Who is Sherri Papini?
Sherri Louise Graeff was born on June 11, 1982. She tied the knot with Keith Papini in October 2009. They welcomed a son and a daughter during their marriage.
However, on March 3, 2022, the same day Sherri was taken into custody for federal offenses, the couple decided to separate. Shortly after Sherri’s admission of guilt for fraud in April 2022, Keith filed for divorce and requested sole custody of their children.
Sherri Papini Case Explained
Sherri Papini, a 34-year-old American woman, went missing on November 2, 2016, while jogging near her residence in Redding, California. After three weeks, on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, she resurfaced, supposedly released by her abductors at 4:30 AM.
She was found still restrained, on the side of County Road 17 close to Interstate 5 in Yolo County, approximately 150 miles (240 km) from where she was last seen.
The reported abduction received significant coverage from the media, causing national law enforcement experts to express uncertainty or confusion about the improbable details and discrepancies.
Despite being warned that it was a criminal offense to deceive a federal agent, she maintained her account when interrogated by a federal agent and a detective from the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office in August 2020. Papini was accused of mail fraud for accepting more than $30,000 from the California Victim Compensation Board from 2017 to 2021.
Papini was taken into custody on March 3, 2022, for allegedly providing false information to federal law enforcement and committing fraud through the mail.
The Department of Justice claims that Papini concocted the tale of her abduction, stating that she had been residing with an ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, and inflicted harm upon herself to make her false story seem more believable.
Papini was let out of jail on March 9, 2022, after paying a $120,000 bond and giving up her passport, while awaiting her trial. Neither she nor her lawyer had any response to the accusations made against her.
Papini could have potentially received a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for charges of mail fraud and providing false information to a federal officer.
However, six weeks after being arrested, Papini signed a plea agreement confessing to orchestrating the hoax. In September 2022, she was given an 18-month prison sentence and ordered to pay a $300,000 fine.
Media Attention
After it was revealed that the Sherri Papini story was a fake, it received additional attention from major news outlets such as ABC Evening News, CBS Mornings, Good Morning America, NBC News, CNBC, Dr. Phil, Inside Edition, USA Today, Court TV, People Magazine, and The Today Show.
The story of the Papini case was featured on various media platforms, including an episode of Dateline NBC called “The Curious Case of Sherri Papini,” as well as Reelz Investigates, HLN Investigates, and Oxygen’s “Sherri Papini: Lies, Lies, and More Lies.” It also garnered attention from multiple true-crime podcasts.
In 2023, Lifetime released a movie titled Hoax: The Kidnapping of Sherri Papini, which was the first film based on the hoax. Jaime King portrayed Sherri Papini, while the role of the lead detective, originally held by Shasta County Sheriff Sergeant Kyle Wallace, was played by Lossen Chambers, a female character.
The third verse of Eminem’s 2024 track ‘Houdini’ mentions Papini. On June 20, 2024, Hulu released a limited documentary series titled Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini.
