‘The Vanishing Act’: How Redding mom Sherri Papini fooled investigators, family with phony kidnapping plot!

San Francisco — It was the horrific kidnapping of a mother of two young children that shook a family, a town in Northern California, and the nation. After Sherry Papini appears on the side of a highway three weeks after her mysterious disappearance, detectives work tirelessly to find those responsible.

But in the end, it was Sherry Babini herself who orchestrated her disappearance, inflicting numerous injuries on herself while staying with her ex-boyfriend, who was unaware of her scheme. Babini told investigators she was abducted by two fictional Hispanic women and held against her will for weeks before leaving her.

Last week, Pappini, 40, pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements and one count of mail fraud, and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, twice the length requested by federal prosecutors.

“I am guilty of lying. I am guilty of dishonor. I stand before you ready to accept, repent and concede,” Papini said during the September 19 hearing. “What has been done cannot be undone.”

A special “20/20” aired September 30 at 9 p.m. ET takes viewers inside the six-year saga and investigates using newly obtained photos, 911 tapes and police interviews to show how investigators were able to debunk Papini’s lies.

From the start, investigators suspected that something was off.

Related: Sherry Papini sentenced to 18 months in prison for kidnapping in 2016

Babini, then 34 and a mother of two, disappeared on November 2, 2016, while out for a jog in her Redding neighborhood. An extensive search is launched for her, with community and family members, including her husband, Keith Babini, to find the missing mother.

At the time, Keith Babini appealed to the public for help.

“It hurts; I don’t like to think too much about it because I just assume I’m going to get a phone call any second or it’s going to show up at my house,” Keith Babini told ABC News in 2016. .

A reward was given for information related to the case and a GoFundMe account was set up by friends of Keith Papini to help the family with their search efforts, which raised nearly $50,000.

On November 24, 2016, Thanksgiving Day, Sherry Papini was found on a highway about 146 miles from Redding, with injuries covering her body, including a Bible verse marked on her shoulder.

“The bruising was severe,” Keith Babini told ABC News shortly after his wife was found. “She always had very long blonde hair (and) they cut it off.”

video: Prosecutors seek 8-month sentence for Sherry Papini for kidnapping in 2016

Recorded police interviews with Sherry Papini in the hours after her return showed that she was reluctant to speak with investigators, alleging that her captors had told her that she would be trafficked to someone in law enforcement.

“Two women. One was older than her and one was younger,” Sherry Papini told police. They were of Hispanic origin. They spoke a lot of Spanish.

Since she was reticent to speak, the officers made her husband sit with her during one interview and ask questions about what had happened.

The investigators later returned for a second interview, but Sherry Papini remained reluctant to open up to them.

During that interview with investigators, she said, “I don’t know you guys. I don’t know if you’re in my corner. I know my husband is in my corner.”

Related: Sherry Babini case: A Northern California woman pleads guilty to the 2016 kidnapping hoax

She alleged that two Latina women kidnapped her at gunpoint and took her in an SUV to a place where she was chained.

The police didn’t have much to do apart from this vague description of the suspects. It took investigators an entire year to gather enough information from Papini about her kidnappers to release composite drawings of suspects to the public.

Alan Ernesto Phillips, co-founder of the North Latino Latino Alliance, told ABC News that the hunt for the suspects has shaken the Redding Latino community.

“The Latin women were afraid that they would appear like these people in the diagram,” he said.

Former Shasta County Deputy Mayor Captain Pat Crofeller told ABC News that investigators noticed several red flags in the story that Sherry Papini told of her kidnapping and abuse. For example, she had different explanations for why she was stigmatized by her captors.

video: Redding woman Sherry Papini has been arrested for allegedly kidnapped in 2016 to live with her ex-boyfriend

After her return, investigators collected Babini’s clothes so that she could be tested for any biological material.

They were eventually able to determine that the man’s DNA was on her clothes, but when that DNA was searched in the criminal database, no positive results were returned.

While searching through her phone records, investigators were also able to determine that in the days before her kidnapping, Sherry Papini had been in contact with several men.

Police also began questioning Papini’s friends and ex-husband, who spoke of her penchant for lying and running away.

“This is the way she used to handle things when she was a kid. When things got tough, she would run away,” one of her friends, Asia Coleman, told the Shasta County Police Department during an interview.

Related: FBI publishes sketches of suspects in the Sherry Babini kidnapping case

“There were some infidelity issues in her background that Keith even told us about,” Kropholler told ABC News.

Investigators made little progress in the case until 2020, when that DNA was finally matched, with the help of genetic genealogy, to James Reyes, a former friend of Sherry Papini.

When questioned by the police, Reyes initially said he hadn’t spoken to Sherry Papini in years, but eventually revealed that she had asked him for help.

Detectives told ABC News that Sherry Papini lied to Reyes, telling him that she had been abused by her husband, Keith.

“She was trying to escape from her husband,” Reyes told investigators, unaware that Sherry’s allegations against Keith were unfounded.

video: Chains and tagged leather: Sherry Papini’s kidnapping case baffles cops

Reyes added that he did not know anything about the two Spanish women who Sherry Papini said she held at gunpoint.

He revealed that Papini suggested he rent a car and take it away. Then they traveled nine hours south to Costa Mesa, where I stayed with him in his apartment for weeks. Reyes also revealed that the bruises, cuts, and burns on her body were largely subjective, and she also asked him to hurt her. Reyes told investigators how Sherry Papini asked him to describe her.

“I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s probably going to hurt.’ I mean, I’ve never done this,” Reyes told investigators.

Things changed on Thanksgiving, Reyes said, when Sherry Babini told Reyes that she misses her children, and wants to go home.

Now that the detectives are armed with James Reyes’ account of the supposed kidnapping, they call Sherri Papini and her husband again for questioning.

Related: Inside the alleged kidnapping of Reading’s mother Sherry Papini

In August 2020, the police questioned Sherry Babini again with her husband at her side, telling her that they had DNA matched with Reyes. They also told her that Reyes had shared everything he knew with her.

Sherry Papini initially deflected questions about Reyes’ story, asserting that she was flirting with other men, and sticking to her story that two women had kidnapped her.

She told investigators, “I don’t understand; there’s no way this is James. He loves me.”

Keith Babini was shocked by these discoveries, and at one point, he walked out of the room.

“I’m the idiot husband who stayed up all along,” he told investigators.

video: Husband says Mum Redding was found defeated and gaunt

Keith Babini eventually filed for divorce in 2022.

In March, Sherry Papini was arrested and charged with making false statements and mail fraud.

Prosecutors said the Sherry Babini kidnapping hoax cost taxpayers more than $300,000 in lost resources, including money it collected from the California Victims Compensation Board and Social Security disability income.

The news sent shock waves through Redding. Residents who have supported Babini and her family over the years said they felt betrayed.

Two locals who supported Papini are Terry and Marilyn Smith, whose daughter Tera has been missing since 1998. The Smith family told ABC News that news of Sherry Papini’s arrest was “kind of a slap in the face.”

“It’s kind of ironic for anyone who’s really lost someone,” Marilyn Smith said.

Related: Police are searching for Redding’s mom, who has been missing since Wednesday

Alan Ernesto Phillips said the Latino community feels guilty.

“There are no dangerous, masked, Hispanic women here who have guns and who would like to kidnap their children, especially if they are white,” he said.

Keith Babini last week released a statement, shortly after his wife’s sentencing that came in. “My current focus is to move forward and do everything in my power to give my child as normal, healthy and happy life as possible.”

In her statement before the judge, Sherry Papini said before sentencing that she was prepared to accept responsibility for her actions.

“I’m not choosing to stay as frozen as I was in 2016. I’m choosing to stick to treating the parts that were so broken down on me,” she said.

U.S. District Judge William Ship Sherry Papinee ordered $309,000 in damages, and even questioned whether she would be able to pay that amount.

“I was rhetorically asking, who will hire her in the future?” asked the judge during sentencing hearing.

Sherry Papini waived her right to appeal and is due to turn herself in on November 8, to begin her 18-month sentence.

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