California mom Sherry Papini, who faked kidnapping and fraud, ‘never existed’ as ‘blind’ husband breaks silence

Sherri Papini’s ex-husband is still questioning why the mother of 2 faked her own kidnapping.

“I believe the main thing will be attention,” Keith Papini told Fox News Virtual. “I think he likes it when people feel for him and see him as suffering at someone else’s expense. “To be honest, I don’t think he’s capable of seeing what he did and the lives it touched, the impact it had, how much pain he caused so many people.”

Keith reflected, “I always think about all the people (who tried to help) during those 22 days (she was missing).” “All those kids who maybe weren’t allowed to ride their bikes anymore, all those women who maybe no longer went jogging… I don’t think they had any understanding of how damaging it was.”

After seven years of silence, Keith is speaking out about the high-profile fraud that shocked his community in Redding, California.

He is appearing in an unaired true-crime documentary, “Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherry Papini”, on Hulu.

An attorney for Keith, 41, did not immediately respond to Fox Information Virtual’s request for comment.

“I’ve been contacted by many different outlets over the years,” Keith said of why he’s coming forward now.

“I feel like I was finally at a place where I could talk about all the pain that Sherri caused our family… I wanted to get the truth out about what really happened.”

Keith further explained that their time turned into a nightmare, turning it into a fairy tale. He described being immediately impressed by the blue-eyed “hot blonde”. Later tying the knot in 2009, he and Sherry welcomed a son and daughter. The era seemed picture-perfect for the couple.

“I never felt disliked by him,” Keith said. “She used to write songs, she used to write me notes constantly. She would tell me how happy she was with our marriage and that we would never get a divorce. She loved me very much and I used to repeat those things to her.

He shared, “There was no part of me that ever thought she would fake injuries and cheat to the extent that she did.” “I couldn’t have predicted it. But I thought our life was happy. We have amazing kids.”

“I was blindsided,” Keith said.

The era of this pair began to move towards its end on November 2, 2016. That night, Keith reports his wife missing after he discovers that she was not home and had not picked up their children from daycare. Her handbag and jewelery are left behind.

An intensive search for the missing mother began. Before November 26, it would not have happened that any driver would have seen the emaciated Sherry covered with injuries. She was once bound by restraints and nearly 150 miles from her home.

Sherry instructed the government that two masked Hispanic girls forced her into an SUV at gunpoint and held her captive.

His yellow hair was cut to shoulder length, and he had a faint “brand” burned onto his right shoulder, the officer said in the episode. There was both male and female DNA on her body and clothes.

A GoFundMe marketing campaign for People’s Backup raised more than $49,000, which the couple put toward paying expenses and alternative expenses, according to a court filing.

During the lengthy investigation, Keith spontaneously takes a lie detector test and passes. He also produced “all my phones and computers, anything the police needed.”

Keith told that initially he was very happy to meet his love again. However after this he started questioning Sherry’s story.

Keith admitted, “There were a lot of things that didn’t add up, but I wanted to support my wife.” “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 assured that she was happy with us and that she didn’t want a life with anyone else… I just wanted to support her all the time we were together. That being said… I will never know the whole truth.”

Keith wasn’t the only one to be skeptical.

Sherry provided an FBI comic strip artist with a description of her alleged kidnappers, including a detailed description of her alleged snatch. On the other hand, the closest investigators found evidence that could contradict his story. In fact, the government said, Sherry was living with an ex-boyfriend about 600 miles from her home and had perjured herself to support her false statements.

“When a young mother went missing in broad daylight, the community was filled with fear and anxiety,” US Attorney Philip Talbert said in a commentary in the week. “Ultimately, the investigation revealed that no kidnapping had occurred and time and resources that could have been used to investigate the actual crime, protect the community, and provide resources to victims were wasted.”

DNA found on Sherry ultimately ended up in the ex-boyfriend, a court filing apparently found. The former told investigators that Sherry stayed with him at his house throughout the week, even though they never had sex.

According to a 55-page affidavit filed in court, their account was verified when the government tracked the locations of two prepaid mobile phones they were using to secretly talk to each other in early December 2015. Were staying. To back up felony fees. A cousin of the former boyfriend also told investigators that he saw Sherry at the guy’s apartment twice, both times unsupervised.

The information supported the ex-boyfriend’s story that he rented a car and drove Sherry again to Northern California.

In March 2022, Sherry was arrested on charges of making false statements to federal brokers and mail fraud. A day later, she officially accepted responsibility, admitting that her kidnapping claims were a hoax.

Keith noted that in the beginning, they tried to protect their children from the possibility that Sherry’s kidnappers would come to “finish the job”. However, after Sherry’s confession, he attempted to shield her from constant media scrutiny.

“We lived in fear that someone was following us,” he said. “If kids were playing outside and they saw someone, it was almost as if they were taught to run inside. There is a part of me that knows that six years of his childhood were almost stolen by Sherry.

In keeping with the documentary, Sherry claimed that Keith was once a controlling partner. He said the allegations were “hurtful” and “false”.

Keith claimed, “…she was saying I was beating her and the police wouldn’t do anything.” “… (When it came to our mutual friends)… it was a completely different story… It was sad to hear those things at the moment because I’m not sleeping, I’m not eating. I am fighting for my wife’s life. And to know that she was saying these… untrue things, it’s hurtful… but you can see a pattern here.’

In September 2022, Sherry was sentenced to 18 months in prison for faking her own kidnapping. He was acquitted in early 2023.

Sherry has never given any rational reason for her habits. His actions shocked sovereign psychological fitness professionals who said they did not conform to any conventional analysis.

Defense attorney William Portanova attributed this to “something like a terrible storm going on in her mind for a long time”, but said she was now a changed woman. She said in a pre-sentence court filing that Sherry was “pursuing a meaningless fantasy.”

Following her initial arrest, Sherry later received over $30,000 in benefits to deal with psychiatric anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. He billed the victim’s restitution treasury for the treatment and was ordered to pay it back as part of his restitution.

Keith applied for dissolution and sought custody of their children after Sherry accepted responsibility.

He claimed he had proven “zero remorse”.

Keith said, “…it was not a lie that he told that ended with him being arrested.” “It was a lie she told every minute of every day… Maybe she wasn’t being fulfilled by being a stay-at-home mom… She never apologized to me or the kids.. .She acts as if it never existed.”

“The Perfect Wife” is now available for streaming. Related press contributed to this document.