Sherri Papini will discuss her disappearance in new true crime docuseries

Papini was also the subject of Hulu’s “Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini.”

Sherri Papini is finally telling her side of the story.

Investigation Discovery announced Monday that Papini, who disappeared for three weeks in 2016 and claimed she had been kidnapped when she resurfaced, will discuss her experience on camera in a multi-part documentary series. The untitled show will premiere in 2025.

Sherri Papini arrives to court on September 19, 2022.
Sherri Papini.

Hector Amezcua/TNS/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock 

The announcement comes on the heels of Hulu’s Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini, which premiered on June 20. With 3.6 million views in its first week, the streamer said it was its most-watched documentary series in history. That documentary featured interviews with Papini’s ex-husband, Keith Papini, who made troubling claims about Sherri’s treatment of their two children.

ID’s doc will be the first to interview Papini after her release from prison last year. A press release says that the project will feature “archival footage, legal documents, and court filings as well as extensive interviews with those close to Papini and the investigation.”

Sherri Papini went missing on Nov. 2, 2016, after disappearing during a jog in her neighborhood in Redding, Calif. She was found three weeks later on Thanksgiving Day, on the side of a highway around 150 miles from her home. Papini was injured and claimed that she’d been held captive by two Hispanic women who allegedly branded her.

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Police discovered DNA on Papini’s clothing that yielded no matches until 2020, when it was linked to James Reyes, an ex-boyfriend. Reyes told investigators that Papini asked him for help, so he rented a car and picked her up at her request after she said that her husband was abusing her. (Keith Papini denied all allegations of abuse and filed for divorce in 2022.) Reyes said that Papini stayed with him in his Costa Mesa apartment until Thanksgiving, when she allegedly said she missed her children and decided to make her way home. He also claimed that he was the one who branded Papini at her request.

Papini was arrested in March 2022 on charges of making false statements and mail fraud. She pleaded guilty to one count of each and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, ultimately serving 10 months. She was released in August 2023.

Papini was also previously portrayed by Jaime King in the 2023 Lifetime movie Hoax: The Kidnapping of Sherri Papini.

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