this is "nightline." >> tonight, vanishing act. sherri papini, a california housewife and mother of two goes missing. the massive search. >> the desperate search for a missing mother in california. >> captivating the nation. >> you have this beautiful blond mom of two who all of a sudden had vanished. >> but it wasn't at all what it seemed. we go inside the six-year saga. >> i can't remember lifting my leg. i can't remember the backdoor open. >> turns out the brutal kidnapping -- >> why did you lie? >> an elaborate hoax. the newly released police interrogation video. >> no, there's no way it's james, there's no washy, there' no way. >> revealing how it all

unraveled. the dna evidence who led to her ex-boyfriend, who helped break the case. >> how did that stuff -- >> she thought she was here. she hit herself with something to create a bruise or something. >> what sherri papini is saying now as her devastated husband tries to heal. it's macy's vip sale... with an extra 30% off top designer looks... and get 15% off beauty... ♪♪ plus, shop specials now through monday at macy's. becoming a morning person starts the night before with new neuriva relax and sleep. it has l-theanine to help me relax from daily stress. plus, shoden ashwagandha for quality sleep. so i can wake up refreshed. neuriva: think bigger.

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thanks for joining us. tonight we go inside the six-year saga of a horrifying kidnapping case that shocked and riveted the nation. only to be exposed as a hoax. a california housewife and mother of two young children tells police she was abducted, beaten, even branded by two women. but it was sherri papini, the alleged victim, who was the mastermind. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> um -- so -- i just got home from work, and my wife wasn't there, which is unusual. >> you have this beautiful blond mom of two who all of a sudden had vanished. >> she is considered at risk due to the suspicious circumstances. >> i knew something was wrong. my first thing was, somebody took her. >> and that begins the search. the search for sherri papini. >> police were pretty shocked to find sherri had been branded on the upper right portion of her back.

>> there is a massive break in the case. >> and now it all comes crumbling down. >> reporter: tonight, the twisted tale of sherri papini and the disappearance that engrossed the country. >> from everyone we talked to, sherri, who was a stay-at-home mom, cherished her family life. doting on their 4-year-old son, tyler, and their 2-year-old daughter, violet. take me back to that day. >> i went to work. and i didn't get home until around 5:00. i looked in a few different rooms, and i couldn't find anybody. then i called our daycare type place. first thing i said is, "what time did sherri pick up the kids today?" and when she said, "the kids are here," that was like -- something is wrong. >> miss papini has been entered into a national computer for missing persons. she is considered at risk. >> there's so much about the

abduction that just doesn't add up. and so with very little to go on, investigators can only do one thing at this point, and that's focus their attention on keith a papini. >> local officials are saying her husband's polygraph indicates he had no involvement with her disappearance, adding they were also able to confirm his whereabouts the day she went missing. >> reporter: for 22 days, the police search for sherri. when in the predawn hours of thanksgiving morning, 150 miles south of redding, a driver spots a woman in distress on the side of the highway. >> 911 emergency, what are you reporting? >> hi, i have an emergency. there's a lady on the side of the road needing help. she's chained up. her vision's blurry. she needs an ambulance. >> you see her chained up? >> yes. her name is sherry panini. >> reporter: sherri is taken to the hospital where her clothing gets processed and sent for dna testing. >> looking at her injuries at

the hospital, i was shocked by them. for it to be all over her face, her arms, her legs, her chest, her back -- was just alarming. >> sherri told investigators that her kidnappers told her that she was going to be sold to someone as part of a sex trafficking ring. >> reporter: she tells detectives she was kidnapped and physically abused by two hispanic women. >> i think she may have tased me, i don't remember. i don't remember. the next thing i remember is all my clothes are gone. >> police were pretty shocked to find that sherri had been branded on the upper right portion of her back. >> and they said i was branded. that's what they said. that's what he likes. it hurt so bad. >> sherri papini has endured three weeks of beating, abuse, torment. after all that, the kidnappers let her go. sherri says she has no idea why

they suddenly decided to release her. >> once she returned home, we went from worrying about finding a lady to now finding her abductors. >> reporter: in this just-released video, you see detectives from the shasta county sheriff's office interviewing sherri at her home. >> she was in a ball, in a cocoon, essentially, knees up to her chest. >> there was boards on the windows. >> sherri tells investigators that she was chained to a very specific kind of pole in the closet. >> there was a chain around my waist. >> okay, do you know what you were affixed to? was it a tether? was it a rope? >> a metal cable. >> was the cable affixed to the wall, and like the cable was loose? >> the cable was affixed to a pole that went up into the ceiling. >> the sheriff held a news conference today describing sherri papini as courageous and revealing details about her three-week ordeal.

>> suspect number one had long, curly hair. she had a thick accent. suspect number two had straight, black hair with some graying color. >> but there are others who thought certain details of sherri's story weren't consistent with sex trafficking. >> >>. >> reporter: in the months following sherri says sheet pro the government. >> from a government program that gives financial aid to victims of crime. and it paid thousands of dollars for therapy to treat anxiety and ptsd that sherri claimed she suffered from that kidnapping. >> this morning the fbi released these new suspect sketches. >> and it shows two hispanic women, but with their faces covered up. >> around the same time, investigators also get back

results from the crime lab that's been examining sherri's clothing. and there's a dna hit, exactly what they were hoping for. but the results are confusing. >> the dna was of a male. and it would be somewhat incongruent with the allegations that she made that she was abducted by two hispanic women. >> reporter: the next step was to enter that dna profile into the law enforcement database to see if this unknown guy is in the system. >> we get a return that, nothing matched with it. and so now we're back to the drawing board. >> i assume you were also looking into sherri's background? >> there's a little bit of red flags there. >> then investigators talked to her first husband. because sherri had been married before. according to the police, he said, "yeah, but you know, she she made up a lot of stories." >> police say many friends and relatives were less than

supportive. >> then you had the other half that say she's supermom, she would never leave. >> you know, there was some infidelity issues in her background. >> issues with infidelity, issues with lying, a history of running away. >> i was telling my staff, unless we have some very strong evidence to disprove her allegations, we need to continue forward with the investigation. >> as the years went on, it went maybe from frustration that they couldn't find the two alleged abductors to more curiosity. what happened with sherri papini's case? >> investigators asked permission of the courts to be able to run that dna against all those dna ancestry-type websites. >> they're hoping somebody in this guy's family had used one of those dna websites. if they find a relative, they've got a lead. and it worked.

>> this man has two sons. one of those sons used to date sherri papini. >> it came back to james reyes, ex-boyfriend. >> and you see james reyes in a photo with sherri from one of her social media posts. >> it's a massive break in the case. >> so the fbi field officer and myself went to james' residence to do the confrontation. >> hello, good morning. >> good morning. >> we're here regarding sherri pa papini. >> okay. >> trying to figure out how you know her, when was the last time you talked to her. >> me and sherri dated back in '02. i haven't talked to her in years. >> there's information i think you have about the abduction. >> yeah, i mean, i just -- that's all i can -- all's i know is what i read about it. >> it's not until 53 minutes into this interview that they get reyes to finally come clean. >> i didn't kidnap her. you know. i just -- friend in need asked

me for help and that was that. >> what did she say? >> she was trying to get away from her husband. her husband beats you, her husband rapes you -- i don't know what her deal was. >> she made up stories. keith was abusing her. she needed to get out of that relationship. >> the ex-boyfriend's version of what happened is radically different. >> what you're saying, absolutely there's just you and her in the car, no females involved? >> yeah, girls -- there's no way, man. >> he was duped by her, but he went along with it. >> i didn't know what the final plan was. >> fair to say you were hoping maybe to get together? >> no, no, i wasn't there yet. >> she instructed james to get a rental car, leave his cell phone at his house, and drive the nine hours or so to get to redding, california, to pick her up. >> he gets her down to his apartment, gives sherri the bedroom, and he sleeps on the couch. >> sherri told the world that she had sat there, locked up,

chain, miserable, abused. but reyes says the truth was that she voluntarily spent time alone reading the news about her own disappearance. >> she starts to actor ratticly, according to him. she starts losing a lot of weight. she'd cut off her hair. >> then things get far more twisted. remember all those terrible injuries covering sherri's body? >> how did all that stuff come about this. >> i mean, she did it while she was here. i mean, she just hit herself with something to create a bruise or something. >> she's bleeding, bruised, burned, and scarred. then she says to him -- "i need you to brand my back." >> i'm like, this is probably going to hurt. i mean, i've never done this. and then she was like, i'm ready to go back to the kids. she started missing her babies. i'm like, of course. just, like, i'm ready to go. it's like thanksgiving day. i'm like, seriously?

>> then before dawn on that now-infamous thanksgiving morning, james reyes says he dropped sherri off in a remote area. when we come back, the authorities close in on sherri pettini. and what she says when confronted by detectives. >> i didn't do anything wrong. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪things are getting clearer♪ ♪i feel free to bare my skin♪ ♪yeah, that's all me♪ ♪nothing and me go hand in hand♪ ♪nothing on my skin♪ ♪that's my new plan♪ ♪nothing is everything♪ achieve clearer skin with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. in another study, most people had 90% clearer skin, even at 4 years. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪it's my moment, so i just gotta say♪ ♪nothing is everything♪

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after several years, police uncover the trail of lies that leads them to sherri papini. as the one and only suspect in

her own kidnapping. newly released photos, 911 tapes, interrogation videos reveal how investigators cracked the case and what papini had to say when confronted by police. >> in august of 2020, investigators asked sherri and her husband to come in. >> thank you for coming. we appreciate you taking the time to come back to us. >> thanks to the cooperation of that ex-boyfriend, james reyes, investigators now believe they have solid proof sherri papini's kid thatting was a hoax. >> dna came back to a specific person. that specific person told us very specific things. the dna that was on you belongs to james reyes. we talked to him. he's been in a polygraph. we talked to everybody around him. the reason you lost so much weight is because you stopped

eating. the reason why the brand, because he went to the store, bought the branding tools, and branded you. it's not an abduction. she asked me to come here. >> no. >> i rented a car -- >> no. >> picked her up. he passed the polygraph test, sherri. >> that's not what happened. then what did happen, sherri? >> i don't know. no there's no way it's james, there's no way. there's no way. >> the dna doesn't lie. >> keith is in the room when they're identifying, talking about the ex-boyfriend, who she was allegedly with that whole time. >> yeah. keith gets up and walks out. she had spun the story for so long that she wasn't going to come off of it. >> it's my fault that i was flirting with other men. it was such a stupid thing to do. i love my husband, i love my children. >> that's understandable. >> just stupid.

>> sherri, flirting with other pen? not a crime. lying to me today? yes, a crime. >> she just tried to control the interview by crying, putting her head in her hands. >> i am done speaking to you until i talk to a lawyer. >> did you ever get an impression from keith? >> he wanted to leave. >> i'm the idiot husband that stayed around the whole time. >> he was so angry. >> so upset. emotional, just upset. >> now you're telling me -- i don't want her anywhere around my kids or around me at this point. >> i don't know what the next stages of this are. >> it's not with us together, i'll tell you that much. >> all of a sudden it's like, out of nowhere, the news breaks. >> sherri papini arrested on charges she allegedly lied to federal agents about being kidnapped. >> and there's understandably resentment in the redding hispanic community, since s

sherri's infamous description of the two latina kidnappers. >> we were overjoyed and relieved. there are no dangerous, ugly, masked, gun-toting, hispanic latina women here wanting to be a duct your children. especially if there's white. >> there's really no law against faking your own kidnapping. what is against the law is lying, making false statements to a federal agent. >> in addition to that, she's charged with mail fraud. but specifically mail fraud in using funds from the victims compensation board for her therapy. >> sherri papini is looking at up to 25 years behind bars. and that might explain why she finally decided to come clean. >> sherri papini, california mother who faked her own kidnapping, set to plead guilty. >> there's a plea deal. she's avoiding trial entirel. as part of this agreement, she

has to admit, which she did in writing and through her attorney, that she made the whole thing up. >> this past april, sherri released a statement that said, in part, "i'm deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so very sorry for the pain that i have caused. i will work the rest of my life to make amends for what i have done." >> do you have anything you want to say? >> why did you lie? >> inside the courtroom, the judge handing down a shocker, sentencing sherri papini no 18 months in prison, more than twice what even the prosecution had asked for. when we come back, sherri pa papini's family deals with the fallout of her crimes. down with rybelsus®. man tc: my a1c wasn't at goal, now i'm down with rybelsus®. son tc: mom's a1c is down with rybelsus®. song: a1c down with rybelsus®

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we followed up with keith to see how he feels. "the events of the past two months have been shocking and devastating. my current focus is on moving on and doing everything i can to provide my two children with a normal, healthy, and happy a life as possible." >> keith has filed for divorce and wants full custody of the kids. if he gets it, that could be more punishment than any jail cell. >> and that's "nightline" tonight. you can watch full episodes on h hulu. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america. have a great weekend.