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REAL-LIFE 'GONE GIRL' SHERRI PAPINI What Really Happened?
inTouch
|June 16, 2025
SHE SERVED PRISON TIME AFTER ADMITTING HER 2016 DISAPPEARANCE WAS A HOAX – NOW THE CALIFORNIA MOM IS CHANGING HER STORY AGAIN
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In 2016, a bizarre missing person case gripped the nation. Sherri Papini vanished while jogging near her home in Redding, Calif. Twenty-two days later, a motorist found her on the side of the road 150 miles away. Emaciated, bruised, bound with restraints and branded on her shoulder, the married mother of two claimed she'd been abducted and assaulted by two masked Hispanic women. She was reunited with her distraught husband, Keith Papini, and their two children. But investigators remained suspicious.
Years later, authorities finally uncovered the truth after DNA found in Sherri's underwear was traced to a former boyfriend. Investigators determined she'd orchestrated the whole thing so she could be with ex James Reyes, leading some to call her a real-life “Gone Girl” – a reference to the character at the center of author Gillian Flynn's bestselling 2012 crime-thriller novel about a woman who fakes her own disappearance. Three years ago, Sherri finally admitted to the hoax and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

This story is from the June 16, 2025 edition of inTouch.
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