California
California mom who faked kidnapping acts like hoax 'never existed' as 'blindsided' husband breaks silence
Sherri Papini’s ex-husband is still wondering why the mother of two faked her kidnapping.
“I do believe the core thing would be attention,” Keith Papini told Fox News Digital. “I think she likes it when people feel for her and look at her as a victim… at anyone’s cost. To be honest, I don’t think she’s capable of seeing what she did and the lives that it affected, the ripple effect, how much pain she caused so many people.”
“I always think about all the people [who tried to help] during those 22 days [she was missing],” Keith reflected. “All the kids that probably weren’t allowed to ride their bikes anymore, all the women that probably didn’t go jogging anymore… I don’t think she has any understanding of how detrimental it was.”
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Keith Papini, the ex-husband of Sherri Papini, claims to Fox News Digital he still doesn’t know the whole truth about her story. (Hulu)
After seven years of silence, Keith is speaking out about the high-profile hoax that rocked his Redding, California, community. He’s appearing in a new true-crime docuseries on Hulu, “Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini.”
An attorney for Keith, 41, didn’t immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“I’ve been approached over the years by a lot of different outlets,” said Keith on why he’s coming forward now.
Keith Papini speaks out in the docuseries “Perfect Wife.” (Hulu)
“I think I was finally in a spot where I could talk about all the pain Sherri caused our family… I wanted to get the truth out about what really happened.”
Keith said before his life turned into a nightmare, it seemed like a fairy tale. He described being instantly smitten by the blue-eyed “hot blonde.” After tying the knot in 2009, he and Sherri welcomed a son and daughter. Life appeared picture-perfect for the couple.
Sherri and Keith Papini share two children, Violet, 9, and Tyler, 11. (Hulu)
“I never felt unloved by her,” said Keith. “She would write songs, she would write me notes constantly. She would tell me how happy she was in our marriage and how we would never get a divorce. She was just so in love with me, and I would repeat those things back to her.”
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Keith Papini told Fox News Digital he never felt “unloved” by Sherri Papini during their marriage. (Hulu)
“There was no part of me that ever thought she would fake injuries and have this whole hoax to the extent that she did,” he shared. “I could not foresee that. But I did think we had a happy life. We do have amazing children.”
“I was blindsided,” Keith added.
“I was blindsided.”
Life for the pair began to unravel on Nov. 2, 2016. That evening, Keith reported his wife missing after he discovered she wasn’t home and hadn’t picked up their children from daycare. Her purse and jewelry were left behind.
An extensive search for the missing mom ensued. It wouldn’t be until Nov. 26 that an emaciated Sherri, covered in bruises, was spotted by a driver. She was bound with restraints and found nearly 150 miles from her home.
Keith Papini, right, is consoled by friends and family members. (IMAGN/Andreas Fuhrmann-USA TODAY NETWORK)
Sherri told authorities two masked Hispanic women forced her into an SUV at gunpoint and held her captive.
The FBI poster of the suspects in the kidnapping of Sherri Papini. (FBI)
Her blonde hair had been cut to shoulder-length, and she had a blurred “brand” burned into her right shoulder, authorities said at the time. She had both male and female DNA on her body and clothing.
A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $49,000 to help the family, which the couple used to pay off bills and other expenses, according to a court filing.
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A welcome home party for Sherri Papini was held after she was found 22 days later. She was discovered beaten and in chains on Thanksgiving morning. (IMAGN/Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight-USA TODAY NETWORK)
During the lengthy investigation, Keith willingly took a lie detector test and passed. He also offered “all my phones and computer, anything police needed.”
Keith said that at first, he was elated to be reunited with his love. But then he started to question Sherri’s story.
“There were many things that just didn’t add up, but I wanted to support my wife,” Keith admitted. “If you can’t trust your wife, who can you trust? I just kept saying to myself, ‘I’m going to do everything for my wife.’ I was led to believe that she was happy with us and that she didn’t want any other life with anyone else… I just wanted to support her at all times that we were together. With that being said… I’ll never know all of the truth.”
“There were many things that just didn’t add up, but I wanted to support my wife.”
Sherri Papini was found nearly 150 miles from her home. (IMAGN/Andreas Fuhrmann/The Record Searchlight via USA TODAY NETWORK)
Keith wasn’t the only one to have doubts.
Sherri provided descriptions of her alleged kidnappers to an FBI sketch artist, along with extensive details of her purported abduction. However, investigators later discovered evidence that would contradict her story. In reality, authorities said, Sherri was staying with an ex-boyfriend nearly 600 miles away from her home and had hurt herself to back up her false statements.
Sherri Papini leaves the federal courthouse accompanied by her attorney, William Portanova, after her arraignment in Sacramento, California, on April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
“When a young mother went missing in broad daylight, a community was filled with fear and concern,” U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said in a statement at the time. “Ultimately, the investigation revealed that there was no kidnapping and that time and resources that could have been used to investigate actual crime, protect the community, and provide resources to victims were wasted.”
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“When a young mother went missing in broad daylight, a community was filled with fear and concern,” U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said in a statement at the time. (IMAGN/Nathan Solis-USA TODAY NETWORK)
The DNA found on Sherri eventually led to the former boyfriend, a court filing revealed. The ex told investigators that Sherri stayed with him at his house during the time she was gone, though they never had sex.
Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko is seen speaking at a news conference to discuss the Sherri Papini case in Redding, California. (Andreas Fuhrmann/The Record Searchlight via AP)
His account was verified when authorities tracked the locations of two prepaid cellphones that they had been using to secretly talk to one another as early as December 2015, according to a 55-page affidavit filed in court to support the criminal charges. A cousin of the former boyfriend also told investigators that he saw Sherri in the man’s apartment twice, both times unrestrained.
Records backed the ex-boyfriend’s story that he rented a car and drove Sherri back to Northern California.
Sherri Papini was arrested in 2022. She was charged with making false statements to federal agents and mail fraud. (IMAGN)
In March 2022, Sherri was arrested and charged with making false statements to federal agents and mail fraud. A month later, she formally pleaded guilty, admitting her kidnapping claims were a hoax.
Keith said that at first, he attempted to protect his young children from the possibility that Sherri’s kidnappers would come to “finish the job.” But after Sherri’s admission, he tried to shield them from the relentless media scrutiny.
“We lived in a sense of fear that somebody was after us,” he said. “If the kids were outside playing, and they saw anybody, it was almost like they were taught to run inside. There’s a part of me that knows that those six years of their childhood were almost stolen away by Sherri.”
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According to the docuseries, Sherri Papini previously described Keith Papini as controlling. He said the allegations were “hurtful” and “untrue.” (Hulu)
According to the docuseries, Sherri claimed that Keith was a controlling spouse. He said the allegations were “hurtful” and “untrue.”
“… She was saying I was beating her and that the cops wouldn’t do anything,” claimed Keith. “… [When it came to] our mutual friends… it was a totally different story… It was hurtful to hear those things at the moment because I’m not sleeping, I’m not eating. I’m fighting for my wife’s life. And to know that she was going around saying these… untrue things, it’s hurtful… But you can see a pattern here.”
In September 2022, Sherri was sentenced to 18 months in prison for faking her kidnapping. She was released early in 2023.
Sherri Papini, center, leaves her sentencing hearing at the Robert T. Matsui U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in downtown Sacramento on Sept. 19, 2022. Senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb sentenced her to 18 months in federal prison for faking her kidnapping in 2016. The judge said he gave her a longer sentence to prevent others from committing similar crimes. (IMAGN)
Sherri has never given a rational explanation for her behavior. Her actions stumped independent mental health experts who said they didn’t conform with any typical diagnosis.
Defense attorney William Portanova blamed it on “what sounds like a fierce storm that was going on for a long time inside her head” but said she is now a changed woman. He noted in a pre-sentence court filing that Sherri was “in pursuit of a nonsensical fantasy.”
After her initial arrest, Sherri received more than $30,000 worth of psychiatric care for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She billed the state’s victim compensation fund for the treatment and was ordered to pay it back as part of her restitution.
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Keith Papini said he’ll never know the whole truth about what really happened. Today, Sherri Papini still lives in California. Her ex-boyfriend has never been charged. (IMAGN/Amber Sandhu-USA TODAY NETWORK)
Keith filed for divorce and sought custody of their children after Sherri pleaded guilty. He claimed she had shown “zero remorse.”
“… This wasn’t just some lie she told that ended when she got arrested,” said Keith. “This was a lie she told every day, every minute… Maybe being a stay-at-home mom wasn’t fulfilling her… She has never apologized to me or the children… She acts like it never existed.”
“Perfect Wife” is now available for streaming. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the wide-open race for California governor, billionaire Tom Steyer is on a spending binge.
The hedge fund manager-turned-liberal activist is using his personal fortune to saturate TV screens and mobile phones with advertising, while his competitors accuse him of trying to use his vast wealth to buy the state’s most powerful job.
Steyer’s ads — in which he promises to bring down household costs or rails against federal immigration raids — appear inescapable at times in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, the state’s largest media market. Data compiled by advertising tracker AdImpact show Steyer has spent or booked over $115 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio — nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival.
If he makes it through the June 2 primary election, Steyer could easily eclipse the 2010 record set by Republican Meg Whitman, who spent $178.5 million in a losing bid for governor, much of it her own money. At the time, it was the costliest campaign for statewide office in the nation’s history.
Even when ad buys from all his major competitors are combined, along with ad purchases by independent committees supporting candidates, Steyer is outspending the field by tens of millions of dollars.
“Billionaire money is flooding our state in an attempt to buy this election,” former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, one of Steyer’s chief rivals, warned her supporters this month.
Mail-in ballots are set to go out to voters next month. Steyer is among a crowd of candidates hoping to seize a spotlight after former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s dramatic departure from the race following sexual assault allegations that he denies.
But while Steyer has ticked up in polling amid his spending splurge, he has not broken away from the field, leaving some wondering if he’s getting value for his dollars.
“If your first round of ads doesn’t move you dramatically (in the polls), the third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh and eighth rounds won’t either,” said veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who for years advised the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “There is something inherently holding Steyer back.”
In recent prior campaigns for governor, at this stage a leading candidate was taking control of the race. This year, voters appear to be shrugging at a contest that lacks a star candidate among seven leading Democrats and two Republicans.
“Somehow the campaign is frozen,” Carrick added.
History shows that money doesn’t always translate into votes.
Billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent over $100 million in 2022 in his bid to become Los Angeles mayor, much of it his own money, but he was handily defeated by Mayor Karen Bass, who spent a fraction of Caruso’s total. Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion of his own money on his 2020 presidential bid before dropping out. And Steyer’s money was unable to lift him into contention in the 2020 presidential contest, when he dropped out early in the year after a poor finish in the South Carolina primary.
Steyer has never held elected office.
In a 2019 interview with The Associated Press, Steyer was asked what he would say to people who think he’s trying to buy the presidency.
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Steyer said at the time, before adding, “I’m never going to apologize for succeeding in business. That’s America, right?”
His campaign did not respond directly when asked about similar criticism facing his run for governor.
“Tom now stands as the only Democrat with the grassroots energy, institutional backing and resources to advance to the general election,” spokesperson Kevin Liao said in a statement.
The governor’s race was recently reordered by two developments: Swalwell, a leading Democrat, abruptly withdrew from the race then resigned from Congress, following sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump endorsed conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
Still, there is no clear leader.
Polling in late March and early April by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found a cluster of candidates in close competition: Democrats Steyer and Porter, Republicans Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Swalwell. Other candidates were trailing. The polling was conducted before Swalwell withdrew.
Democrats have feared the party’s large number of candidates could lead to them getting shut out of the general election in November. That’s because California has a primary system in which only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.
Leading Democrats are all claiming to have picked up support since Swalwell’s exit. Steyer nabbed one plum endorsement, when the influential California Teachers Association, which previously backed Swalwell, recommended him.
In his ads, Steyer promises to “abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been staging raids across California. In another, he laments the state’s punishing cost of housing, “Everybody needs an affordable place to live,” he says.
Rapper was stabbed 16 times by fellow inmate in May 2025 while 10-year sentence in Megan Thee Stallion shooting case
Tory Lanez has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections stemming from a May 2025 incident where the rapper was stabbed in prison.
Lanez — born Daystar Peterson and currently serving a 10-year sentence after being found guilty in the Megan Thee Stallion shooting case — also sued the warden and guards at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, where the rapper was stabbed 16 times in an “unprovoked life-threatening attack” by another inmate, the lawsuit states.
Peterson was hospitalized following the May 2025 incident, suffering a collapsed lung among stab wounds to his back, torso, and head.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit criticized the Department of Corrections for housing Peterson with fellow inmate and alleged attacker Santino Casio, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. “The choice to house Casio with Peterson was known or should have been a known danger,” the lawsuit said, adding that Tory Lanez’ “high-profile celebrity status” made him a target.
The lawsuit also said that prison guards were slow to respond to the shanking, and didn’t employ flash grenades or other measures to halt Casio’s attack.; Casio was not charged for stabbing Peterson, the Associated Press notes.
Lanez, who following his hospitalization was transferred to San Luis Obispo County’s California Men’s Colony, also alleges in the lawsuit that he never received his possessions from the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, including songbooks filled with lyrics to his unreleased music.
Lanez is serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot during a confrontation in the summer of 2020. He was eventually convicted on several firearms charges, including assault with a firearm, in December 2022. In November 2025, his appeal was denied by a three-judge panel, and the 10-year sentence was upheld.
From one crackdown on hospice fraud to another.
A few weeks ago, the FBI arrested multiple people in Southern California that were accused of defrauding the government for millions of dollars.
In a more recent announcement last Thursday, California’s State Attorney General Rob Bonta held a press conference to announce a fraud bust of their own.
“Operation Skip Trace uncovered and ended a hospice fraud scheme that defrauded Medi-Cal of $267 million,” Bonta said. “So just to be clear, a quarter billion dollars over funds that are paid for by California taxpayers, funds that are meant to provide care to Californians in need. It is unacceptable. It is illegal and we will not stand for it.”
The operation saw a total of 21 suspects charged as a result and dismantled a major hospice fraud scheme, with two handguns and over $750 thousand in cash seized as well.
According to the state’s attorney general, this is just one of the many cases over the years the state has cracked down on.
“This is just the latest example of the California DOJ’s longstanding ongoing and successful efforts to combat hospice and medical fraud,” Bonta said. “We have been doing this work for years. We’ve been doing it successfully before certain people in this country decided to think about it for the first time. We will continue to do this work. Heads down, sleeves rolled up, important investigative work, prosecutorial work.”
He added to that by taking a shot at the Trump Administration’s latest fraud operations.
“While healthcare fraud might be President Trump’s shiny new political talking point, the California DOJ has been going after healthcare fraud since 1979,” Bonta said. “For decades, Trump is late to the party. Protecting taxpayer dollars and protecting programs sick and vulnerable Californians rely on have been our priority for nearly five decades.”
Governor Gavin Newsom also spoke out about this latest crackdown while taking a shot of his own at President Trump.
In a post to “X” the Governor’s Press Office wrote in part quote…
“California has been cracking down on hospice fraud long before Trump gutted oversight and pardoned the architect of the biggest health care fraud scheme in U.S. history.”
State Republicans have responded to this latest announcement from Attorney General Bonta, calling for a special session to demand accountability from the Governor on widespread fraud.
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