Keith Papini remains to be processing that his ex-wife, Sherri Papini, staged her personal abduction.
Practically eight years after Sherri famously vanished throughout a jog, solely to reappear after supposedly escaping a three-week abduction, Keith is talking for the primary time since her arrest.
Keith informed ABC Information that Sherri “never” apologized to him or their two kids for the “excruciating” ordeal, which continued for an additional six years earlier than she admitted she had fabricated the kidnapping.
“She made us all believe that her story was true. Every single day she committed to the lie,” he stated within the interview that aired on “Good Morning America” Monday.
Keith referred to as 911 to report Sherri’s disappearance when she went lacking from their Redding, California, residence in early November 2016. He was the primary individual to be questioned by authorities and handed a associated polygraph check.
The nationwide seek for Sherri ended on Thanksgiving Day when she was discovered bruised, shackled and branded on a freeway exterior city. Keith, who believed her declare that two Hispanic girls had kidnapped her, informed “20/20” by tears on the time: “She literally lived through hell.”
“When I pulled back the curtain and I saw her and I saw the look in her eyes, I felt, in that moment, that she was lying,” he informed ABC Information when requested about his response to seeing her within the hospital proper after she was discovered. He added that solely the extent of her accidents made him suppose, “How horrible of me to even think that she could’ve done this to herself.”
Her protected return proved removed from a cheerful ending, nonetheless, as authorities had been nonetheless trying to find her supposed captors. Sherri maintained the charade by having Keith set up new doorways, locks, lights and cameras at their home to guard their household.
“The amount of fear that our family lived in, that was fake, is excruciating,” Keith stated. These fears took six years to be proved baseless.
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Authorities ultimately realized that Sherri was discovered with each female and male DNA on her, neither of which matched Keith’s. The proof led them to the house of her ex-boyfriend James Reyes — who confirmed Sherri had stayed with him throughout her alleged kidnapping.
Reyes had additionally stated Sherri informed him she left as a result of her husband was abusive. Keith vehemently denied accusations of abuse within the new interview.
Sherri was arrested by the FBI in March 2022 and charged with mendacity to a federal officer. She signed a plea deal admitting to the hoax the next month and was sentenced in September of that yr to 18 months in jail and a $300,000 nice.
When requested by ABC Information why he thinks Sherri went to such excessive lengths, Keith ventured: “I think she wanted me to be her knight in shining armor and run to her, and I think she wanted to plan a fake kidnapping, but in her version, I was supposed to find her.”
Keith, who’s interviewed in regards to the hoax within the new Hulu docuseries “Perfect Wife,” filed for divorce after Sherri’s confession. He informed ABC Information that he not speaks to Sherri.
Keith added that she’s by no means expressed an oz of remorse in regards to the crime to him or their kids: “Never. She has no remorse that I have ever witnessed or seen.”
