Sherri Papini vanished for three weeks in 2016 before reappearing in Yolo County, which was later revealed to be a hoax.
Keith Papini doesn't believe his ex-wife, Sherri, understands the pain she caused her friends and family with her 2016 kidnapping hoax. In a recent interview with Fox News, the father of two shares his belief on why Sherri lied for years about being kidnapped.
"I do believe the core thing would be attention," Keith told the outlet. "I think she likes it when people feel for her and look at her as a victim... at anyone's cost. To be honest, I don't think she's capable of seeing what she did and the lives that it affected, the ripple effect, how much pain she caused so many people."
The former couple made headlines when Sherri disappeared during a jog near her home in Redding, California. Extensive searches were conducted for her in Shasta County, throughout California, as well as other states.
Twenty-two days later -- on Nov. 24, 2016 -- Papini reappeared with various bindings on her body and injuries, including a "brand" on her right shoulder, and claimed that she had been abducted by two Hispanic women at gunpoint, held against her will, and that she had been abused by her captors. At that point, law enforcement efforts focused on finding her abductors.
As investigators continued looking into Sherri's claims, they found evidence indicating she had not been abducted. In March 2022, more than five years after her disappearance, Sherri was charged for lying to federal agents about being kidnapped and defrauding the state's victim compensation board of $30,000.
Authorities said that, after a thorough investigation, it was discovered that Sherri had been staying with a former boyfriend nearly 600 miles away from her home in Orange County, in Southern California, and hurt herself to back up her false statements.
The ex-boyfriend has never been charged in connection with Sherri's case.
"I always think about all the people [who tried to help] during those 22 days [she was missing]," Keith said to Fox News. "All the kids that probably weren't allowed to ride their bikes anymore, all the women that probably didn't go jogging anymore... I don't think she has any understanding of how detrimental it was."
Sherri pleaded guilty to lying to a federal officer and mail fraud in April 2022.
Keith filed for divorce from Sherri shortly after her guilty plea. He cited "irreconcilable differences" after their 12-year marriage and requested sole custody of their two children.
In September 2022, Sherri was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution, $148,866 to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office and $2,558 to the FBI. She ended up serving less than a year in prison.
After almost eight years of silence, Keith's perspective of Sherri's hoax will be further examined in Hulu's three-part docuseries diving into Sherri's case. Titled Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini, the docuseries comes from filmmakers Erin Lee Carr and Michael Beach Nichols.
The streamer boasts that the docuseries features "unprecedented access" to Sherri's family, including Keith, friends, and the investigators who for six years could not solve the mystery of her disappearance.
During a conversation with Good Morning America earlier this month, Keith shared that despite being warned that her story was falling apart, Sherri continued to insist that she was telling the truth. "She made us believe that her story was true. Every single day she committed to the lie," Keith recalled.
Keith said Sherri never explained herself to him but he believes her motive for the ordeal comes from a desire for him to be "her knight in shining armor."
"I think she wanted to plan a fake kidnapping, but in her version, I was supposed to find her," he shared.
Yet, despite seemingly being the focus of her fantasy, Keith told GMA that Sherri has never apologized to him for putting their family though the circus of her kidnapping hoax. When asked if she's ever expressed remorse, he said: "No, never. She has no remorse that I have ever witnessed or seen."
Keith said he's hoping to give their children a nice life, despite the strain of the hoax. He admitted that he knows the events are "always going to be there," but he wants to "move past it."
"I do want to provide my children an amazing childhood, but I think it will always be there," he added.
All three episodes of Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini premiered June 20 on Hulu.
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