True Crime Vault: To Have and to Hoax

The new documentary film Katzai Wild Hearts is now available on Disney Plus and Hulu. The more we grow into Katzai, the more eyes that we have on us. We want to do everything for the fans. Our icons are what make Katzai iconic. Katzai Wild Hearts now available on Disney Plus and Hulu. Visit DisneyPlus.com/What's Hiphonon for more information, terms applied. Step into the 2020 True Crime Vault where each story is unforgettable. I mean, essentially, you were the target of one of the biggest hoaxes perpetrated on America in years. Next tonight here, the desperate search for a missing mother in California. Cherry Papini. I didn't do anything wrong. Her then husband finally revealing the whole story. When I pulled back the curtain and I saw her and I saw the look in her eyes, I felt in that moment that she was lying. Branding hockey pucks against her arms and legs. The disappearance, why would she do all of this to herself? I can't remember if she said we don't want to hurt you, we don't want to kill you. There were definitely lots of people saying all this is BS, it's an obvious hoax. But then things get far more twisted. There's information that I think you have about the induction. There's evidence that says you were around. It's a massive break in the case. And now it all comes crumbling down. Oh my gosh, do we have a monster in our midst? This is very weird for me. Because I know that you know everything. She never took a break. Every single day she committed to the lie. And there's no turning back now. No turning back now. Don't make a sound. Best not make a sound. There's no turning back now. Time up. What's your name? So I just got one from work and my wife was in there, which is unusual. She was reported missing at about 5.30 p.m. on November 2nd. Down on her phone, it's got like care ripped out of it. Like, is it headphones? So I'm like totally freaking out, thinking like somebody like you. What's your script? What's your wife's name? Jerry. S-H-B-R-R-I. My name is Sergeant Kyle Wallace with the Shaskin and Sheriff's Office. I was the lead investigator for the Sherry Papini investigation. Okay, what's your last name? Papini, P-A-P-I-N-I. And your first name? Keep. Okay, are you headed back to the house or where you at right now? I'm at the end of the driver's seat. Let's just have the officers contact you, so they can start. You know processing everything, figure out what's going on, okay? The whole Sherry Papini story was just a huge bombshell to this area. The search is intensifying for a wife and mother who disappeared while jogging in Redding, California. The briefing was, we have a lady that's out jogging, came up missing. As we came home, not to find her, and then the kids were still at daycare. Sherry was last seen about a mile from her home in Mountain Gate. Search teams are looking everywhere, trying to piece together what happened to Sherry Papini. You have this beautiful blonde mom of two who all of a sudden had vanished. And whenever we have the abduction, especially of a mom, everyone panicked. She is considered at risk due to suspicious circumstances. There was definitely a sense of fear. We just knew that a young woman had been taken somewhere near the I-5 freeway. Her family, suspecting something, went terribly wrong. Someone took our daughter, snatched her out of the thin air. What does it feel like to have that thought that somebody has abducted your wife? Scared? I was scared. Everything from day one had your hairs up on the back of your neck, just trying to figure out what was going on. Sherry's disappearance was the start of a mystery that would grip the entire country as detective searched for answers in the rural Northern California town of Redding. Redding is unique. Northern California, two hours north of Sacramento. Roughly 180,000 people have lived in Shasta County, but half of those people live in greater Redding area. It's just the very getter-done kind of community that helps one another. Sherry has been described as a super mom. She's always wanted to be home with her babies and to be an important role in their lives. From everyone we talked to, Sherry, who was a stay-at-home mom, cherished her family life, doting on their four-year-old son, Tyler, and their two-year-old daughter, Violet. I know my sister would never leave her children, never leave her babies. They were very nice couple, sweet, sweet young people. She's just very kind-hearted and different from other girls that I have dated throughout the years. She's just so down to earth. Keith and Sherry's love story is really rather sweet. They shared a very electric first kiss in the seventh grade, and they stayed close and continued to communicate all through junior high. We have a unique story. Years later, we kind of reconnected, and I remembered that I kept her notes that she wrote me. I took her out on a date and I handed her a box, and of course, it was like all our little notes back and forth. I mean, this is like a cosmic connection. Yeah, yeah. Now, like, we were always meant to be, for sure. For Keith, there was never anyone but Sherry. He knew he wanted to marry her, and he did in 2009. They later had two beautiful kids that are all living together in the very same house where Keith grew up. Their whole relationship has just been the storybook relationship. They do just very sweet things for one another. Even her wedding photos looks like a celebrity wedding. Just so glamorous. The cutest, prettiest couple. We see these amazing family pictures. Absolutely perfect. Everybody's so happy. That is an incredible stark contrast to the anguish we saw from Keith in November of 2016. Take me back to that day. It was a little cold in the morning, but it was a nice day. I went to work, and I didn't get home until around five o'clock. He just came home to an empty house, which was unusual for him. I looked in a few different rooms, and I couldn't find anybody. So I thought, OK, maybe they're outside. I looked around outside, and couldn't find them. He thinks they're just on a walk, but his time passes, and they're still not home. I started looking for his family. And I called our daycare type place. First thing I said is, what time did Sherry pick up the kids today? And when she said the kids are here, that was like something is wrong. Keith does to the Find My Phone app, and he starts to track where Sherry's iPhone is. It's about a mile away, actually. Near our mailbox, I wasn't looking for a phone. I was looking for Sherry. When I didn't find Sherry, I parked, and I got out, and now I'm looking for a phone, because it's saying it's here, it's here. Keith was so smart, he took a picture of the phone when he found it, because he thought it was weird, but he knew it was important, and he wanted to show it to the police. Where exactly did Keith find Sherry's phone? So the phone was found right near the intersection of Old Oregon Trail and Sunrise, just a short distance away. I knew something was wrong, my first thing was somebody took her. And that begins the search for Sherry Papini. Keith is panicked, he's calling everyone he knows, friends, family. When I heard Keith's voice on the phone, I fell down and just started crying, my sister's gone. Please bring her home, she has babies, she loves them. I said, there's not going to be a happy ending to this. I thought she was going to turn out dead. This morning, search teams scouring these rural roads and trails, trying to piece together what happened to Sherry Papini. We're just using a map and ordering some grid searches. The married mother of two vanishing without a trace last Wednesday afternoon, while jogging near her Redding, California home. It wasn't just that Sherry was missing and her cell phone was found. It's that her wallet, her purse, her keys were all at home. She hadn't used her credit cards. She hadn't been to the bank, the ATM, nothing. - Ms. Papini has been entered into a national computer for missing persons. She is considered at risk due to the suspicious circumstances. Everybody, everybody puts your good thoughts out there, put your prayers out there, and let's find Sherry. - How quickly did public attention start to focus on this case and the Papinis? - Oh, immediately. Every day you couldn't dream of keeping on with that. Seeing Sherry's picture. The desperate search for a missing mother. - Sherry Papini. - Last seen on Wednesday, the 34 year old has been missing. - It got massive headlines. I mean, everyone was following the Sherry Papini case. - Story that's capturing nationwide attention. - Sherry Papini. - Sherry Papini. - Sherry Papini. - The amount of national attention was quite overwhelming. All the cameras, all the reporters, everybody going around trying to get their own angle. - The community responded. There was hundreds of volunteer searchers within the first couple of days. - The longer that someone's missing, that's very critical time within the first 24 hours. - Are we down on houses? - It was really a wide variety of our community coming together to help the Papini family. - Not only does the family offers a reward for the safe return of Sherry, but so do perfect strangers. A GoFundMe page is set up. - That page set up by Keith's friends promises all funds will go directly to the family to aid in search efforts to bring Sherry home. In total, it raises nearly $50,000. - They probably had a couple of hundred volunteers that were scouring this area, looking for any evidence. - Keith is volunteering in the search. He has tremendous support from friends and family, and they had a single mission to leave no stone unturned. I remember hiking, looking for evidence, looking for Sherry. When we start to see some birds circling, they're like, you know, there's a lot of birds starting to circle over there. And I just went to my knees and I thought, am I really going to really, I can't wait to look for my wife. And do I even want to, I don't want to find her right now, but I do want to find her. One of my good friends came over and just, you know, hugged me and let me cry and shoulder for a little bit. Yeah, it was, that was a tough one for me that day. All this time, you're dealing with this. You've still got two little kids to think about. Fortunately, I have an amazing family and amazing friends and they really, really came to the rescue on that, kept them happy, kept them out of this. Still, keep new. He had to find a way to explain to his young son, Tyler, why his mom was away from home. I told him I had something important to tell him and he, he jumped, he jumped up on the couch with me and he knew, he knew something was up. And he said, Dad, you could tell me anything. For a little four-year-old, to say that. I wasn't prepared for that. And I just said, uh, it's like, son, you know, uh, mommy went running and she couldn't, she didn't come home. We just held each other and, and I said, uh, he said, are you looking for it? I said, everybody in the whole world is looking for it right now. And I said, we're going to find her and we're going to get her back. ABC News has learned police have suspended the ground search for the missing 34-year-old. Detectives now scouring surveillance video. It is very frustrating for investigators that we haven't gotten any viable leads or tips to pursue on. What was Keith's behavior like those first few days after sharing with missing? He would answer every media outlet, every chance to get on TV. I feel that she's going to come home and I want to be home when she'd come home. I interviewed Keith several times, he would contact me and say, can we do something more on Sherry? What else can be done? Just to keep her face on the TV screen. It is excruciating. I don't like to think too much about it because, uh, you know, I just assume that I'm going to get a phone call any second or she's going to, you know, show up at my house. He was trying to keep her story out there and keep her picture out there, but the detectors were watching TV every day to see if we can pick pieces out of something as interviews he was doing. Because we were still eyeing him as a boaster. A possible suspect. Yeah, yeah, definitely. We were looking at that. Basically, there were some inconsistencies in his story. It made you a little bit suspicious of him. Sure. So at this time, you're not only dealing with the disappearance of your wife, having to break into your kids, but you're also the prime suspect. The sheriff's office thinks that you had something to do with Sherry's disappearance. Yeah. It never occurred to me at first that people would think it was me. And then, you know, when you step back and you kind of look at this from an outside perspective, I'm sure you do. Oh, it's the-- it's the husband. I remember family members were like, you need to-- you need to get a light detector test. And you need to get this and this because they're saying all these mean things about you. I never care what other people were saying. Clearly, investigators must do their due diligence in looking into Keith's life and activities. But at the same time with a missing woman, they need to know about her too. We were looking into a little bit of everything, financials. We found where she had been previously married and had been divorced. Investigators learned Sherry had married a marine sergeant in 2006, which he said was because she needed health insurance. He said they never actually lived together and divorced in 2008. And in a quick turnaround, Sherry and Keith married the very next year. We checked with her ex-husband who lives out of state and found that he had not heard or seen from top to her in probably six years or more. So that was not a viable lead. Even after an exhaustive search, investigators still have no solid leads. They're no closer to finding Sherry or figuring out how she apparently disappeared in the middle of the day. We were going to keep every option open and keep an open mind that this could be any type of situation. It could be foul play. It could be a kidnapping. She could be voluntarily gone in her own. The Terry and Marilyn Smith take one more. It just sprouted back a flood of memories. The last time anybody saw Terry Smith, it was on this remote gravel road. Another pretty blonde girl missing again from Reddine. There's a resemblance of Terry Smith and Miss Papini, which made it maybe even a little bit more eerie. A missing mother in California. The family convinced she was abducted. When you think about it, it's really rather unusual for a person just to be snatched off the street in the middle of a jog. But in Reddine, California, it was not the first time. The last major disappearance in this county was of Terry Smith. That's correct. Hey, Terry and Marilyn. Yep. My granny called her. Terry was 16, very outgoing, very friendly, well-liked by just better with it newer. You'll do great. Thanks. We did everything together. We were at church every Sunday together. We had a very close church family. She was a good daughter. I mean, we had typical teenage confrontations, as most people do. Terry Smith was 16 years of age. Seemed to be extremely active in school. A very good student had lots and lots of friends. She had recently started taking a talk window class with one of her best friends. She was spending time at the Dojo and had this new instructor, Troy Zink. The Smith owned an operated family entertainment center in the town of Reddine and Tara. Was the oldest of their four children. She helped out at the family business and she was supposed to be working that night. So 6 o'clock comes and goes and she doesn't show up and that's not like her. She was always where she was supposed to be, when she was supposed to be. So I called home. Our younger daughter, who was 10, said that she had gone for a run. And she hadn't come back. But started off looking at it from the perspective that dish. This is just a teenage kid. Maybe somebody else's house visiting somebody. - I started driving all the roads, looking for her running somewhere. I started calling her friends and nobody had seen Tara. We just couldn't find her. One of her friends called back and said she believed her talk window instructor, Troy Zink, had an inappropriate relationship with her. - On the very first night she was missing, Mr. and Mrs. Smith were looking through her bedroom and came across some journals that Tara kept. And in reading her journals, there were pages in there relating to a relationship between Tara Smith and Troy Zink. - They also say they found this four-page letter that Tara had addressed to Troy Zink. To the Smiths, it seemed to confirm that she was involved in an intimate relationship with him. She wrote, "I know that what I'm doing is wrong. There is no way to overlook this fact. It's against God's will, and we both know it." But the letter also makes it clear that Tara had deep regrets and she decided to end the relationship. She wrote, "Ask yourself this question. Are you putting yourself and us before God? I know I am, but not anymore." We think she intended to give a letter to him and then opted to meet him in person instead. - We know that she did call him the day of her disappearance was Saturday. She wanted to meet with him. To tell him in person that she was calling off the relationship. - I called the house, talked to his wife, and she didn't know where he was, but he wasn't at home. At this point, the Smiths called the police, and an officer is sent to Troy Zink's home. Now he's nowhere to be found and Zink never contacted police that night, but guess who he did call? The Smith family. - He did get home and called us back. - 11 o'clock. - And said that Tara had called him and asked him to come to her on the road back behind her property, and she asked for money. - He claimed that he told her he wouldn't give her the money, that she got angry, started cussing at him and screaming and hollering. And he ultimately dropped her off at an intersection. - And he says that he last saw her jogging east on that fairly busy road. - And then he proceeded to go home, get his dogs, and then go up to the mountain to pray. (dramatic music) - The last time anybody saw Tara Smith, it was right here on this remote gravel road, just about a quarter of a mile from where she lives with her family. I remember covering this case so well. I covered it for a while. Last person to see her was Troy Zink. Police launched an extensive search for Tara, but nobody or any trace of her was ever found. - Mr. Zink, could we have just a second? - Once Troy Zink was named a person of interest, he retained a lawyer and then refused to talk to investigators or submit to a polygraph test. And while that case still remains open to this day, Zink is on the record saying he had nothing to do with Tara's disappearance and he was never charged. I know there remains something is always found. People don't just go missing and they're never recovered. And sadly that's not the case. - 18 years had passed since Tara Smith went missing, a tragedy still fresh in the minds of the redding community when Sherry Papini disappeared in a similar way. - It was on the investigators' minds. In fact, there is a resemblance of Tara Smith and Ms. Papini, which made it maybe even a little bit more eerie. But hunt for a woman who vanished without a trace. - We lost our daughter, she never came back. So I don't think we thought she would be found. - This whole incident just brought back that fear and concern in our community that was rampant back then when the Smith woman was missing. - Missing mother lasting jogging near her home. - What happened to Sherry Papini? - That's part of what made our community really get behind Keith and his efforts. - It is very difficult for me and for my family. I would never wish this feeling upon anybody is taking its toll on me. - Now at this point, Keith is contacted by someone who claims he could help as a hostage negotiator. - These videos, this guy was putting out, when I watched them, I was a little shocked. - I wanted to make it so tempting that a doctor's own mother would have turned him in. (dramatic music) - This episode is sponsored by HomeServe. Think about the last time something went wrong in your home, like a burst pipe hours before you were set to have company or a furnace breakdown when it's below zero outside. It's chaotic, overwhelming and scary. And if you don't know where to turn, you might feel desperate. The worst way to feel before reaching out to professionals who might charge a whole lot of money. HomeServe doesn't want you to ever feel that way again. So for as little as $4.99 a month, they'll provide you peace of mind. With HomeServe, when something goes wrong, you just have to make one call. And all you need to do to get started is just choose a HomeServe plan that works for your needs and budget. Then when something on your plan goes wrong, call their 24/7 hotline to start the repair process. No more scrambling, just clear, helpful support. Your next costly home repair could be coming. Act now and get protected before breakdown with a plan through HomeServe. For 50% less your first year, go to HomeServe.com/2020 to find the plan that's right for you. That's HomeServe.com/2020 for 50% less savings compared to renewal price void in Florida. This show is sponsored by Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID. On June 25th, 2011, 31-year-old Angel Harris was found murdered in Gainesville, Florida. More than 15 years later, her case remains unsolved. But on the new podcast Who Killed Angel Harris, a podcast from ID, host Sarah Kalen, travels to Florida to uncover what happened to Angel and who may be responsible. Retired Gainesville Police Detective Courtney Roberts joined Sarah to review evidence. That includes surveillance footage showing Angel with an unidentified man shortly before her death and then the same man walking away alone. Soon, the search for answers in one murder turns into an investigation of five unsolved homicides. Who killed Angel Harris? Listen to Who Killed Angel Harris, wherever you get your podcasts. (dramatic music) At the end of the seventh day of the search for Sherry Papini, investigators seem no closer to finding her. I'm just wondering about her health. Are they feeding her? Is she feeling hot? Is she cold? The rule of thumb for criminologists in any missing person's case is that the first 72 hours are critical and with every passing hour, the chances of finding the victim alive fade. So investigators looking for Sherry are desperate for break. But still, at this point, the only piece of evidence they have to go on was her phone. - The phone was found in this general area right here, facing up her earbuds for somewhat coiled and placed on top of the phone. And there was a few strands of her hair with the earbuds. - Did it make you think that perhaps it was staged? - It looked like it could have been placed there. It didn't look like the phone was thrown down or just haphazardly set off to the site. - There's so much about the abduction that just doesn't add up. And so with so very little to go on, investigators can only do one thing at this point and that's focus their attention on Keith Papini. - We called in a polygraph examiner to polygraph Keith. - It has like no problem. Let's hurry up and get this over with. It's a crazy feeling just going through that. - Did they ask you if you've had anything to do with Sherry's disappearance? - Oh, of course. These tests, they don't tell you if it's a big lie or a small lie. They just know like when you're lying. - How did he do on that polygraph test? - He passed, polygraph. - Local officials are saying her husband's polygraph test indicates that he had no involvement with her disappearance adding that they were also able to confirm his whereabouts the day she went missing. - Everything that he did that day, we were able to cooperate. He was with another co-worker that we were able to say that he was with him all day. - When most cases of domestic abuse or disappearance, the spouse or the partner has something to do with it. That never bothered you. I knew, obviously, that nothing to do with it. And I didn't care. I looked past all that. - Police are still no closer to locating Sherry or figuring out why she was taken or by whom. - We need something tangible to hold on to. And when we don't have that or you're dancing around some answers, the may be there. You can get very frustrating and taxing and tiring. - Now at this point, Keith is contacted by someone who claims he can help as a hostage negotiator. His name is Cameron Gamble. And he tells Keith that an anonymous donor has offered $50,000 for Sherry, Safer Turn. - No questions asked. - You don't know who the anonymous person is? - No. - It's anonymous to you as well. - Yes. - My name is Cameron Gamble and I'm an international Kinep and Ransom Consultant. I've been retained by an individual who wishes to remain anonymous. - Who is Cameron Gamble? - We know he's a former Air Force senior Airman who makes a living training military, law enforcement, even private citizens on how to evade and escape capture. - There is no idea or thought that if I think could work, that I was not gonna try. - Gamble decides to post a video on YouTube, promising the kidnappers a payday. - They can manage this opportunity. - But there is one very important condition. They must return Sherry by the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. - What made you so confident that this was an abduction and not something else? - Everything I looked at fit that bill. Look at the husband, he wasn't faking it. Look at Sherry herself. This isn't the type of girl who's just gonna walk away from all that. - Bring her home. Bring her home safe. There's a $50,000 reward. Bring her home. - Cameron Gamble makes this public plea specifically to the kidnappers and he says I will work with you. I will talk to you. I will negotiate this contact me. Well of course they don't contact him. - Your critics would say that this is a publicity stunt. - They can say that all they want. I don't do this for the critics. I do this for the small number that actually matter and that being Keith and Sherry. - I don't know your motive. I don't know who you are. I don't care. I simply care about getting Sherry back. - Did you ever expect someone to ring you up and say I have Sherry? I want the money. - I was hopeful. - You were so convinced that Sherry was still alive. - You know, you go into these situations thinking they're dead, then you lose hope right off the bat. - Though Cameron Gamble's motivations are sincere for the investigators on the case, his involvement muddies up what was already a murky case. - We were opposed to it and the reason we were, this would create cooks, scam artists, con artists coming out of the woodwork. - There were some big opponents to this. - This sheriff was adamantly opposed. Yeah, to Cameron Gamble being involved in any way. - For me, I was gonna do everything I could to get my wife back. - The deadline for the ransom comes and goes not a peep from the kidnappers. So on the day before Thanksgiving, Gamble throws Hail Mary. The ransom is now a six-figure bounty and it's for anyone who turns in the kidnappers. - You leave us to Sherry and we give you more cash than you can spend. - These videos, this guy was putting out when I washed them, I was a little shocked because they went from cooperate with us, we don't care to, now we're taking the money off the table and we're coming after you. - I wanted to make it so tempting that the abductors on mother would have turned them in. - About three weeks after Sherry disappeared, on the morning of Thanksgiving, but where the sun has even come up, this trucker calls 911. - 911 emergency, what are you reporting? - There's a lady on the south of the road and she's needing help. - Can I talk to her? - Quickly, quickly! - Oh my God, this is unbelievable. - It's now been more than two weeks since Sherry disappeared on November 2nd. There's no leads and Thanksgiving is just around the corner. - Thanksgiving morning, there's a tradition here of a big race called the turkey trot and so Keith had asked that balloons be released that day in honor of Sherry and honor of the search for her. - You know, we're all looking for ya and here's just a symbol, here's home and I really like that. - Happy Thanksgiving, it's gonna be a cold morning. - You've got the turkey trot in redding, bundle up. - If you're up, just getting your turkey ready, wanna wish you a happy Thanksgiving. - In the pre-dawn hours of November 24th, which was Thanksgiving morning, 150 miles south of Redding in Yolo County, a driver spots a woman in distress on the side of the highway. - The truck driver actually pulled over this big rig because she was standing trying to wave cars down and she was frantic. - So this trucker calls 911. - Hi, and I have an emergency. There's a lady on the side of the road needing help. - Do you know what's wrong with her? - She's saying that she got kicked out of her boyfriend's. - Okay, just these days where you are, what is she asking for? - She's changed up her vision blurry against the needs of ambulance. - Do you see her changed up? - Yeah, her name is Sherry Penini. - Can I talk for a? - Here. - Please, Sherry, I need you to listen to me. - Listen to me, do you know where you are? - No, no, you've been in the car. - Okay, take a deep breath, we need to change you up. You know the person or where you can now. - Oh no! - Please don't go! - Okay, listen, listen, I have help on the way. - Hey, what are you doing? - Very early in the morning, Thanksgiving day, you get a phone call. My cell phone rang. I didn't pick up the first call. I was just getting done shaving. I didn't recognize the number. Immediately after that, my home phone rang. I picked it up and it was a very mixed emotion. It was my wife screaming in the background. - Okay, is the ambulance okay? - I'm panicked, but I'm happy. 'Cause at this point, that's the first time I've heard a voice, I know she's alive. And you hear, and I hear screaming. So then I get the phone and, oh my God, honey, I'm of course, you screaming. It's very emotional, and I love you, I love you. Oh my God, you're here, you're back, where are you? And then the phone gets like taken away from her. Like, super quick. - We got a call from Keith. Keith was frantic, yelling into the phone. They found her, she's been located, telling me a CHP down in Sacramento area, had Sherry. - Meanwhile, back and ready, there's about to be a big balloon release, but no one knows anything about the miraculous return of Sherry from captivity. - I was supposed to meet Keith at the turkey trot that morning, but Keith didn't show up. And so that's when I just went home and was up working on my roof. When I got the call from Sheriff Bessenko, saying Sherry had been found. - We are very ecstatic to report that Sherry Papini has been located. - She was found early Thanksgiving morning, near I-5 in Yolo County. - Sherry Papini found a lie. - Missing for nearly a month under mysterious circumstances has been found alive. - It was just kind of surreal. Like, what do you mean we found her? Then my mind kicks in at that point. Who, what, how? She alive. - The paramedics were the first people to tell her happy Thanksgiving. They had just blew her mind and then she's like, "Oh, it's Thanksgiving night?" And they said, "No, it's Thanksgiving morning." - Sherry is immediately transported by ambulance to the Woodland Hospital. - That's where I met her a couple hours later. - First walking into the hospital room, Sherry was pretty hostile, which I didn't expect. - Detective Wallace recorded that first interaction at the hospital with a very shaken sounding Sherry. - I can't imagine what you've been through. We don't know how this happened. I don't know. - No one can protect me. I just don't know what husband. - No one found me, and I want my husband. No one has been. - One of the officers kind of braced me and put his arm around me and he said, "You know, prepare yourself. She's alive and you just got to be happy." - And in that recording, you can hear how emotional Sherry sounds when she's reunited with Keith. (laughing) ♪ What if he's gonna know ♪ ♪ What if he's gonna know ♪ - Sherry Papini has found alive, and everybody is ecstatic about her safe return. But this story is about to become far more twisted than anybody can imagine. - Looking at her injuries at the hospital, I was shocked by them. - Her kidnappers had branded her. - She's in the hands of the truck, and I can go along with the hands of the truck, like, go. - Why would you starve her, torture her, and chop off her hair and poke at somebody and do something like this? - That's the mystery. - Why? - But then, everyone has questions. - There were definitely lots of people saying, "Oh, this is BS, it's not true." Things just started to not really add up. - Investigators also get the DNA hit. - The DNA was of a male. - What are the chances? - That's not what happened when it didn't happen, Sherry. - Hey, what's going on? - And Keith Papini today, in an all-new interview, he lays out the whole story for the first time. How did you not pick up on it all those years together? There's no way! If you need me, it doesn't matter. There was always something that wasn't right. Every day, I was trying to figure out what happened and who took her, who was responsible. Because everything you thought was true was in truth. Why did you lie? Into that case that made national headlines, Chery Papini. Chery Papini. Chery Papini. I can't remember lifting my leg. I can't remember. The back door opened. Rex has been now speaking out. I think that she wanted to plan a fake kidnapping. But in her version, I was supposed to find her. You seem scared, Chery. But it's not what happened, what did happen, Chery? Now, how he got caught? And you have a battered, beaten, bruised, burned woman screaming her head off. Chained boards on the walls. Who are you going to believe in that moment? I don't know who you two are. We're trying to understand why you did that, too. I mean, she left the phone with her hair pulled out, playing her wedding song. I mean, she set the clues. Is that evil or is it just sick? A young mother goes missing vanishes? The mystery evolved in the town of Reddy, but really, the story gripped an entire nation as police looked everywhere for Chery. About three weeks after Chery disappeared. 22 days later, on the morning of Thanksgiving before the sun has even come up, she's found alive. Good morning, America. A Thanksgiving miracle. Chery Papini, the Shasta County mother, missing for three weeks, has been found alive. We are very ecstatic to report that Chery Papini has been located. She and Keith have been reunited. This Thanksgiving day, they just had Chery's back. Chery's home. She's been found. We were so happy for Chery, so happy for her family that they got her back. And then it felt like it's a stab in the heart at the same time. Because we didn't get our daughter back. It brought all that pain back again to not get our daughter back. It was amazing to see her alive and talking and saying our names. But it was hard to see her in the condition that she was in. Looking at her injuries at the hospital, I was shocked by them. I've been to several homicides. I've been to several domestic violence situations in my career. But the totality of the injuries for it to be all over her face for arms or legs and her chest and her back was just alarming. In 2016, I spoke to Keith just days after Chery returned. What did you see? The bruises were just intense. Her hair, everybody knows Chery. She's always had very long, long hair. And they chopped it off. She lost almost 15% of her body weight in 22 days. That is traumatic physically. It made me sick that there is people out there that could do something like this. Now, the detectives wanted to talk to Chery. They were looking for any information that she can give them about the horror that she had just endured. But it didn't really seem like Chery wanted to talk to them. They told her who talked to you. "Tell me. I'm going to look at them. I'm not leaving." Chery says she doesn't want to talk to the police because she's afraid of them. Her kidnappers told her that she was going to be sold to someone as part of a sex trafficking ring and that one of the people involved was actually in law enforcement. He said that they were involved and I wanted to talk to them. They were interested. She really wasn't having any part of talking. We made the investigative decision to keep Keith in the room to hopefully start getting the information. "We have to do this and we have to catch these people." "Let's just answer everything they want." With Keith asking the questions, Chery begins opening up about what happened to her. On November 2nd, Chery said she was on a run in her neighborhood. She initially saw a black SUV going north. "What was the car?" "What did she look?" "It was a dark, colored SUV." "It's a dark colored SUV." "I know it's just one person." "Do you see women?" "Two women." "There's no one in England." "No one in England." "They were Hispanic. They spoke Spanish a lot." She said the younger female got out with a handgun and Chery just froze. She was instructed to get into the vehicle. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's not a good part. I'm sorry." But first, she places her cell phone and earbuds on the ground and pulls out some strands of her hair to place on top of those items. They begin to drive. She doesn't know where they're going. "That first day, you were a must've been in the car for a while." "I don't know. I lost time. I lost a lot of time." "Okay. You see me? I know. I had some government fees." "I'd wrapped around me." "I think she may have teased me. I don't remember. I don't remember." "I can see any of the members holding a phone." Did she know the people she was with? No. The people who abducted her. No. Didn't recognize them. No. Did she ever see them? Their faces were always covered. Aside from all the bruises and abrasions and restraints, police were pretty shocked to find that Sherry actually had been branded on the upper right portion of her back. "And I, they said I was branded." "That's what they said. That's what you might think." "You might see all of them in my back." "You might see all of them in the car." "I wonder if you're going to see all of them." "Hey, baby, will you?" "Just keep in like a pulpy." "This isn't a pulpy." "It hurts so bad." The word was Exodus, something from the Bible. She was physically abused quite a bit, but there was no evidence of any type of sexual abuse. Sherry Papini has endured three weeks of beating, abuse, and torment. Then after all that, the kidnappers let her go. Sherry says she has no idea why. They suddenly decided to release her. I'll never forget hearing Keith Papini talk about the moment he got to see his own children reunited with their mother. Four-year-old Tyler went first. He hugged her and my wife obviously, very emotional, and started crying. And she said, "I'm so happy." And my son, of course, is like, "You don't cry, would you're happy?" And my wife said, "When you're this happy, you cry." Then it was two-year-old violence turn. She just said, "Mommy!" And just took off running, and she picked her up, and then we all went to the ground for a big family hug. What a blessing, right? That she was found safe. But then everyone has questions. Once she returned home, we went from worrying about finding a lady to now finding her abductors. The cops took every piece of clothing that she was wearing, including her underwear. They bagged it, sealed it, because they were going to test it for forensic evidence and DNA. Authorities are now searching for two Hispanic women, armed with a handgun in a dark SUV. I see a vehicle going past. I don't know. I wouldn't know, it goes down, but it was. It was a woman. There was dangerous people out there, inflicting this type of harm and torture on to somebody. It's like, "Oh my gosh, do we have a monster in our midst?" After a 22 really harrowing days, Jerry Papini, she's home. Everyone really has overjoyed about this, but wasn't over yet. Still, these alleged kidnappers are on the loose. Officials say they're looking for two Hispanic women that they consider to be armed and dangerous, driving a dark SUV. Two Hispanic females in a dark colored SUV in the state of California is not much of a tent. No, it would be literally a needle and a haystack. The investigation is far from over. In fact, there's only begun. new chapter. In this video you see detectives from the Shasta County Sheriff's Office interviewing Sherry. She was in a ball and a cocoon essentially with her knees up to her chest. I feel like sometimes it's easier with my eyes closed. Is that okay? Absolutely. Again Keith had to be present for the interview. She wouldn't allow us to talk to her alone. I can't be alone with people I don't know. So if you're here for the duration we're here for you, I'm here for you. Cops go out of their way to reassure Sherry and make her comfortable but you can see she's reluctant to open up to them. That's another thing I'm scared about. I don't know you guys. I don't know if you're in my corner. I know my husband. I know my husband's in my corner but you know there was a lot of other things and I know that you guys know everything. That's embarrassing. That's weird for me. That's weird for me. Now Sherry provides these very unique details about the home where she was held captive and all of these specifics can help investigators narrow this search especially as they get closer to potential suspects in a case. She said she was put into a bedroom. Sherry described that bedroom with just a single bed no other artifacts inside the room. There was boards on the windows and I yanked up the wall super quick and that's what got her in the room with that noise. The yanking it out was what made the noise. Broke my nail, ripped it off, she came in and then it was lights out. What do you mean I was left out? I can't remember if it was if I was hit with something, if I was stuck with something, if it and that's what I was asking to if I was tased. Wouldn't I remember? Sherry tells investigators that she was chained to a very specific kind of pole in the closet. There was a chain around my waist. Do you know what you were affixed to? Was it a tether? Was it like a rope? A metal cable. Was the cable affixed to the wall and like the cable was loose? The cable was affixed to a pole that went up into the ceiling. She describes it as a piece of all thread, essentially a long bolt that has grooves just like a screw. So the cable that you were attached to, that was loose. I had slack. I could get to the bed so it reached the bed. I could obviously get to the closet. Couldn't reach the door. About the bathroom. That's how it looked like. It just was a standard. There was a crack in the tile. It was a light colored tile that was speckled. It was always hands on the wall. It was a really high pressured shower. That very first shower that I had hurt really bad because the burn was fresh and the water was running over it and there was other open wounds and it just. She literally lived through hell. I think she told me that she did. I didn't like she was tucking in her kids and she told me one time she took some piece of cloth and rolled it up like it was violet. She would rocket it. She so strong. The Shasta County Sheriff offered new information this afternoon into the abduction and discovery of a running woman. The Sheriff held a news conference today describing Sherry Papini as courageous and revealing details about her three-week ordeal. Suspect number one at Long Curly Hair. She had a thick accent. She had pierced ears. Suspect number two at Straight Black Hair with some graying color. She had thick eyebrows. I've lived here most of my life in the Hispanic Latino community. We were shocked but it could have happened. I mean we had to have an open mind and think well maybe these were gang affiliates who did this horrible thing. Sherry told investigators they kept telling me no one's ever going to believe me. No one's ever going to believe me that's because people from law enforcement are involved in this ring and you are going to be sold to someone. We do have some sex trafficking going on in our community unfortunately like probably every community. But there are others who thought that certain details of Sherry's story weren't actually consistent with sex trafficking. If you're going to traffic someone from monetary purposes are you going to starve them, beat them especially in the face, chop off their beautiful long locks. You're going to do the opposite. You want them to look like someone you can sell unfortunately. Things just started to not really add up exactly. Next the strange new twists in the case of Sherry Copini rumors that it could all be a hoax. There were definitely lots of people saying all this is BS. This is an obvious hoax. Many reports have said that this was a little bit of attention, seeking kind of couple sort of a reality show ready to go. And there started to be rumors that circulated that Sherry had something to do with her own disappearance. Did that anger you? In my darkest hours I obviously explored any possible outcome. You know, could she have just the left? I mean there's no evidence. And then as everybody will tell you, no she couldn't. I knew it in my heart. With mystery still swirling about who's responsible this northern California community is on edge. To the community be worried. The community should be concerned. The police are mystified. That was frustrating. 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The all-new original series The Mob premieres October 26th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. And five months later there is still a lot police don't know. There is concern about inconsistencies in Sherry Papini's case. There were no witnesses at the time. We had very little to go on. Some things just weren't adding up. While the police are mystified the Papini's go quiet and lay low. Sherry and Keith have a dinner with the Smith family. Remember those are the people who still have no answers on their own missing daughter Tara. We had a nice dinner just I guess to talk about the shared experience kind of and support them. We didn't ask questions. We didn't probe too much about her experience but it definitely looked like she had been traumatized. She went to use the restroom and was so claustrophobic. She said as a result of having been bound in a close space that she asked Keith her husband to go in the restroom with her. We thought given what she'd experienced was understandable. Lights are off when doors shut when she hears certain sounds. It's something that I don't know how to deal with and we'll need somebody that can help her through that from a professional standpoint. Sherry gets that help and comes from a government program that gives financial aid to victims of crime. And it paid thousands of dollars for therapy to treat the anxiety and PTSD that Sherry claims she suffered from that kidnapping. Nothing had happened for a while. Then it came another big reveal from the police. This morning the FBI released these new suspect sketches. And it shows two Hispanic women but with their faces covered up. It did seem odd that it took Sherry Papini almost a full year to come up with enough details for a sketch artist to work with. Law enforcement seemed to react quickly to this and the manhunt was on. The tips came in and tips like I saw two Hispanic ladies at Walmart, they concerned me. Latina women were fearful that they might look like one of those people in the sketch. They wouldn't walk in pairs. They wouldn't drive to work or family outings in an SUV. Around the same time investigators also get back results from the crime lab that's been examining Sherry's clothing. And there's a DNA hit, exactly what they were hoping for but the results are confusing. The DNA was of a male and it would be somewhat incongruent with the allegations that she made that she was abducted by two Hispanic women. So that was, you know, perplexing. Are you putting it mildly that finding a male DNA was perplexing? Yeah, I would say so, but that was an issue for me and it was an issue for all the detectives. Still, this is a very big deal, a potential link to the kidnappers. The next step was to enter that DNA profile into the law enforcement database to see if this unknown guy is in the system. And we get to return that, nothing matched with it. And so now we're back to the drawing board. Oh, yeah. What did you find? There's some little bit of red flags there. Sherry's talked to her first husband because Sherry had been married before, according to the police. He said, yeah, but, you know, she was a real liar. She made up a lot of stories. And it wasn't just her ex-husband waving red flags. Police say many friends and relatives were less than supportive. It has been useful to you that she had a history reverting away. Another information revealed was that she had been talking to a man, not her husband. There was some infidelity issues in her background that even Keith had told us about. Issues with infidelity, issues with lying and a history of running away. Yep. Oh, yeah. There was definitely some dishonesty in the background. They went back to Sherry time and time again and found that often her stories were inconsistent. She told different stories about why she hadn't been branded. She said she was branded by her kidnappers because she tried to run away. As her chain rattled, the females branded her for punishment. But then she also said, oh no, I was branded by my kidnappers because my buyer, the person who was going to buy me, wanted me branded. Is this real? Is this not real? At any point, we could have just had this, we're done with this. But then, where's our due diligence? What if it really did happen? I was telling my staff, unless we have some very strong evidence to disprove her allegations, we need to continue forward with the investigation. It was hard for investigators to get past the sheer brutality of her injuries. Her kidnappers had branded her and I have to tell you when I heard that detail, ooh, okay. So maybe some really horrible things really did happen to this woman. And I do recall that there's no way these were self-inflicted. We have an innate ability not to want to harm ourselves because it hurts. Doctors had passed by and really no new information had been released to the public. I honestly thought it would just fade away. And then in 2020, there is a massive break in this case and it's all because of the DNA. And I got the phone call that we have a match. Four years after Sherry's kidnapping in 2020, investigators decide they need to focus on finding the source of that male DNA found on Sherry's clothing. Investigators asked permission of the courts to be able to run that DNA against all those DNA ancestry type websites where people contribute their own DNA, looking for familial DNA. They're hoping somebody in this guy's family had used one of those DNA websites. If they find a relative, they've got a lead and it worked. The familial DNA. This man has two sons. One of those sons used to date Sherry Papini. It came back to James Reyes, an ex-boyfriend. And you see James Reyes in a photo with Sherry from one of her social media posts. So the FBI field officer and myself went down to James' residence to do the confrontation. Oh, good morning. Obviously, he was a little reluctant. He was scared. We're here regarding Sherry Papini, and she's trying to figure out how you know her one's last time you talked to her. Well, I mean, Sherry dated back in '02 and I've been a doctor in years. There's information that I think you have about the abduction. Yeah, I mean, that's all I can do. All I know is what I read about it. We're just trying to understand if she was truly abducted, if she lied to everybody and got on 2020 and is a liar. Are you willing to tell us what happened yesterday? I'm going to sit and talk. And it's not until 53 minutes into this interview that they get Reyes to finally come clean. I didn't kidnap her, you know, I just--friend in need asking for help. That was that. What did she say? She was trying to get away from her husband. Her husband beat you, her husband raped you. I don't know what her deal was. She made up stories. You know, Keith was abusing her. She needed to get out of that relationship. As Sergeant Kyle Wallace chats up Reyes, his FBI colleague wanders the apartment. And they don't care if I'm looking around the closet. I'm sure it's the same as she described it. Ding, ding, ding, ding. This apartment, this closet, and this bathroom look just like the place that Sherry says she was held captive. All the way down to the all thread. All thread, that's the screw, the metal pole that she tried. Yeah, the metal pole on the screw. She said she was chained to that. Chained, yeah. The ex-boyfriend's version of what happened is radically different from what Sherry told the authorities happen. What you're saying, absolutely. There was just human hurt in the car. There were no females involved. I don't know. I mean, this is-- yeah, there's no way, man. He was duped by her, but he went along with it. I didn't know what the final plan was. Like, were we going to end up together? Was that her plan? But it's fair to say you were hoping maybe you could get together dinner. No, I wasn't there yet. She instructed James to get a rental car, leave his cell phone at his house, and drive the nine hours or so to get to Reading, California to pick her up. He gets her down to his apartment, gives Sherry the bedroom, and he sleeps on the couch. Sherry asked him to put up the plywood to block out the window. I think James thought it was strange, but he was also just helping a friend. She told the world that she had sat there, locked up, chained, miserable, abused. But Rea says the truth was that she voluntarily spent time alone reading the news about her own disappearance. She starts to act erratically according to him. She starts losing a lot of weight. He says she's not eating much. One day he came home from work and she'd cut off her hair. Remember all those terrible injuries covering Sherry's body? How did all that stuff come about? I mean, she did watch it was here. I mean, she just hit herself with something great of hers or something. And I helped her. I mean, I didn't punch her or anything, just she just was just like, uh, think to puck off my leg. So I shot a puck off her leg lightly. Rea also says that Sherry slammed a hockey stick into her own face. That's how she injured her nose. Yeah. I mean, I know it, yeah, it's-- and that's my life. Like, man, what the fuck? So now he's describing a situation where he has an unhinged woman in his apartment. She's bleeding, bruised, burned, and scarred. Then she says to him, "I need you to brand my back." Oh, my God. This is probably going to hurt. I mean, I don't-- I've never done this. I can't say did a good job. You know what I mean? I just-- that's scary. That's scary. You ever burned-- have you ever done that to someone? Yeah. It was so hot. It was right. What'd she do for the pain and couldn't even-- She never really complained about a lot of pain. I want to say after this amount of time in law enforcement, nothing surprises me. But I was a little taken back. And then she was like, "I'm ready to go back to the kid." She started missing her baby, so I'm like, "Oh, of course." Everybody's got a plan until reality hits. It's like, "I'm ready to go." And I was like, "Thanks for giving me that, I was like, seriously?" Then before dawn. on that now infamous Thanksgiving morning, James Reyes says he dropped Sherry off in a remote area. - It's the greatest story ever of survival, right? It's, I've never happened. It's a lie. It's a hoax. It's all made up. - We come up with a plan to do an interview to confront her with the evidence. - And when we come back for the first time, 2020 takes you inside the interrogation room for that dramatic police confrontation. - Oh, it's a dirty thing, whoa! (dramatic music) (screaming) - 20th century studios presents, "Well Fall," the most incredible survival thriller of the year. - I made a way out of hell, man! - Now playing in theaters to survive the unthinkable, do the impossible. - You're gonna become so dangerous that the predators can't help but let you go. - Austin, I promise. - I'm going home! - Josh Provin, survivor, survivor. - Well Fall. - Waited PG-13. - Maybe inappropriate for children under 13. - Now playing only in theaters. - On October 19th, 2025, the Louvre became the backdrop of something straight out of a heist movie. Now, nearly a year out, there are still critical questions to be answered. We're used to following heist in movies from the perspectives of the ever so glamorous and dangerous perpetrators. But when it happens in real life, the lines between good and bad guys aren't so clear. And even less clear is the fate of those French crown jewels. In this series, I'll take you inside the events of that day, like you've never heard them before, through the eyes of the people who lived them. I'll follow the investigation into how this could have happened, who could have been behind it, and then I'll join the International Hunt for the Louvre Jewels. Heist at the Louvre, a new series from ABC Audio. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favorite podcast app, or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts to listen ad-free. (dramatic music) In August of 2020, investigators ask sharing her husband to come in. - Thank you for coming. We appreciate you taking the time to come back to us. - Thanks to the cooperation of that ex-boyfriend, James Reyes. Investigators now believe they have solid proof that Sheriff Papini's kidnapping was a hoax. - The plan's developed to confront her with this and get her reaction. - Does she have any idea what's about to happen? - Oh no. - So were you able to find, like, where that house is? - Yeah. - And what? - Don't be more. - Don't be more. - Don't be more. - We're good to this. - Okay. - She's confronted with pictures that look exactly like the places she says, I mean, she described a crack in the tile in the bathroom. - So this crack is in a different location than this crack, which is-- - And they showed her a picture of that exact crack, and they say, does this look like, you know, the place that you were held captive? And she's like, yeah, kind of, but not exactly. - It's pretty. Excuse my language, it's pretty (beep) in the water. But it's different. - There was even a pole in the closet where she was staying. - Do you remember this truck? - Yes. - Keith right next to her, jump it up and down, saying it's the right one. - So he thinks this is a break in the case? - Oh, yeah, absolutely. - He thinks they found the abductors. - Yes. - We talk to the people who live there, you sign. We found the house, we found it was involved. - When the police finally dropped the bomb, the mood changes and the body language changes. - DNA came back, like I said, to a specific person. That specific person told us very specific things. So if we can talk with Keith or without Keith here, what would you like? - Do you want to step out, do you want to stay? - I don't want to stay. - And you can see on that video that the detectives step out to let them decide. - You need to stop waiting for him to come through that hour. - And at this point, Sherry tells Keith that she doesn't want police to catch that capture who she claims helped her escape. - I don't want them to find her. They're not listening to me. - But don't. - Because she's saved my life. - And she's the reason why I get to hold my children every single day. - The detectives go back on the Roman. Pretty much lay this case out. - You're an DNA that was on you, belongs to James Reyes. We talked to him, we just put on a polygraph. We talked to everybody around him. We have the rental agreements, the rental, the car rental agreements. The reason why you lost so much weight is because you stopped eating. The reason why the brand is because he went to the store and bought the brand tools and brand to do it. The reason why your nose was broke is because of a hockey stick. It's not an abduction. She asked me to come get her. - No. - I rented a car, drove up and picked her up. You passed the polygraph to us, Sherry. That's not what happened when we didn't have the change. - I didn't know. - No, there's no way, it's James. There's no way, there's no way. - The DNA doesn't work. - And she's like, no, no. You mean he's behind it? I just cannot believe that my ex-boyfriend is behind my kidnapping. - Keith is in the room when they're identifying and talking about the ex-boyfriend who she was allegedly with that whole time. And Keith's just, he gets up and walks out. - The years have come, I don't know if you know what I mean. - Are you surprised that she stuck to her guns, even after you presented what appeared to be this incredibly compelling evidence? - Not all. She had spun the story for so long that she wasn't gonna come off of it. - They tell her that they have proof of phone contact with her and James, and that sends her spinning off into another direction. - It's my fault that I was waiting with other family. It was such a stupid thing to do. - I love my husband. - I love my children. - I understand. Here's the deal, those cheering. - Learning with other men. - Not a crime. - Lying to me the day? - Yes, a crime. - She just went into her cocoon state where she just tried to control the interview by crying, putting her head in her hands, not answering questions. - So you either changed anything wrong. - I know you didn't do anything wrong. Right now, you're not telling the truth, which is doing something wrong. - And she's begging police to protect the captor who she claims let her go. - Did a female point of gun at you yesterday? - I am done speaking to you and I talk to the lawyer. I will not arrest her. I am with my children because of her. I don't understand. There is no way that James erupts me. - We didn't believe him, I agree. - Did you ever get an impression from Keith about who he wanted to leave? - All right, I'm the idiot husband that stayed around the whole time. - He was so upset, so emotional, and just upset. - Magger telling me, okay, you guys go home now. Do you think I want her anywhere around my kids or around me at all at this point? - I don't know if the next stage is in this hour. - That's why it's not us together, right? - Yeah, that one. - On the shot. - Next, Keith Papini, opening up about discovering his wife's story, that terrifying abduction in those 22 days and captivity, all of it made up. - Shari Papini, the California mother who is now admitting her story of being kidnapped was all a hoax. - The amount of fear that our family lived in, that was fake, is excruciating. - Keith Papini, in this case, if there's a victim, it's him. He's had to endure a lot of humiliation. - We're brainwashed. - Gaslit, everything by Shari. - And where does his relationship with Shari stand today? - Shari have apologized to you or the children. - In March of 2022, six years after Shari Papini vanished while on an afternoon jog. - Shari Papini arrested on charges that she allegedly lied to federal agents about being kidnapped. - News breaks that the mother of two has been arrested. - Now being accused of making the whole thing up. - They stunning admission of Shari Papini is now admitted it was all a hoax. We'll plead guilty to lie into federal agents about the case. - There's a plea deal. She's avoiding trial entirely. As part of this agreement, she has to admit, which she did in writing and through her attorney, that she made the whole thing up. - After Shari pleads, guilty Keith Files or divorce, he's asking for full custody. But there's still one final piece in this crazy puzzle. - At her sentencing, Shari gets 18 months in federal prison. She served just 10 months, and now she's free. I sat down with Keith Papini nearly eight years after I first met him to hear how he says, you will. was fooled by Sherry's lies for so long. So many people watching this would wonder was his spidey sense going off. Didn't he notice that something was off? Of course, I felt that way. - No, my family. And I want my husband to go to the hospital. - When you first encountered her in the hospital, what was your first instinct? And it wasn't until I went to her to embrace her and I could just see the amount of injuries, bruises, burns to her body. And it was a shock to me. And I remember thinking how horrible of me to even think that she could have done this to herself. - I got the world's greatest husband, his name is key. I love you. - The Papini story is now the subject of a three-part Hulu docu series, Perfect Wife, the mysterious disappearance of Sherry Papini. - Is there one thing that viewers can take away from this? - I think the level of dedication that Sherry put into tricking everyone. - The hoax didn't just last the 22 days that she had disappeared. It lasted for years, six years. And that's what people don't realize. It was every single day. About three weeks before she got arrested and we were in the yard doing some light yard work and she was doing some heavy breathing kind of exaggerated. And I was kind of calling her out on it. Like why are you acting like you're breathing that hard? And she immediately went into the hole but you don't know what it's like after the 22 days. This is five plus years later. And I just wanted a day where we don't talk about it. And that is when she just looked right at me, looked in my soul and was like, I have to live with the fact that you never found me. And it did, it crushed me. I mean, she knows how to get to people and that it got to me and it just made me feel like I failed. It just kind of goes to show you that everything is calculated. I mean, it's such that you were the target of one of the biggest hoaxes perpetrated on America in years. And certainly one of the most memorable ones. Yeah, I mean, she took advantage of everybody's kindness. So many people have heard. - There's understandably resentment in the writing Hispanic community since Sherry's infamous description of the two Latina kidnappers. - When Sherry Papini was busted, we were overjoyed and relieved. There are no dangerous Hispanic Latina women here. - And there's the Smith family, still to this very day searching for one of their own daughters. - It just kind of makes a mockery out of anyone who's really lost a person. It's kind of a slap in the face. - So why do you think that she essentially concocted this hoax, disappeared, beat herself to a pulp for 22 days and then continued to lie about it for years? - I think she wanted me to be her night shining armor and run to her. She wanted to plan a fake kidnapping. - This morning a new exclusive images of Sherry Papini back in court, now appearing before a judge as part of her divorce proceedings. - Keith and Sherry are now divorced, but still working out a custody agreement for their children, Tyler, now 11, and Violet, now 9. - She apologized in court, but has Sherry ever apologized to you or the children? - No, never. She has no remorse that I have ever witnessed or seen. We reached out to Sherry Papini for a comment, but I've not heard back. - Do you think you'll ever be able to get out from under the shadow of the Sherry Papini hoax? - I think it's gonna always be there, but no, we do want to move past it. I do want to provide my children an amazing childhood, but I think it'll always be there. (soft music) - We should point out tonight that as part of her guilty plea, Sherry Papini was ordered to pay more than $300,000 in restitution, but the majority of that money has yet to be paid back. - For more on this story, you can catch the new Hulu series Perfect Wife, the mysterious disappearance of Sherry Papini. It's streaming right now. Thanks for listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday night at nine on ABC for all new broadcast episodes. See you then. - It's pretty crazy how ultra-processed these so-called high-protein foods are today. All these protein powders and bars and shakes all come with ingredient lists that just go on and on. But you know what super food is naturally packed with protein, iron, zinc, and B vitamins, meat. And if it's something you're eating regularly, we think the quality and where it comes from matters. 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