Sherri Papini’s name first made headlines nearly a decade ago, when the California mother of two vanished on a November afternoon in 2016. She was missing for 22 days, then suddenly reappeared with a story that captured the world’s attention: she claimed she had been abducted, tortured, even branded by two masked Hispanic women.
That story unraveled years later. In 2022, Papini admitted that her kidnapping was a hoax designed to cover up an affair with her former boyfriend, James Reyes. Federal investigators revealed the deception after DNA on Papini’s clothing matched Reyes. She pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and mail fraud, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Now, freshly released and 42 years old, Papini is back in the spotlight. She is telling a different version of events in Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, a new four-part docuseries premiering May 26 on Investigation Discovery and streaming on Max. In it, she claims her disappearance was not staged but rather the result of an abduction by Reyes himself.
According to Papini, she had asked Reyes to come to Redding under the pretense of ending their long-distance romance. Instead, she says, he forced her into his vehicle. She recalls waking up in the backseat, barely conscious, before being taken into a dark home that was not her own. She describes injuries she insists were not self-inflicted, including bites, burns, and the brand that made her case infamous. “There was no consent,” she says in the documentary.
Reyes has long denied that account. In 2020, he told the FBI that Papini orchestrated everything — from the trip to his Costa Mesa apartment to the branding with a wood-burning tool. He even passed a polygraph test. “She was just a friend in need asking for help,” Reyes said at the time. He has declined to comment on Papini’s latest allegations.
The series also revisits Papini’s final days before her reappearance. She recalls being chained by the waist in Reyes’ apartment, then later begging him to let her go. Shortly after, she was found battered near a highway on-ramp, 150 miles from her home.
Today, Papini is navigating a different courtroom drama. Nine years after her disappearance, she is seeking reunification with one child and expanded visitation with another. But her custody case has stalled. Earlier this month, Judge Kathryn Barton sealed proceedings after determining that ongoing disputes could harm the children. The trial has been stopped until further notice.
The woman once known as the “supermom” who vanished on a jog continues to insist she was a victim, not an architect of her own kidnapping. Whether the public — or the courts — believe her new version is another matter entirely.
