Sherri Papini, the California woman who was convicted in 2022 for faking her kidnapping and lying to the FBI, is again claiming that she was in fact kidnapped.
Papini, 43, told authorities in 2016 that she was abducted by two Hispanic women and held captive for three weeks that year. In 2022, she pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the fake kidnapping and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
But in an interview with ABC News on Friday to promote her new memoir, Papini is saying she was indeed kidnapped after all.
This time, she’s claiming that she was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend, James Reyes. During the investigation into her lies, authorities concluded that Papini was staying with Reyes in secrecy while her husband, two children and officials searched for her in 2016.
“I’m not actually asking anyone to believe anything,” she told ABC News. “I just am free now, and I have the capacity to speak for myself without being afraid and without having to lie and not being as fearful as I have been before.”
Reyes could not immediately be reached for comment.
Papini said that she lied to authorities about who kidnapped her because she was in an emotionally abusive relationship with her now ex-husband.
“Prison was far safer than the consequences that I would suffer if my ex-husband found out I was having an emotional affair,” she said. “I’d prefer prison over telling Keith Papini that I was having an emotional affair.”
Authorities began to question Papini’s kidnapping claims when they found male DNA on her clothing.
The DNA belonged to Reyes, who, at the time, told authorities that Papini had asked him to hit her to make it appear that she was abused during her fake kidnapping. Instead, he held a hockey stick for her to run into and branded her upon her request, he told officials.
Reyes then dropped Papini along Interstate 5 when she said she wanted to go back home, according to authorities.
Authorities found her about 145 miles south of where she had vanished. She was emaciated with a chain around her waist and self-inflicted injuries, according to officials.
When asked what she would like to say to Reyes, Papini told ABC News that “it’s time to tell the truth.”
“I’ve done it. I’ve suffered for it. You watched me burn for it, go to prison and lose custody of my children … and it’s time to come forward and tell the truth to everyone. He knows what happened,” she said.
