Sherri Papini Will Speak Out for 1st Time in Upcoming ID Docuseries

Sherri Papini will speak out about her 2016 kidnapping for the first time in an Investigation Discovery docuseries slated to be released in 2025

Sherri Papini of Redding leaves the federal courthouse accompanied by her attorney, William Portanova, right, after her arraignment in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, April 13, 2022.
Sherri Papini in 2022. Photo:

AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

Sherri Papini — the woman who faked her elaborate kidnapping in 2016 — is seemingly ready to tell her side of the story.

In an upcoming Investigation Discovery series that's slated for a 2025 release, Sherri will speak out for the first time since she was convicted of two felony charges — lying to a federal officer and mail fraud — in connection with her kidnapping hoax.

In 2016, Sherri vanished from her Redding, Calif., home. Twenty-two days after her disappearance, she was found alive on a highway. Although she claimed to have been abducted by two Hispanic women, her story slowly unravelled for years until her 2022 arrest.

“Sherri Papini drew worldwide attention when she went missing and then again, when she returned," ID President Jason Sarlanis said in a press release about the upcoming series. "While many perspectives have been told, there is one point of view that the world hasn’t heard and that is from Sherri herself. Investigation Discovery will present a new side of Sherri Papini’s case — told by her in her own words.”

According to the press release, in addition to Sherri's interview, the docuseries — which does not yet have a title — will feature "unprecedented access to archival footage, legal documents, and court filings as well as extensive interviews with those close to Papini and the investigation."

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When Sherri disappeared, she was married to Keith Papini and the pair had two children together. They stayed married for years after her return until her guilty plea in 2022. (Investigators were able to determine Sherri's kidnapping was a hoax after DNA found on the clothing she was wearing when she was found linked to an ex-boyfriend she'd actually been staying with during the fake kidnapping.)

sherri-papini
Sherri and Keith Papini. Courtesy Keith Papini

Days after her plea, Keith filed for divorce and eventually cut off contact with Sherri all together.

“It was such a weight off my shoulders because I was constantly trying to play this game with her, but you're not going to win against her. She's too good," Keith previously told PEOPLE. "And ever since [cutting off contact with Sherri] it's been a lot easier, because now I just get to focus on the kids.”

Keith now has sole custody of their two children, and Sherri sees them once a month during supervised visits. Keith recently told his side of the story in Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini, a three-part documentary series now streaming on Hulu.

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