Sherri Papini’s ex-husband still wonders why the mother of two faked her kidnapping.
“I think the main thing would be attention,” Keith Papini told Fox News Digital. “I think she likes it when people feel for her and see her as a victim…at anyone’s expense. To be honest, I don’t think she’s capable of seeing what she did and the lives it affected, the ripple effect, the pain she caused so many people.
“I always think of all the people (who tried to help) during those 22 days (she was missing),” Keith reflected. “All the kids who probably weren’t allowed to ride bikes anymore, all the women who probably weren’t allowed to jog anymore…I don’t think she understood how detrimental that was.”
After seven years of silence, Keith is speaking out about the high-profile hoax that rocked his community of Redding, California.
He appears in a new true crime documentary series 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 have been approached over the years by many different media outlets,” Keith said of why he is coming forward now.
“I think I was finally in a place where I could talk about all the pain that Sherri had caused our family…I wanted to get the truth out about what really happened.”
Keith said that before his life turned into a nightmare, it seemed like a fairy tale. He described being instantly smitten by the “hot blonde” with blue eyes. After getting married in 2009, he and Sherri welcomed a son and a daughter. Life seemed perfect for the couple.
“I never felt unloved by her,” Keith said. “She was writing songs, she was constantly writing me notes. She told me how happy she was in our marriage and that we would never divorce. She was so in love with me and I kept repeating these things to her.
“There was no part of me that thought she would fake injuries and have this whole prank to this extent,” he shared. “I couldn’t have predicted this. But I thought we had a happy life. We have extraordinary children.
“I was blindsided,” Keith added.
The couple’s life began to deteriorate on November 2, 2016. That evening, Keith reported his wife missing after discovering she was not home and had not gone looking for their children at daycare. Her purse and jewelry were left behind.
An extensive search for the missing mother ensued. It wasn’t until November 26 that an emaciated Sherri, covered in bruises, was spotted by a driver. She was tied up and found nearly 150 miles from her home.
Sherri told authorities that two masked Hispanic women forced her into an SUV at gunpoint and held her captive.
Her blonde hair had been cut to her shoulders and a blurry “mark” was etched into her right shoulder, authorities said at the time. She had both male and female DNA on her body and clothing.
A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $49,000 to help the family, which the couple used to pay bills and other expenses, according to a court filing.
During the lengthy investigation, Keith voluntarily took a lie detector test and passed it. He also offered “all my phones and my computer, everything the police needed.”
Keith said that at first he was thrilled to be reunited with his love. But then he started to question Sherri’s story.
“There were a lot of things that didn’t add up, but I wanted to support my wife,” Keith admitted. “If you can’t trust your wife, who can you trust? I kept telling myself, “I’m going to do everything for my wife.” I was led to believe that she was happy with us and didn’t want another life with anyone else…I just wanted to support her at all times we were together. That being said…I will never know the whole truth.
Keith wasn’t the only one who had doubts.
Sherri provided descriptions of her alleged captors to an FBI sketch artist, as well as numerous details about her alleged kidnapping. However, investigators later discovered evidence that would contradict his account. In reality, authorities say, Sherri lived with an ex-boyfriend nearly 600 miles from home and injured herself to support her false claims.
“When a young mother disappeared in broad daylight, a community was filled with fear and worry,” U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said in a statement at the time. “Ultimately, the investigation revealed that there was no kidnapping and that time and resources that could have been used to investigate actual crimes, protect the community and provide resources to victims were wasted. »
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DNA found on Sherri ultimately led to the former boyfriend, a court filing revealed. The ex told investigators that Sherri stayed with him at his house while he was away, although they never had sex.
His account was verified when authorities traced the locations of two prepaid cellphones they used to talk secretly to each other as early as December 2015, according to a 55-page affidavit filed in court to support the criminal charges. A cousin of the former boyfriend also told investigators he saw Sherri twice in the man’s apartment, both times without restraint.
Records confirmed the ex-boyfriend’s story that he rented a car and took Sherri back to Northern California.
In March 2022, Sherri was arrested and charged with making false statements to federal agents and mail fraud. A month later, she officially pleaded guilty, admitting that her kidnapping allegations were a hoax.
Keith said that at first he tried to protect his young children from the possibility that Sherri’s kidnappers would come to “finish the job.” But after Sherri’s confession, he tried to protect them from the incessant media attention.
“We lived in fear that someone would come after us,” he said. “If the kids were playing outside and they saw someone, it was almost like they were taught to run inside. There’s a part of me that knows those six years of their childhood were almost stolen by Sherri.
According to the docuseries, Sherri claimed that Keith was a controlling spouse. He said the allegations were “hurtful” and “false”.
“…She said I was beating her and the cops wouldn’t do anything,” Keith claimed. “…(Regarding) our mutual friends…that was a totally different story…It was hurtful to hear those things right now because I’m not sleeping, I’m not eating. I am fighting for my wife’s life. And to know that she was saying that… wrong things, it’s hurtful… But you can see a pattern here.
In September 2022, Sherri was sentenced to 18 months in prison for faking her kidnapping. She was released in early 2023.
Sherri never gave a rational explanation for her behavior. Her actions baffled independent mental health experts who said they did not fit any typical diagnosis.
Defense lawyer William Portanova blamed it on “what feels like a violent storm that had been going on in her head for a long time” but said she was now a changed woman. He noted in a pretrial court filing that Sherri was “chasing a wild fantasy.”
After her first arrest, Sherri received more than $30,000 worth of psychiatric treatment to treat anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She billed the state Victim Compensation Fund for the treatment and was ordered to pay it back as part of her restitution.
Keith filed for divorce and requested custody of their children after Sherri pleaded guilty.
He said she had shown “no remorse”.
“…It wasn’t just a lie that she told that ended when she was arrested,” Keith said. “It was a lie she told every day, every minute… Maybe being a stay-at-home mom didn’t fulfill her… She never apologized to me or to the children… She acts as if it never happened.”
“Perfect Wife” is now available for streaming. The Associated Press contributed to this report.