Sherri Papini, who previously confessed to faking her own kidnapping, is now claiming that she really was abducted.
Papini, a mom of two, went missing on November 2, 2016, while jogging in her neighborhood of Redding, California. She was 34 years old at the time.
A massive search effort with the help of family and community members went on for weeks. Once she admitted her disappearance was a hoax, Papini owed a total of more than $300,000 in restitution to multiple government entities and the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office.
She was found 22 days later on a highway nearly 150 miles away from where she vanished. The mom had injuries, including bruises, and a Bible verse was branded on her shoulder.
Papini initially told police that two Hispanic women kidnapped her at gunpoint and took her in an SUV to a location where she was chained up and tortured. She now claims in a new self-published book that it was her ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, who kidnapped and injured her.
“There are several versions of what happened out there,” Papini told ABC News in a new interview. “This is mine. This is my words. It's backed by loads and loads of evidence.”
It is unclear what evidence Papini has to back up her new claims, but there are no reports of police reopening her case.
Reyes was questioned by investigators in August 2020 after forensic testing matched DNA found on Papini’s clothing to his DNA.
The ex-boyfriend eventually told police Papini had stayed at his apartment during her disappearance. He said she contacted him about running away from her then-husband, Keith Papini. Her injuries were largely self-inflicted, Reyes claimed.
Shasta County Sheriff's Office told ABC News in response to Papini’s new claims: "James Reyes was interviewed extensively by the FBI and Shasta County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit.
Not only was he fully cooperative and forthright with his answers, but he passed a polygraph in verifying his statements."
Papini also claimed in her new book that at the time of her disappearance, Keith Papini was emotionally abusive and controlling.
"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.
Keith Papini, who filed for divorce in 2022, denied any allegations of “severe abuse, manipulation and lying,” according to a statement his lawyer gave to Investigation Discovery’s recently released docuseries “Sherri Papini: Caught in a Lie.” The former couple is currently in a custody battle over her visitation rights to their children.
Papini was arrested in March 2022, and she subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of engaging in mail fraud and making false statements. She served 10 months in prison.
"I'm not actually asking anyone to believe anything. I just, I'm free now," Papini told ABC News. "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."
