture was preceded by a months-long emotional affair with James, she said, and she felt partially responsible for her circumstances after "leading him on," she said in the documentary. "I agreed with James to make up that someone else did it [in exchange for my release]," Papini claims. "It wasn't the right choice and I know that... I wish I would've told the truth from the day I was in the hospital — that it was James." Related: Why Sherri Papini's Own Mother Doesn't Believe Her New Story About Supposed Kidnapping Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. She calls the HBO project a 'trial by media,' noting that she never faced a criminal trial, and describes herself as living under a 'life sentence' of judgment. She also alleges that key evidence — such as interrogation audio in which, she claims, law enforcement guided her ex-boyfriend's responses — was left out of the final cut. Papini says she hopes her mother will publicly clarify her purported position if given the chance. 'I think given the opportunity, sure,' she said. But for many, the words spoken on-camera in the HBO series stand in sharp contrast to Papini's revised narrative. Read the original article on People
