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'LIMELIGHT LOVER'
Sherri Papini is a narcissist who is still desperate for attention, insider says ahead of hoaxer’s tell-all new doc
Sherri Papini was missing for 22 days before she was found at a roadside, beaten, bruised, and shackled
GONE Girl faker Sherri Papini is a narcissist who still craves attention and is desperate to thrust herself back into the limelight, a volunteer who helped organize searches for the hoaxer believes.
Papini, 41, will star in a multi-part docuseries with Discovery ID, sharing details about her staged abduction and the media storm that followed in its wake for the first time.
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Papini vanished from her Nothern California home in November 2016.
She was missing for 22 days before she miraculously reappeared beaten, bruised, and shackled, claiming to have been kidnapped and held captive by two gun-toting Hispanic women.
Police quickly hit a wall in their search for the culprits as they struggled to establish a motive for the random-seeming crime.
A six-year investigation would discover that Papini's story was an elaborate ruse constructed to conceal an affair she was having with an ex-boyfriend.
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Papini was arrested in 2022 and sentenced to 18 months in jail for lying to a federal officer after striking a plea deal with prosecutors.
In a statement issued through her lawyer, Papini said she was deeply ashamed of her actions and vowed to "work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done."
Trudy Nickens, the founder and director of Nor-Cal Alliance For The Missing, organized a sprawling four-day volunteer search for Papini when she first vanished.
To discover the time and money of hundreds of volunteers and countless concerned members of the public had been wasted on a lie left Nickens furious, she said.
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Nickens also didn't buy Papini's apology and said her participation in the forthcoming Discovery documentary is further proof she's not sorry for what she did.
"I don't think she's sorry, no," stated Nickens. "I think she's getting more attention and she's feeding off of it.
Sherri Papini, 40, sentenced to XXXX after California mom faked her own kidnapping to be with ex James Reyes
"The more attention and media coverage she gets, I think in her head she feels some kind of stardom.
"She's definitely a narcissist in my opinion – 100%," added Nickens.
"She's doing this for the money so she can pay off some of her debts, and also definitely to stay in the limelight.
"She wants people to feel sorry for her, which I don't think is going to happen anymore – but it'll be an interesting watch."
THE VANISHING ACT
Before her 2022 arrest, skepticism had long surrounded Papini's abduction claims, despite her detailed account to authorities about what happened.
Papini, then 34, disappeared on November 2, 2016, leaving family members fearful she'd been abducted while out jogging in Redding, California.
Hours before she vanished, Papini sent a message to her husband Keith asking if he would be home for lunch, but he said he wouldn't be.
She then failed to pick up her children from a daycare center and was reported missing that afternoon.
Papini's cell phone would later be found at the side of the road, neatly wrapped with her earphones and strands of her hair.
The local community immediately sprang into action to assist authorities in their search, with Nickens leading the charge.
Donations came flooding in and volunteers came out in their hundreds to canvas neighborhoods and scour roadsides, woodlands, and mountains in search of Papini.
Nickens said Papini's disappearance left her, and many others like her, fearful for the safety of her children, thinking it previously unimaginable that a woman could be snatched in the town in broad daylight.
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But as the search rattled on, Nickens said she found herself increasingly suspicious of Papini's vanishing act, quietly insisting to those around her that something didn't feel right.
"As I got more into it and as the days passed without any real leads, I started questioning a lot of things because I had this gut feeling, but at the same time I felt really bad for questioning it," shared Nickens.
"There was something about the cellphone and the way it was found, with the music still playing, that felt – I don't want to say staged – but it made me question some things.
"There was no credible information coming in as far as tips [...] then I heard that some investigators were going out of state to question an old boyfriend.
"It was at that point that I really started questioning everything."
COMMUNITY ANGER
In the meantime, Nickens said Papini's loved ones were beside themselves with worry, with her parents and sister assisting with the volunteer search.
Papini was eventually sighted by a passing motorist on November 24 in rural Yolo County, roughly 150 miles from Redding.
She was emaciated and bound at the waist by a chain that was tethered to her left wrist with a zip tie.
Hose clamps were fixed to her ankles in what the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office later described as “pain compliance restraints.”
Papini was also covered in bruises, her long blond hair had been shaved off, she'd been branded on her right shoulder, and her nose had been broken.
When the miraculous discovery was made, and the details of Papini's condition reached Nickens, she said she was instantly regretful that she ever questioned the circumstances of her disappearance.
I don't think she's sorry [...] I think she's getting more attention and she's feeding off of it.
Trudy Nickens
Police, however, continued to question Papini's story.
After a six-year investigation, authorities determined that Papini was staying with her ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, at the time she was presumed missing.
Papini and Reyes plotted the scheme on burner phones and Papini inflicted her injuries upon herself to sell the lie.
The case has been likened to the plot of the 2014 movie Gone Girl, an adaptation of a Gillian Flynn novel of the same name, in which the lead character stages her own abduction to spite her husband.
Nickens said she couldn't believe it when Papini was arrested in March 2022.
In addition to wasting the time and money of hundreds of people, what left Nickens most furious was that Papini had distracted from other missing persons cases whose families desperately needed help.
"I just felt so angry," she said. "I doubted the case, to begin with, then beat myself up for having those feelings when she was found, and when she was arrested it confirmed I was right to feel how I did initially.
"It's just so disappointing that someone would go to such lengths to cover up an affair. She clearly wanted attention.
"But the worst part of it all is what she took away from other cases that really needed the coverage and the investigators' time because Sherri's case took priority.
"And still it continues to have priority because, unfortunately, she keeps resurfacing."
What has Sherri's husband said?
Sherri Papini's ex-husband, Keith, spoke out about the hoax shortly after her arrest.
Speaking to ABC 20/20, Keith Papini said Sherri "took advantage of everybody’s kindness and so many people were hurt.
"She made us all believe that her story was true … Every single day, she committed to the lie.”
Reflecting on the saga with his ex-wife, Keith said he felt “there was always something that wasn’t right" about Sherri's story.
He said he had doubts, even when first encountering Sherri in the hospital.
“When I pulled back the curtain and I saw her and I saw the look in her eyes, I felt in that moment that she was lying,” he shared.
“And it wasn't until I went to her to embrace her and I could just see the amount of injuries, bruises, burns to her body.
"It was a shock to me. And I remember thinking how horrible of me to even think that she could've done this to herself."
Keith said he and Sherri are still working out a custody agreement for their two children, who are now 11 and 9.
He said he will forever be haunted by his ex-wife's actions.
“I think it’s always going to be there, but we do want to move past it,” Keith said.
“I do want to provide my children an amazing childhood, but I think it’ll always be there.”
'SHERRI SHOULD DISAPPEAR'
Two days before Sherri Papini went missing, Stacy Smart, a woman from a neighboring county vanished.
Nickens said Smart's disappearance received almost no media coverage and her case remains unsolved.
Nikki Cheng Saelee-McCain vanished in Redding in May and has similarly received little-to-no media attention, Nickens says.
"Why is Nikki not getting the attention Sherri Papini got?" asked Nickens.
"Her family is desperate for help but the case just isn't getting the attention it needs and deserves."
Instead of agreeing to appear in documentaries, Nickens advised Papini to move out of state, change her name, and get on with her life "quietly" – but not before apologizing to all the families who have real missing loved ones that her hoax overshadowed.
She said, "I would have to tell her you owe all these families whose loved ones are missing. Her investigation took so much from them and I feel she owes them.
"I don't know if she has anything to give but she took so much time and resources that could've been spent on other cases at that time.
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"Some of these people may have been found had time not been wasted looking for Sherri.
"I think she needs to sit down and really think about what she took from other people."
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