REDDING, CA — Sherri Papini, the Northern California mother at the center of a widely publicized kidnapping hoax, is once again making headlines with a new narrative presented in the documentary series Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, now streaming on MAX.
Papini originally vanished on November 2, 2016. Her cellphone and earbuds were discovered at an intersection, sparking a massive search. She reappeared 22 days later, battered and bruised, along a freeway in Yolo County near Woodland. Papini claimed she was abducted at gunpoint by two Hispanic women who tortured her, even bearing a brand on her shoulder as evidence.
However, federal investigators later determined Papini fabricated the entire story. Prosecutors revealed that she had been hiding with her ex-boyfriend in Costa Mesa during the disappearance. Reports also surfaced that she self-inflicted injuries to support her claims and allegedly asked her ex to brand her before returning to Northern California. In 2022, Papini was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay over $300,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to mail fraud and making false statements.
The new documentary series challenges the established narrative by presenting Papini’s latest claims that her ex-boyfriend was the actual kidnapper who held her against her will. Nicole Rittenmeyer, the filmmaker behind the series, told The Hollywood Reporter that Papini’s request for branding never aligned with what investigators expected.
“It never made any sense to me that Sherri would ask him to brand her,” Rittenmeyer said.
The series includes reenactments of the alleged kidnapping and showcases Papini’s intense physical reactions, which Rittenmeyer says were difficult to fake. “She was trembling so hard you could see it from 20 feet away,” the filmmaker said. “[Doctors] told me you cannot fake that kind of autonomic nervous response … She couldn’t just will it into existence.”
In the trailer for Caught in the Lie, Papini acknowledges having lied but insists there is more truth to her story than previously revealed. “Haven’t you ever lied? And then has that lie been blown up?” she asks. “I was tortured, I was branded, I was chained to a wall — all of that is true.”
As the case continues to unfold, questions remain about what truly happened during those 22 days in 2016 and whether the new series sheds light on the complex layers of truth and deception surrounding Papini’s disappearance.