Original subtitles

The summer of 2020, the number of

coronavirus cases at home and abroad

continue to climb. Everyone was wearing

masks, and these were masks that

looked like the masks that Sherry had

described to law enforcement.

So we were having a lot of therapy around

that. Oh,

no! In terms of us as a couple and the

kids and family, it didn't really...

change our lives that much, like it

did so many others, because she

was already kind of at home a lot during

that time.

I was here every single day, and

that's what Sherry ultimately wanted.

Okay, Violet, look at Daddy. Look

at Daddy. She loved it because I could

protect her and make her life

comfortable. We

were doing really, really well at

that moment.

And then out of the blue, got a call

from Kyle. He says he wants to talk.

And he wanted to meet at the FBI office.

So I was like, OK, if the FBI's

involved, this is probably something

good.

So obviously it's been a long road,

incredibly long road. Sorry to come.

Before we get too far, obviously,

just like always, thank you for

coming. We appreciate you taking the time

to come back to us. As always, your

presence here is voluntary. You can go at

any time and. All

we want is truthful statements because

it's a crime to lie to federal officers.

So there's always been DNA out there and

we we've done testing after testing and

we've just hit wall after wall after

wall. But recently

we found some familiar DNA hit.

So what that does, it just tells us

somewhere in this family tree is where

the DNA comes from. So with that we open

up the investigation. We started finding

some interesting things.

It's August 10th. I'm with FBI Agent

Peter Jackson. Hello, good morning.

My name is Peter. What's up, man? How

you doing? Yeah. Hi, how you doing?

Doing good. I'm Kyle Wong from the

Sheriff's Office. Do you have a couple

minutes we can talk? Sure, just right

here or-- Inside-- it's completely up to

you. The initial knock on the

door, he seemed just like a

normal. I

would say, how do I say this? Try to

be nice. So you just say like

burnt out. So what can I help you boys

with? We're here regarding Sherry Papini.

OK. I'm just trying to figure out how you

know her. When was the last time you

talked to her? Obviously, you

know, she had gone missing for a

while. Yeah, we're here for a reason.

Yeah. You know, we're not here to jam

you. Oh, yeah. But we do want to

understand the truth of what happened

with Sharon. Can I come in?

Yeah. Oh, shit. Here you go.

Where'd you fly? All

right. Yeah, . Absolutely. You need help?

You went around the house-- or around the

car. While we were looking for the bird,

he gave Peter permission to go walk

through the house.

Did he go back under? No, no,

he's under this truck. I want to be as

helpful as I can, but it's a

bird underneath a car. I can't really

crawl on my hands and knees to help him.

I'm just there standing in his pocket so

that Peter could look through the house.

In looking at the house, it was

important to look at bathroom layout,

the bedroom.

Will you come to me?Nah, he's

learning easy, baby. Come here,

Josh. Come here. 23 doesn't get into that

yard. That yard is savage over there.

Peter and I matched back up. I had

whispered to the the detective, this

is the place.

The description that Sherry provided was

inside the house,

the general look of the bedroom.

The actual layout of the closet,

with the way the lag bolt was and the way

it was organized, it was very much

like the the drawing she had done with

Keith.

So if you look at this closet. I

haven't even looked at the picture

yet, but I've seen it that way. Can I

look at it?

The closet that she described to me,

there's probably one in the world

that looks like she

described, that she drew a picture of

that I kind of added to, that I gave

to the FBI that he references.

Yes, I just found the original one of

that that I was trying to explain.

It's such a uniqueWay

to, I guess, build a closet using the all

thread pipe and that she was chained to

it. It's got to be it. I mean, we're here

for a reason and that's the picture that

they show. It's a little bit different,

but it's pretty,

excuse my language, it's pretty fucking

similar, but

it's different.

Is it more metal or like beefier like?

Stronger this side of it a little bit

more, basically the width of a

plywood, sheet of plywood. We wanted

Keith in the room because we knew that

just showing the photos and putting them

out there for Sherry to see that there

was going to create some type of dynamic

between the two of them that hopefully

was beneficial to us.

So that's fine.

Is there anything in there that looks?

Of interest or notable. So

there's, I mean to me, I see a

table there that somewhat looks like

something you've described to me in the

past. And then I see wood paneling

talking about the room. Yeah, we

noted both of those things back in August

2017. And then we spoke with you

about and you showed us this picture of

the table. Do you remember that,

Sherry? Yes. And so when we

were trolling through this, you

know, Facebook page, we saw just

the edge of that table. Denise got it.

Denise said, hey, Peter. So we're

like, well, where was that photo

taken, right? And so we were trying

to figure that out. And

so you took those pictures? I don't think

so. I'm not even sure. Maybe. I know it's

a long time ago. That was when I first

moved in here. My brother, Nick.

It's this table. Where's that table? That

table is gone. That one's been broken for

a while. OK. Kids jump on it, broke

it down. One didn't break. Oh,

wow, Doc. Here's the crazy thing.

This is the table Sherry says she was on

when she was branded. Yeah. Yeah.

She showed us this picture. Just

said, hey, it looks like

this, which looks exactly like your

table. So we just want to understand

what's going on here. Yeah, no, I

mean, I had that table here literally

just about a month ago. 'Cause that

really is the only choice. Either she

came down here on her own, and I

don't know why, or you arranged

for these gals to go up there and get

her. You know what happened,

and now's your opportunity to tell us.

Yeah, just, I don't have much for

you guys.

First, the closet, and then the

photo. This is the very

first time I've ever had a

tiny bitOf potential evidence that is

accurate that could potentially lead

to these two women.

We're showing you all of this

because ultimately this is the house

that they give out. We

talked to the people that live there.

Sorry, we we

we found the house, we found who was

involved. We've talked to who is

involved. We talked to family

who who knows that you were

there and talked to a couple

people that or talked to one guy who did

see you during this event. There's

there's a lot of truths and then there's

the unknowns all thread through the

thing. That's just and that's just weird.

It's unique to this place like that's a

pretty custom. You can't just go out to

IKEA and buy a closet that looks like

this. Yeah, exactly right. So

once, once we have all those things

and we start talking to the person who

lives here, who had lived there,

who still lives there, start talking

to his family and starting that whole

investigation, peeling one thing back

after another, after another,

doing the same thing we've done for the

last four years. It led

us to a specific person,

but not a female. It led us to the

car that picked you up, but not an

SUV. So there's lots of different

aspects that are truths and

falses.

And we're we're to the point now that

nobody would have ever imagined that this

would have blown up the way that it did.

So I've been a cop 15 years.

I've never seen the media scale that that

this garnered pretty quickly.

All we want is to to have the truth

because the DNA came back, like I

said, to a specific person. That

specific person told us very specific

things. His family then

told us specific things.

So if we can talk with Keith or

without Keith here, what would you

like?

Do you want to step out or do you want to

stay? Obviously, I want to stay.

She's just sitting there looking to me

like for me to do something, to

step in so we can step out of the

room, let you guys talk. He makes me

feel safe in you. Absolutely. He makes

you feel safe too. If you continue

on, I know you can change your mind.

Absolutely. We gave them

time to talk to each other so we could

listen to their conversations.

You need to stop waiting. Tell me the

truth. I

don't. I don't

know. I don't know. I don't want them to

find her. You're not listening to me. But

tell me why. Because she saved my

life. Tell me. Honey, there's

obviously somethingObviously, sometimes

this is going to be really bad if you

don't know me. Look at how you're being

right now. I am. I am fucking with you. I

don't want to go down that road. I don't

want to. Tell me why. Because she saved

my life, and she's the reason why I get

to hold my children every single day.

Tell me the truth. I know the

truth. If you don't want her started,

then that's up to you.

You're not making sense, then.

To the point where I'm getting scared.

So you need to tell

me what's going on immediately.

Obviously, you can hear her going

into the I don't want her caught, the

quote, unquote, nice kidnapper

because she saved her life and let her

go. As soon as that started

happening, we rushed back into the

interview room. You seem scared. No,

I'm

not scared. As a

friend, I should have called and

warned Keith. As a

friend, I should have let him

know, like, I was going to ruin

his life in a minute. But as the lead

investigator, that's not my job. The

relationship that I built was for this

time. I'm ready to move on andand throw

the dart and throw the rock and see what

happens to the water. But Sherry,

look at me. What do you want?

I don't want her to get in trouble. She's

not going to get in trouble. So the DNA

came back to James Reyes.

The DNA that was on you belongs to

James Reyes.

I know she's screaming for me right

now, and I can't-- I don't know where

you are. We

knew we were at the right place. Now he

was just getting her to tell us

his story. I mean, I'm not I'm not

trying to lie, you know? OK, I'll

be honest. I didn't kidnap her. You

know, I just-- friend

in need asked me for help. There's no

way it's James. There's no way.

There's no way. The DNA doesn't lie. His

DNA-- His DNA was on you. There's no way.

Mario's saying it's not. I love

you.

Me and Sherry dated back in late

2002, three, into maybe five,

six. You know, we were alive at the

time, but that was young love. I

always got the feeling from James that he

would do absolutely anything for Sheri.

I told her. I was like, I could get

in trouble, you know, but

whatever.

This was at a Dave & Buster's, so

this is me. And this is James

Reyes. I

went to visit Sheri and James in

2004.

She had said she had met this guy,

James Reyes,

and she had moved down to Costa Mesa with

him.

She liked that he was kind of like a

man's man, you know, really into

hockey. Getting hurt all the time didn't

bother him. And

they seemed happy. I know

you're nervous. No, I I'm fine

talking. I talk. I mean, I'm good.

Whatever happens, happens. That's how

life is, right? Free will. So what

did she have planned out? She sent me a

care package and it had the directions in

it.

Some contact was reestablished in the

2015 timeframe between him and

Sherry over some burner phones that they

shared between themselves. She was trying

to get away from her husband and I don't

know their deal. OK. You know, I

didn't get deep into that because because

there's always two sides to every story.

Yeah. So I don't know, your husband

beats you, your husband raped you.

But that that was just a friend calling

me and I'm like, well, I'm. So

then what happened next?

You know, I went and got her in what

car? A rental car. It's

like a Challenger. Did you even get out

of the car? No. So you unlock the door

and she gets in. Yeah. Front seat,

front seat. Backseat. You're saying?

Absolutely. It was just you and her in

the car. There were no females involved.

I don't know anybody. There's no girls. I

mean, this is, yeah, there's

no way, man. She stayed there the

majority of the time of the ride down

to Costa Mesa, which is probably

a 8 to 9 hour drive. Yeah, I

mean, I drive back, come back to

where? Here.

She walked into the house all by herself.

He rearranged his house for Sherry to be

on the back.

She asked me if there's a way to seal the

window up, and I was like,

oh, good. Who put the boards up? I

did. I just screwed him in

there for her. Essentially, James

just did what Sherry asked for 22 days.

So during that 22 days, she has some

significant injuries. Yeah. So there's a

brand on on her. Yeah. There's

significant bruising. I helped her. I

mean, I didn't punch her or anything.

I didn't even put hands on her or

anything. She just was just

like, uh, bank a puck off my leg.

So I shot a puck off her leg.

Created a bruise. Yeah. Another time,

Sherry ran from across the house and hit

her nose directly on the hockey stick

that he held out, ultimately

fracturing her nose. What about the big

one on her arm?

This one I feel like was this.

Cross-check. It was like this. It's

a hard time to think about. Don't beat

yourself up. She hurt herself for some

stuff here. You know, I was gone all day,

eight, 10 hours. So you go to work, she

comes in tit for tat every day,

she's eating what she wants, how does,

like, what food?She wasn't starving

like, Hey, you don't get to eat.

She would just minimize what she was

eating. She chose to eat-- Like,

she'd make food, like me and you

eating every day, but just having

half a banana. When did she get the rash?

I went to Walmart and bought all kinds of

cleaning stuff, and she did scrub the

floor. She tried to take

stains out, and then she's like,

I got a rash. That's for the

burning.

It has some type of meaning of

something, and I I can't remember. If

I knew what it was, I'd tell you. How

was the tool? We bought it. It was like

a, what do you call it? A wood

burning tool. I can't even say it

did a good job. You know what I mean? I

just, that's scary. You ever burned?

Have you ever done that to someone? I

truly don't believe there was anything

malicious in James's heart. I truly think

he was there to help a friend. I don't

know of any friend that would burn me if

I asked them to. It's a unique.

Relationship. Because I don't think the

average American can believe any of their

friends would do the things that James

did for her and then never reap any

rewards. He was manipulated just like

everybody else. And then one day Sherry

just said she wanted to go home.

Thanksgiving Day, I was just like, I'm

ready to go. And I was like, seriously, I

was bummed. Were we going to end up

together?Like, I don't know where her

thought was with this, but she couldn't

be away from her kids anymore.

Everybody's got a plan until reality

hits, right?And so I'm guessing on her

end that she had made-up when she

was, she was ready to go and that's what

she needed to have for whatever,

whatever, whatever the situation was with

the plan. Sherry asked for

chain, asked for the locks, asked for the

zip ties. James had some of the stuff at

his house but had to go to Ace Hardware

for the other stuff. She told him to

drive home in the middle of the night and

she got in the back seat. Started

chaining herself up. She told

James to get rid of his cell phone, just

destroy it and randomly throw it out the

window. And then she just asked him to

pull over. He did. She got out of

the car without a goodbye, just ran

off. According to

James, obviously he was shocked and

turned around and drove home.

She. Saying that she got kicked out

of her boyfriend's.

You've told us so many truths in this

situation. The reason why you can

describe the room is because you stayed

in the room in the dark for hours, for

days on end. The reason why you lost so

much weight is because you stopped

eating. The reason why you got a rash on

your arm was because you cleaned his

house. The reason why the brand

is because he went to the store, bought

the brand new tools and branded you. The

reason why your nose was broke is because

of a hockey stick.

I know all of those things and I know

there was no sex. I know all of that

because he passed a polygraph test that

said it's not an abduction.

She asked me to come to get her. No,

I rented a car, drove up and picked her

up. He he passed the

polygraph to us, Sherry. If that's not

what happened, what did happen, Sherry?I

don't know.

It's a shout.

So James is involved. So James is

involved. But I don't. James picked you

up. You called James to pick you up. You

mailed him a letter with your address.

You used a you used a burner phone.

You're saying since your marriage you

haven't called James?No, I have called

James. Because earlier you said you

hadn't contacted James.

His phone records show that you do. You

did. The phones don't lie, the

DNA doesn't lie, Sherry. His

polygraph doesn't lie. So you can go a

couple different directions now. His

story-- I've already told you lying to me

is a crime. So you walk out the door

telling lies, and that's a crime. I

think we need my lawyer. This

isn't making any sense. What's not making

any sense, Sherry?Can I talk to you

outside real quick?I'm very late. That's

fine. I go out.

I'm trying to, like, get distance away

from this person that I thought I knew.

Like, I was ready to die for her. And so

I'm, like, really upset. And he's like,

well, you need to watch out because

she might try to harm herself or kill

herself. And

when he said that, I was like, what is

happening?So it's your opportunity to

say, were there issues between you and

Keith?Is that why you needed to leave?I

mean, we read your text message. We're

already aware of some issues, but

enlighten us if that's the case. If there

was a valid reason for you to leave, let

me know what that was. James said you had

your jaw broken by him and that's why it

came and got you, because you were in an

abusive relationship.

So were you in an abusive relationship

with him?Have

you told other people in your life that

Keith has abused you in the past when

that wasn't true?

Or there was an incident at a party that

you got hurt playing like, I don't know,

Wii or Pictionary or something. And then

you told other friends that Keith hurt

you when there was witnesses at the party

that said you just that you got hurt

during a party. But then you go tell.

James that you were being hurt, you were

being abused and you couldn't come

forward because Keith has friends of law

enforcement. If all of that's, is that

true?

Yeah, I was like

looking for, you know, crying,

thinking about her, like not eating or

being tortured and

and it's just hard to watch, you know,

something that's also, you know

Like I would ever, ever do those things

to anybody, let alone my wife.

Has Keith ever been abusive towards you?

We're not talking about my husband. I

love my husband.

So why leave?

Is James lying to us?Did a female point a

gun at you?Yes or no?I am done speaking

to you until I talk to a lawyer. I will

not arrest her. I am. With

my children because of her.

I don't understand.

I'm walking, pacing back and forth in the

hallway, back and forth in the hallway. I

wasn't shouting, I wasn't crying. I was

just like just muted.

And I look up and I see a US Marshal was

there. So I I was under the impression

they were gonna arrest her and.

And they're like, you guys can go.

I'm just what?She's trying to tell me how

much he loves me. She's like, this, this

can't be. And I'm like, just don't talk

to me. Just don't talk to me. And I'm

walking. She stopped and said,

you know, maybe James was involved, but

he wasn't there.

She never saw him. She didn't know he was

there if he was involved.

And I'm just trying not to listen to her.

She's talking. I was like, I don't want

to hear it. I don't want to hear it. You

can get your lawyer, do your thing,

whatever you're going to do. Take her lie

detector test. But I can't. You can't

stay in the house. I couldn't handle

being around her. I didn't know what to

think.

Sherry called me and

said, Pammy, can I come to

your house?Keith's kicked me

out and I went, what?So I

told her she could stay here.

They didn't arrest her. They said they

were going to call me the next day. Then

they pushed off the next day. They said

it was going to go out and be released to

the media. Then it didn't. Then it

didn't. Then it didn't. Meanwhile, every

single day, Sherry's like, I told you so.

I told you so.

It was very difficult for me to navigate

that time.

My mom was watching the kids. It wasn't

something that I felt that we could tell

them. I didn't even know what was going

on yet. I just didn't know what to do.

I went to Dale's and we spoke.

He's always been like a father figure.

He basically said you can, you know, cut

her out of your life while at the same

time you, you know, you weren't handed

proof. You were basically handed another

version of the story. From James Reyes,

who if if I was caught

and I'm the kidnapper, I'm not going to

go, yeah, I kidnapped her. I'm going to

go, no, she told me to do it, you know?So

I was told a story by James Reyes. I was

told a story by my wife, and I wasn't

given any evidence

to suggest to me the

amount that I needed to to overweigh

that. If it turns out

that it is true that she was abducted,

can you live with yourself after that,

making that decision that you

essentially, you know, abandoned your

wife, took the mother of your children

away, or can you

continue to support her until

it's proven otherwise?

And when he framed it that way, I the

decision for me was easy.

We were hoping she would have admitted to

it during that confrontation,

because the evidence at that point still

wasn't strong enough for her to be

arrested. Anything she

was wearing would have, like, thought I

would have purchased, you know. What

about the wood burning tool?Cash. Just

cash for everything. Yeah, I'm just

going. I was just going by how she was

playing before you even left here. Yeah,

I didn't plan any of this stuff out. But

now we're looking at it and trying to

figure out, OK, well, how can we prove?

How can we prove that?This was all

consensual. Did she call you afterwards

or text you afterwards?No, I

haven't. I haven't talked to her since

then. I

believe that James did all of those

things because she asked him to, but I

couldn't prove it. All she would had to

have done is say that he did it. How do

we prove that he didn't do it?I

was brought into the Sherri Papini

investigation sometime towards the end

of 2020.

My role was more collecting additional

evidence to corroborate James Reyes'

stories. What do you call it?A

wood-burning tool?Where's the tool?I

think she tossed it. I think we tossed

everything. I mean, I was going to keep

the little burner on, just because I was

like, well, I'll work on wood or

something. I mean, it's a tool, but she's

like, and toss that. I mean, like, she

threw away everything. Started

combing through social media,

discovered a secret Pinterest board.

Where Sherry had

saved photographs of different

branding equipment. It was

just interesting. You do not call James

and ask him to come. We did a lot more

review of the interviews to try and

glean any little bit of information. You

know, I went and got her. In what car?A

rental car. We were the corroborate by

the people who rented the cars for him

and the dates he was absent from work.

Still, we felt that we really needed to

get a little bit more. So I think I

issued another 31 federal grand jury

subpoenas.

And he was involved. So James is

involved. So James is involved. But I

don't-- James picked you up. I'm so

confused at this point. The

very first night I went in,

to the sheriff's office. Day one,

and I spoke to Kyle Wallace, and

I told him,

Check out James. Fuck. I

mean, I feel like I should be in the loop

on this, but I don't know. James, David.

She had a boyfriend after him. His name

was James, and he was a little abusive.

During her kidnapping, when everybody's

searching for her, we had like a war room

and a select few were involved.

I built this timeline. You see where it

says hockey player, abusive

James Randall Reyes. Sherry used to

complain that James used to hurt her a

lot. So that was obviously a suspect.

When Keith and Sherry's parents initially

told us the separation of

contact was more than a decade,James'

phone wasn't in her cell phone. There

wasn't conversations that we found.

So we really focused on James Reyes.

And without going through all the

names, we can skip to

James Reyes right here. And then next to

it, it's assigned a person, which was

Dale. We were there. We

simply were. We were at James Reyes'

place day one, right off the get-go

we had. Folks positioned there

for two or three days,

feeling full well early on that that was

probably our answer.

We always look back at the one door we

didn't knock on and the one question we

didn't get answered was there.

We were guided that that probably wasn't

the resource that we needed to put our

time and effort on. I won't say where

that guidance came from. So we honored

that. I think his name was just

missed. for whatever reason.

It's kind of hard to believe now that

that we were right there in our own

investigation.

And the sheriff's office and I

unfortunately grew kind of a bad taste

because of the way that they were

conducting their investigation.

Ultimately, at that point, it's just

betrayal on Keith's view. He was

betrayed by me. He was betrayed by

Sherry. I can't imagine what Keith had

to go through. Pilot's doing a

makeover.

Hello to Daddy. Hello, Daddy. Turned

into a week, turned into two weeks, three

weeks, four weeks, two months. I didn't

say go! There's no follow-up at all, and

there's no arrest made.

Every day was, you know, I love how much

I love you. And they were just messing

with us. They were trying to pin us

against each other. I was just sick of

everybody. Like, what?Can someone tell

the truth?

At the time, we were still looking for

the last part of the puzzle.

Part of the plan, again, was for you to

get a throw phone. Yeah, well, she wanted

a throw phone. So when you drove up

there, you gave her the throw phone. She

had a throw phone. She already had one.

Yeah. When the prepaid phones came into

play, first we

collected the call logs from

phone to phone. We were able to

show that the two numbers were in

communication on the day of Sherry's

disappearance. That was a big,

important factor. And

then we discovered her phone had

gone from the cell site nearest her

houseand road tripped down

from Redding to Southern California.

We felt that we had the evidence that was

necessary to finally prove what had

happened.

Oh, jeez. About that time,

It's just very strange and very odd to be

in the house with her.

You know, there was definitely this weird

tension in the house.

Sherry was on edge more at that time. We

both were.

We started arguing a little bit more.

One day we were outside and I was trying

to work on something she wanted me to do.

She moved like a wheelbarrow, like a

foot, and I didn't even have anything in

it. Can you?

Can youAnd she was like taking pauses in

her sentence that were not natural. The

point she was trying to make is like, can

you do this for me 'cause I'm too tired

to do it.

Well, I'm just under a lot of stuff.

I need an outlet because you don't

understand because of the 22 days.

It was the first time I said something

and I was like, it's a it's a

horrible thing that has happened and we

will never forget it. But can we go, can

we go a fucking day without hearing about

it?And

she just, you know, didn't skip a beat

and just looked right at me and said

I have to live with the fact.

that you never found me.

And it just like--

I mean, it like-- it hurt. It It was a

punch.

One day, we set

up in and around her neighborhood.

Our plan was to let her leave the house.

We had hoped that if she left the house,

she would leave the house alone so that

we wouldn't have to worry about her

children being with her. We had sat

there from about 7:00 AM until

probably 2:30 or 3:00 in the afternoon.

We were getting ready to call it and say,

we're not going to get her today, when

one of the other agents called out over

the radio that she was leaving the

property. She

took off, and she was driving pretty

fast. We all followed her

all the way into downtown Redding

to the Redding Music School. It was

at that point when we realized that she

had her children with her.

We didn't want to cause a scene. We

decided we would create a ruse.

I went into the music school. And I just

said, excuse me, do you drive a black Kia

Optima?And she looked up at me. I said, I

think maybe somebody just bumped into

your car outside. And she exclaimed,

oh, oh my gosh. And she jumped up, and

she ran out the door.

Unfortunately, her two kids followed her

out the door.

At which point, an FBI agent stepped out

and said, Sherry Papini, you're under

arrest.

Are you chained up?She threw her

keys and her phone to her son

and said, call your father.

I came home and within 15

minutes I get a call from Sherry. But

it's not Sherry. It's

the piano teacher. They got her. They got

her. The FBI. They took. They

they took Sherry. You You need to come

and get your kids.

Sherry called me. She said that

I needed to help her. I needed to save

her. I needed to fix the

situation for her.

Breaking news. A Shasta County woman who

disappeared five years ago was just

arrested. Accused of making the entire

story 39 year old Redding woman lied

about being kidnapped at gunpoint by two

Hispanic women with a former boyfriend in

Orange County harmed herself to support

her false statements.

I went and got the kids. They were so

confused. They're like, did somebody hit

Mommy's car?I shut down after

that. Of course, Sheila called me

multiple times. My family members called

me and I just.

It was the first time that I was afraid

to answer somebody's question.

Did she do this?Because I couldn't give

him an answer. I

was shocked. What?

Were there even any Mexican girls?

The FBI now says Papini gave herself

those injuries. Over the past few years,

she's received more than $30,000 in

victims. It impacted our whole community.

The 39 year old charged with making false

statements to a law enforcement officer.

Papini is also charged with mail fraud

for taking $30,000 from the state's

victims. Thousands in therapist

treatments for and resources spent on

finding suspicious looking Hispanic

women. Papini could face up to 20 years

in prison. Carry Papini was taken to

Sacramento where she's in jail there. Her

case will be tried in federal court.

Sherry. Sherry, the judge. Have you

cheated on

your husband?You're cheating on your

husband?Are you scared to go into prison?

Are you scared to go

to prison?Are you scared to go to prison?

What about all the hard people who

donated money?

What was it like in jail?

The next day, she

wanted to talk to me for the first time

since she's been arrested.

She wanted to meet me at my aunt's house,

Aunt Pam. I

drove over there to the house, and

I opened the door, and there's no one in

the room.

And then out of the back bedroom, she

runs to me with her hands up in the air

and leaps onto me with her arms wrapped

around me.

And she grabs my hand, pulls me

to the back bedroom, and just fully

undresses. She wants to have sex with

me. What are you doing right now?

Like, we need to talk. Like, what is

going on?Like, you you were just

arrested. Did you read the criminal

report, the 55 pages?And

she's tugging on all my clothes, trying

to get my clothes off. I'm I'm telling

her no, noOh, babe,

come on.

Come

on. You're so mean.

I mean, all this stuff is hitting me,

and she tells

me that she wants to take a

plea deal if

I take this plea deal. It's

only going to be like 6 months with an

ankle bracelet. So she's like, who cares?

Like I I I've been staying home the whole

time anyway. This isn't a big deal. What

do you mean?Like you said you didn't do

this?I was

really taken aback by it. I didn't know

how to respond other than like, I don't

think it's a good idea. Like, Are you

sure?And she's like,

yes, I just want to make love to you. I

just want to feel love. She didn't care.

I remember just feeling just this, it's

just this weird feeling. I mean, I open

the door and I just kind of like run. Of

course she's yelling for me to come back

and I'm just like finally feeling like,

OK, this must be true. This must be true.

She did this.

It's all a lie.

Do you have anything to say to law

enforcement that has taken five and a

half years to try to solve this crime?

Yeah, this is a-- it's a long process. A

turnabout in the case of Sherry Papini.

She now admits that she faked her

kidnapping and she will plead guilty in

court. Her lawyer

basically told me it took us a while to

get it out of her, but

she said James Reyes picked her up.

And she had a burner phone with her,

and she watched.

She watched you and everyone else search

for her during the 22 days on her phone.

This is where Sherry Coppini was last

seen yesterday around. Police contact us.

She has babies and we just want her help.

Police have suspended the ground search

for the missing 34 years. There's a large

influx of Mexican cartel.

We're trying and uh

we're trying the best we can and I'm so

sorry that I'm not there. Bring her home.

Bring her home. Just bring her home.

And I rememberI was just dead

inside.

This morning, Sherry Papini facing trial

for 35 felony counts and up to 25

years in prison, taking a plea deal in

the 11th hour. Sentence today to more

than 18 months in prison months was a

surprise to me. Jerry has said pretty

much everything positively said in the

sentence. The judge noting tersely people

don't like to be conned. The woman

whose own lawyer described her as having

chameleonic personalities will have to

report to federal prison.

We went on that ride a couple times

there, Sherry and myself. And

that's me and her.

My heart was broken. It's awful. It's

terrible what she did. This

blonde hair, blue-eyed supermom.

Telling a big fat giant lie like this.

You can live with somebody. You can think

you know somebody. Every deep,

dark secret you think you know, you don't

know. You don't really

know. It's just

really sad.

I wanted to believe that it was real.

We just know how she left and where she

went. None of the lies, which makes any

investigation hard.

If I had a guest, I believe Sherry

left for control of the relationship.

She had a severance package from AT&T.

That money paid for daycare. That money

paid for cosmetic surgery. That

paid for how she lived her life. Keith

was open about he wasn't going to pay for

daycare if she was at home. I think her

lifestyle was going to change once she

ran out of money. I don't think she

was ready for that, but I think she left

because that's how she knew to get away

from conflict.

I wish she would have made different

choices.

I think

she wasn't getting the

attention that she wanted with being at

home. I think she just really

wanted to feel important.

Um.. She always has.

Sherry and I used to play catching frogs,

tadpoles, catching bugs, just

kind of being in nature.

I would sayBecause of the trauma that

her and I had experienced as children,

Sherry sought out for that

positive love and attention and that

she... would exaggerate

a lot and wasn't honest a

lot.

Do you still--do you still have love for

Sherry?Oh. I don't think

that will ever go away. Like, when you

have a sibling, you always love them.

Um..

And I still don't know why she

chose to do what she did.

I don't think I'll ever know why.

I think it's that's the hard part that

all of us have to

process.

Oh, wow.

I just couldn't believe

that this woman was in my life

and how well everything was going.

You know, I thought when I was going to

look at these, I'd be like, yeah, you

know, I'm kind of-- I don't want to say

over it, but...

it's just hard going back from...

all these memories in in our time as a

family.

I would say that this process of

looking back... Scene seven, take one,

mark.

Here we go. It forced

me to confront a lot of the things I've

never dealt with. The first day,

the first day with the zip ties.

And that helped me start connecting dots.

These are some of Sherry's books that

that she had left here. I think she was

definitely trying certain things out. I

feel there's features of Elizabeth Smart

that Sherry stole from her story.

This man successfully kidnapped me. He

successfully chained me up.

You have Gone Girl.

I think a little bit, obviously, too,

about... Tara Both were out

jogging when they vanished. Both went to

the same high school at the same time in

the 1990s. That one hurts

because, you know, of course we know the

family. And then she

allowed me to take her over to that house

after the fact. And she just lying

straight to their face is something that

has been very difficult for me.

I was so ashamed. I was embarrassed

knowing that...

she, you know, manipulated everybody

and that I felt responsible.

You know, I was so adamant that she could

never leave her kids. It's like

a little playhouse, huhThat's cool, yeah.

Hi, guys. Hello.

That's pretty cool. Yeah, I'd rather have

this for a playground at school. Yeah, I

know. Oh,

pickles, oh, that's a good coat name. One

day, after Sherry was already in

prison, as I go

and lay my daughter to bed,

I I push off the

bed, and I kind of make a little grunt

sound like, Ah You know, I was a little

bit sore.

Violet... She's like, Daddy, are you

sick?And she goes,

why don't you do Mommy's trick?I was

like, Mommy's trick?Like, what are you,

what are you talking about?And she's

like, well, you just breathe in this

rubbing alcohol. And

I was like, what?And she goes to

the bathroom and she knows right where

the rubbing alcohol is. She wads up a

thing of toilet paper and just soaks it

and then hands it to me to breathe.

And I I was like, how often did you do

this?And she said, well,

when we got sick, we did it every single

day.

Nice. You're a pro. You can now live with

the goats. And the next thing I know, my

kids are at getting forensic

interviews done. Find out Sherry

would soak rags of alcohol and put it in

a Ziploc bag and tie a

string.

would tie a string around their neck onto

the Ziploc bag so that the fumes would--

so that they would continue to smell the

fumes to make them not feel good so that

she could take them to the doctor. I'm

gonna get one more.

So obviously, after that point, I...

It really made things a lot easier to

think of her in a different light, as if

she didn't exist. Do you want to go pet?

Go real slow.

Now the kids are in my care, so they're

safe.

Breaking news Sherry Papini, the Shasta

County mother convicted of faking her own

kidnapping, is now out of prison early.

She is now in a halfway house in

Sacramento ahead of her projected release

date. That's about six months earlier

than expected, Sherry Papini saying in a

statement. I am deeply ashamed of myself

for my behavior. I will work the rest of

my life to make amends for what I have

done.

She's on her own path now.

I spent a lot of time just being angry

with her, trying to figure out why she

did what she did.

It's definitely a lot smaller than...

she made it sound.

It's tough. I've imagined this house so

many times, and I've had a picture of

it in my head over

the years from all the details that

Sherry gave me, and

It's like a lot of it's here and a lot of

it's not here. It's

like at this point, what's new?A liar's

lying. But I spent a lot of

time, a lot of nights,

trying to figure out

this whole thing.

This is a... You know, something that

just gets boxed up for her, maybe if the

kids want to see it. But it's, I

think it's just too painful for me to

look at it.

I don't know about closure.

Obviously she needs help.

So I just keep thinking about my kids.

I'm so protective of them.

Will I ever truly

trust someone again?

I mean, to to be here instead of with her

family and to watch on TV, everybody

search for her, and I just can't. I

don't understand it. I can't get past

that.

I just need to make sure I'm

the best dad I can be to those kids.

I mean, because they have to grow up in

this world. At the end of the

day, you know, their mom left them

and lied to them and kept them in a

bubble. So they

just don't want to be around her.

It's just sad.

I remember I asked my son,

I'm like, Hey, you know, let's play,

like, if you had a new last name, what

would it be?And we had all these names

that we were throwing out there.

Like, Oh, what about this one?And what

about this one?And

he just kind of is like, Is this, is this

about, like, mom or something?He's like,

I like our last name.

I don't think we should have to change

our last name because of what she did.