We’re nonetheless reeling from all of the revelations in Investigation Discovery’s two-night true-crime documentary Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie.
Sherri, who had gone jogging close to her Redding, California, residence, disappeared on November 2, 2016, and didn’t resurface till 22 days later. Claiming two armed Hispanic ladies had kidnapped her, she was in tough form, emaciated, with bruises, burns, her lengthy blonde hair shorn and a sequence round her waist. However an intense investigation flipped the script, and Sherri finally confessed that she’d faked the crime. She served practically 11 months in jail.
Within the doc, she recants that confession and factors a finger at ex-boyfriend James Reyes, with whom she was having an emotional affair. He had way back instructed investigators that she was at his Costa Mesa, California, condominium for these three weeks, however he thought he was serving to her “run away” from an abusive marriage: “I didn’t kidnap her.” He additionally stated that she was the instigator for any bodily hurt to her physique.
Now that we’ve seen all 4 hours of Caught within the Lie, let’s have a look at a number of issues that also don’t add up.
The iPhone She Dropped
Sherri Pappini YouTube/Investigation Discovery
One of many preliminary clues that puzzled investigators and spoke of potential violence was Sherri’s iPhone, which had been dropped by a mud highway on her jogging route and had blonde hair tousled within the cords to her earbuds. Then-husband Keith Papini had found it utilizing his Discover My Cellphone app, telling 20/20: “If she would have misplaced her telephone driving residence at some point and she or he put it on the roof of the automotive and it fell off, OK, no matter. I might see that taking place. However the automobiles are residence and the children are in school. I knew one thing was fallacious.”
For the FBI, the discover — the telephone was dealing with up, with the earbuds on high of it — was a crimson flag. “The way in which it was positioned … you don’t simply drop your telephone while you’re being kidnapped and coil up your headphones after which pull your hair out and ensure it’s in there,” says Denise Farmer, the FBI’s lead investigator (now retired). “That was very unusual to us.”
Initially, Sherri confirmed she was accountable and had meant this as an alert to her husband. Whereas within the room with investigators, she turned to Keith and stated, “I knew you’d discover my telephone and my hair … That’s why I pulled it out — I knew you’d know.”
However within the new doc, she modifies her story. With plans to fulfill Reyes, Sherri says she went on her run. “I noticed a car pull up after which again up. That’s after I realized that it was James. My cellular phone fell, and after I reached all the way down to get my telephone, that’s the very last thing that I keep in mind.”
Questioned in regards to the inconsistency, she first solutions with a non sequitur: “Oh, throughout captivity, James stated they discovered my telephone, so I knew I knew he had discovered the telephone.” (Yeah, her interviewer didn’t get it both.) However then she explains her first account (form of): “So, there was elaboration round it, positive, and there was a — what’s the phrase that you simply’ve used earlier than? Thanks, thanks — there was embellishment round it, positive. However it was my first try and say I used to be in hassle.”
The reality, Sherri says, is that it fell. However after that, “I’ve no reminiscence of getting behind this car. I’ve no reminiscence of what was stated or what was exchanged or how he managed to knock me out or get me within the again.”
Sherri’s therapist, Dr. Stephen Diggs, who specializes within the therapy of character dysfunction, shares that failure to recollect “pertinent components of the trauma” is listed as one of many standards for PTSD within the Diagnostic and Statistical Handbook of Psychological Issues. “It’s proper within the DSM.”
And medical psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula, who has not handled Sherri, offers further perception in regards to the form of reminiscence points Sherri could also be experiencing: “Some of the irritating stuff you’re going to search out is that trauma tales have holes, proper? And we expect that if somebody can’t keep in mind one thing, they’re faking, or we expect it’s cleaning soap opera amnesia or one thing like that. However these holes in reminiscence are sometimes protecting, and the shape-shifting on the story, if it feels too self-serving, leaves you within the place of questioning how a lot of it is a calculation, how a lot of it is a dishonesty.”
The Model
Sherri’s situation after three weeks in captivity shocked the nation — and maybe probably the most disturbing component was the model on her proper shoulder, which reads “Exodus” with a corresponding Bible verse. On the time, Shasta County, California, sheriff Tom Bosenko stated, “I might suppose that that’s some form of both an exertion of energy and management and or possibly some kind of message that the model contained.”
In her new interview, Sherri particularly references the model when reclassifying her disappearance not as a hoax however as an abduction: “There was no consent. And he nonetheless did it. The accidents that occurred. The bites on my internal and outer thigh. The footprint on my again. The model. The melting of my pores and skin. I can’t do this myself, and I’m telling you, there was no consent.”
She alleges that Reyes received the concept to model her in October 2016, when she was telling him in regards to the handmade Christmas presents she was engaged on, included wooden coasters with letters burned onto them. Particularly, “I had talked in regards to the wood-burning instrument,” she says. She believes that dialog despatched him to Interest Foyer a month later (the receipt was in proof) to purchase the instrument and model her.
“When James had me tied to the desk,” she recounts, “he must screw these letters in with pliers. I can nonetheless hear the sound. It’s like a popping sound and you may scent it and I can nonetheless really feel it and the ache that you simply expertise, letter by letter.”
The Dueling Polygraphs
Sherri Pappini YouTube/Investigation Discovery
Within the present’s closing hour, we see video of an investigator’s November 8, 2024, go to to Reyes in Nogales, Arizona. Reyes confirms he’s conscious of Sherri’s new allegations and says, “I’ll must contact my lawyer in California.” In the course of the investigation, he handed each query of a polygraph and was by no means charged with something… which is a bit tough to reconcile with Sherri’s new polygraph.
Among the many questions, she’s requested, “Whereas at James’ home in 2016, have been you free to go away at any time with out concern of violence?” and “Did you ask James to model you?” She answered no to each — and handed.
Polygraph examiner Brett Bartlett explains that the take a look at doesn’t technically point out fact however whether or not her physique has a “important response” to a press release, indicating she has failed the polygraph.
Whereas different inquiries to Sherri did get that important response — and she or he clarifies the ideas racing by means of her thoughts whereas answering — finally, the take a look at signifies that the essence of her new account of being held towards her will is certainly true. “I do imagine you. I’m sorry that occurred to you,” Bartlett says.
Sherri Papini: Caught within the Lie is now streaming on Max.