ORIGINAL "GONE GIRL" SHERRI PAPINI'S BIZARRE U-TURN CLAIM SHE WAS KIDNAPPED DESPITE JAILTIME FOR HOAX
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
3.9 • 7.6K Ratings
🗓️ 10 July 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After Sherri Papini, a young mom and wife, pleads guilty to making false statements and one count of mail fraud in connection with lying about being kidnapped in 2016, she recently came forward to switch her story once again denying she was ever held captive
Sherri Papini went to jail after admitting her alleged 2016 kidnapping was a hoax, but after her release, she’s giving a different explanation now to why she should be viewed as innocent of those charges. Sherri Papini gained worldwide attention in 2016 when she went missing for 22 days after she is abducted while out on a jog near her home just north of Redding California. Sherri is reported missing on January 2022 by her husband Keith, after she was reported going for a jog in her neighborhood.
California young mom makes headlines in 2016 when she goes missing while on a jog near her Redding, California, home and her ever changing stories haven't stopped since. First big development is when she shockingly is rescued on a road 22 days after her alleged abduction, Thanksgiving Day. The young mom is rescued after being seen running down a highway in distress. She isd arrested for falsely telling authorities she had been abducted and tortured, claiming she was beaten and branded by captors.
Ultimately, the mother of two is ultimately arrested in 2022 for orchestrating her own abduction. She pleads guilty to a federal judge later that year and is sentenced to 18 months in jail for committing mail fraud and lying to a federal officer about being kidnapped. Sherri Papini admits to lying about being kidnapped in 2016 but now claims she did not lie about being held captive in the new docuseries Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie.
Earlier this year, Investigation Discovery’s Caught in the Lie featuring Sherri Panini, illustrates claims by Papini that James Reyes is allegedly responsible for her kidnapping. Reyes disputes the allegations when interviewed by government officials and is never officially charged in connection to her kidnapping.
Joining Nancy Grace today,
- Darryl Cohen - Former Assistant District Attorney (Fulton County, Georgia) Former Assistant State Attorney (Florida), Defense Attorney, Cohen, Cooper, Estep, & Allen, CCEAlaw.com, Facebook: "Darryl B Cohen", Twitter: @DarrylBCohen
- Dr. Stephen M. Diggs - Sherri Papini’s therapist, California licensed psychologist, Owner / Director of NYSA Therapy, Author of “Secondhand Girl: From Foster Care to Borderline Personality to Peace”, website: nysatherapy.com
- Sheriff Michael Johnson - Sheriff of Shasta County, his department investigated the “original” Sherri Papini case
- Traci Brown - Body language expert, Author: “How to Detect Lies, Fraud and Identity Theft”, www.BodyLanguageTrainer.com, Twitter: @Tracibrown37
- Kelli Saam - Anchor at Action News Now, the CBS and NBC affiliate in Redding, CA, website: actionnewsnow.com, X: @KelliSaam, Instagram and Facebook: @KelliSaamNews
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:04.8 | Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. |
| 0:09.8 | The original Gone Girl, the Supermom. |
| 0:14.2 | Remember Sherry Pippini, who said she was kidnapped by three Hispanic individuals that beat her, knocked out her teeth, |
| 0:23.9 | broke her nose, starved her, and branded her. |
| 0:28.4 | Well, tonight, in a bizarre U-turn, she now claims she really was kidnapped, |
| 0:36.4 | despite serving jail time for her elaborate hoax so she could go snug up with an ex-boyfriend. |
| 0:44.6 | I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. I want to thank you for being with us. |
| 0:53.5 | 9-1-1 emergency. What are you reporting? I saw a person. Quick, wait. Nine one emergency with your reporting. |
| 0:56.0 | I saw a person on the side of the road waving a shirt and I'm guessing they're in trouble and |
| 1:03.0 | my I wanted to report there in the middle of this freeway |
| 1:08.0 | 9-9-5 and it looks like a blonde female |
| 1:11.8 | possible. There's a lady on the side of the road meeting help. |
| 1:16.8 | That lady is a liar. And that liar is the original gone girl. |
| 1:22.9 | Sherry Pippini. It all starts right here with a 911 call. Listen. |
| 1:28.3 | Yeah, so I just got home from work and my wife wasn't there which is unusual and my kids should have been there by now from like daycare. |
| 1:38.3 | So I was like oh maybe she went on a walk. I couldn't find her so I called the daycare to see what time she picked up the kids. |
| 1:44.6 | The kids were never picked up, so I got freaked out, so I hit, like, the find my iPhone app thing, |
| 1:49.8 | and it said that her, it showed her phone, like, at our end of our driveway, we don't have really |
| 1:53.9 | good service. Okay. |
| 1:55.1 | Not the end of our driveway, but the end of our street. But just drove down there and I saw her phone with her headphones because she started running again. |
| 2:00.9 | And it's, I found her phone and it's got like hair ripped out of it, like in the headphones. |
... |
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