Sherry Papini’s ex-husband still wonders why the mother of two cheated on him Abduction,
“I think the main thing would be the attention,” Keith Papini told Fox News Digital. “I think he likes it when people have sympathy for him and see him as a victim … at anybody’s expense. Honestly, I don’t think he’s capable of seeing what he did and who it affected, what the impact was, how much pain he caused to so many people.”
“I always think about all the people (who tried to help) during those 22 days (when she was missing),” Keith said. “All the kids who maybe weren’t allowed to ride their bikes anymore, all the women who maybe weren’t allowed to jog anymore … I don’t think she had any understanding of how damaging that was.”
Sherri Papini’s ex-husband, Keith Papini, claimed to Fox News Digital that he still doesn’t know the full truth about her story. (Hulu)
After seven years of silence, Keith is speaking out about the high-profile fraud that rocked his Redding, California community. in a new true-crime docuseries On Hulu, “Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini.”
An attorney for Keith, 41, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“I’ve been contacted through various means over the last several years,” Keith said of why he is coming forward now.
Keith Papini speaks out in the docuseries “Perfect Wife.” (Hulu)
“I feel like I’ve finally gotten to a point where I can talk about the pain Sherry has caused our family … I want to know the truth about what happened.”
Keith said it seemed like a fairy tale before their lives turned into a nightmare. He said he was instantly smitten by the “hot blonde” with blue eyes. After tying the knot in 2009, he and Sherry welcomed a son and daughter. Life seemed perfect for the couple.
Sherry and Keith Papini have two children, Violet (9 years old) and Tyler (11 years old). (Hulu)
“I never felt like she didn’t love me,” Keith said. “She wrote songs, she wrote me notes all the time. She told me how happy she was with our marriage and how we would never get divorced. She loved me so much and I told her the same things.”
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Keith Papini told Fox News Digital that he never felt “unloved” by Sherry Papini during their marriage. (Hulu)
“It never occurred to me that she would fake injuries and lie to the extent that she did,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine it. But I thought we had a happy life. Our kids were wonderful.”
“I was taken aback,” Keith said.
“I was taken aback.”
The couple’s life began to fall apart on November 2, 2016. That evening, Keith reported his wife missing after he discovered she wasn’t home and hadn’t picked up their children from daycare. Her purse and jewelry had been left behind.
A massive search operation was launched for the missing mother. It was only on November 26 that a driver spotted Sherry, who was extremely weak and covered in bruises. She was tied up with rope and found about 150 miles from her home.
Keith Papini (right) is consoled by friends and family members. (IMAGN/Andreas Fuhrmann-USA TODAY NETWORK)
Sherry told officers that two masked Hispanic women forced her into an SUV at gunpoint and held her hostage.
FBI poster of suspects in the kidnapping of Sherry Papini. (FBI)
Her blonde hair was cut to shoulder length and she had a faint “brand” burned onto her right shoulder, authorities said at the time. There was both male and female DNA on her body and clothing.
According to a court filing, a GoFundMe campaign to help the family raised more than $49,000, which the couple used to pay bills and other expenses.
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Sherry Papini was given a welcome party when she returned home 22 days later. She was found beaten and chained on Thanksgiving morning. (IMAGN/Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight-USA TODAY NETWORK)
During a lengthy investigation, Keith volunteered to be tested on a lie detector and passed. He also offered to give “all his phones and computers, anything the police wanted.”
Keith said that at first he was very happy to meet his love again. But then he started questioning Sherry’s story.
“There were a lot of things that just didn’t add up, but I wanted to be there for my wife,” Keith admitted. “If you can’t trust your wife, who can you trust? I just kept telling myself, ‘I’m going to do everything for my wife.’ I was led to believe that she was happy with us and that she didn’t want to live another life with anybody else… I just wanted to be there for her all the time that we were together. Having said that… I’ll never know the full truth.”
“There were a lot of things that weren’t right for me, but I wanted to help my wife.”
Sherry Papini was found about 150 miles from her home. (IMAGN/Andreas Fuhrmann/The Record Searchlight via USA TODAY NETWORK)
Keith wasn’t the only one who had doubts.
Sherry provided details of his alleged kidnappers An FBI sketch artist was provided with detailed accounts of her alleged abduction. However, investigators later found evidence that contradicted her story. Authorities said that in reality, Sherry was living with an ex-boyfriend about 600 miles from her home and had faked the injuries to corroborate her false statements.
Sherry Papini leaves federal court with her attorney, William Portanova, following her arraignment on April 13, 2022 in Sacramento, California. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
“When a young mother went missing in broad daylight, the community was filled with fear and anxiety,” U.S. Attorney Philip Talbert said in a statement at the time. “Ultimately, the investigation revealed that no kidnapping had occurred and that time and resources that could have been used to investigate the actual crime, protect the community, and provide resources to victims were wasted.”
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“When a young mother disappeared in broad daylight, the community was filled with fear and anxiety,” U.S. Attorney Philip Talbert said in a statement at the time. (IMAGN/Nathan Solis-USA TODAY NETWORK)
DNA found on Sherry eventually led to her ex-boyfriend, a court filing revealed. The ex-boyfriend told investigators that Sherry lived with him at his home, though they never had sex.
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko is seen speaking at a press conference held to discuss the Sherri Papini case in Redding, California. (Andreas Fuhrmann/The Record Searchlight via AP)
According to a 55-page affidavit filed in court to support the criminal charges, authorities tracked the locations of two prepaid cellphones they had been using to secretly talk to each other beginning in December 2015. A cousin of the ex-boyfriend also told investigators he saw Sherry at the man’s apartment twice, both times without being interrupted.
Rickards backed up the ex-boyfriend’s story that he had rented a car and Sherry was moved back to Northern California.
Sherry Papini was arrested in 2022. She was charged with making false statements to federal agents and mail fraud. (image)
In March 2022, Sherry was arrested and charged with making false statements to federal agents and mail fraud. A month later, she formally pleaded guilty and admitted that her kidnapping claims were a hoax.
Keith said that at first he tried to protect his young children from the possibility that Sherry’s kidnappers would come “to commit a crime.” But after Sherry’s confession, he tried to protect them from the constant scrutiny of the media.
“We lived in constant fear that someone was following us,” he said. “If the kids were playing outside and they saw someone, it was like they were taught to run inside. There’s a part of me that knows those six years of their childhood were almost taken away by Sherry.”
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According to the docuseries, Sherry Papini previously described Keith Papini as controlling. She said the allegations were “hurtful” and “untrue.” (Hulu)
According to the docuseries, Sherry claimed that Keith was a controlling husband. She said the allegations were “hurtful” and “false.”
“… She was saying I was beating her up and the police wouldn’t do anything,” Keith claimed. “… (When it came to our mutual friends) it was a completely different story… It’s sad to hear stuff like that right now because I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. I’m fighting for my wife’s life. And to know that she’s saying all these… lies is sad… but you can see a pattern here.”
In September 2022, Sherry 18 month prison sentence He is released in early 2023 for faking his kidnapping.
Sherry Papini (center), exits during her sentencing hearing at the Robert T. Matsui U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in downtown Sacramento on Sept. 19, 2022. Senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb sentenced her to 18 months in federal prison for staging her own kidnapping in 2016. The judge said he gave her the long sentence to deter others from committing similar crimes. (image)
Sherry never offered any rational explanation for her behavior. Her actions puzzled independent mental health experts, who said they did not fit any common diagnosis.
Defense attorney William Portanova attributed this to “a storm that seemed to be raging in her mind for a long time,” but said she is now a changed woman. He noted in a court filing before sentencing that Sherry “was in pursuit of an absurd fantasy.”
After her initial arrest, Sherry received more than $30,000 in psychiatric care for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She billed the state’s Victim Compensation Fund for the treatment and was ordered to pay it back as part of her restitution.
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Keith Papini said he will never know the full truth about what really happened. Today, Sherry Papini still lives in California. Her ex-boyfriend was never charged. (IMAGN/Amber Sandhu-USA TODAY NETWORK)
Keith filed for divorce and sought custody of their children after Sherry pleaded guilty. He claimed Sherry has shown “no remorse.”
“… This wasn’t a lie she told that ended after the arrest,” Keith said. “This was a lie she told every day, every minute… Maybe being a stay-at-home mom wasn’t fulfilling to her… She never apologized to me or the kids… She acts like it never happened.”
“The Perfect Wife” is now available for streaming. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
