Sherri Papini Finally Shares Her Side Of The Story In New ‘Caught In The Lie’ Documentary

What happened to Sherri Papini?

It all began on November 2, 2016, when Sherri left for a run and never made it back home. This pushed her husband, Keith Papini, to report her missing.

As news of her disappearance spread, Sherri's loved ones raised over $49,000 for the search and scoured the local area. Yet, just 22 days later, the California mom showed up on a highway 150 miles away at 4:00 a.m.

Sherri had hose clamps on her wrists, a chain around her waist, and had been branded on her shoulder. She was also emaciated and had numerous bruises, rashes, and burns.

While initially speaking with the police, Sherri insisted that two Hispanic women wearing masks had kidnapped and tortured her. Eventually, though, she admitted that was a lie, and she'd been at her ex-boyfriend James Reyes' apartment.

Sherri received a prison sentence of 18 months for providing false statements to the police and had to pay over $300,000 in restitution to law enforcement agencies. However, she was released early in 2023 after serving 10 months behind bars.

Why did she make up the hoax in the first place? Well, according to Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, which is premiering on Investigation Discovery on May 26, she was trying to hide her affair with her ex from her husband.

"The truth is I was concealing an affair from my husband, who was threatening to take everything from me if he found out that I was having any involvement [with another man]," Sherri revealed.

Leading up to her disappearance, she supposedly stayed in contact with James, whom she viewed as someone who actually "listened to" and "heard" her. But one night, she allegedly asked James to visit Redding, California, because she planned to cut off their affair. Instead, Sherri claims she was abducted.

She recalled waking up in the back of a car, barely able to keep her eyes open, and the next time she woke up, James was allegedly bringing her inside his apartment.

"He had one hand underneath my arm, trying to help me walk. And I just remember thinking, 'This is not where I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to be picking my kids up from daycare. I am not supposed to be here,'" Sherri detailed.

"The injuries that occurred, the bites on my thigh, the footprint on my back, the brand, the melting of my skin, I am telling you there was no consent."

Sherri allegedly woke up without clothes on in James' apartment and tried to pull a board off a window. James supposedly entered the room, and that's when he hit her for the first time. The blow knocked her out, and when she came to consciousness again, she was chained to a pole in the closet.

She was ultimately able to escape captivity following a conversation with James, in which she insisted that her husband would find her.

"He was like, 'Well, there's too much that has happened.' So it all came down to me. It all came down to my cover-up, and that's when I agreed to make up that someone else did it," Sherri explained.

James' DNA was found on clothing that Sherri had been wearing when she was discovered. Yet, he passed a polygraph test and claimed "everything" had been Sherri's idea, saying, "I didn't kidnap her. She was just a friend in need, asking for help. She was trying to get away from her husband."

More details on the bizarre case will be revealed in Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, which will premiere from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. EST on May 26 on Investigation Discovery.