Episode 620: The Suspicious Kidnapping of Sherri Papini

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And I'm Alina. And this is Morbid.
This is Morbid. It's post-Halloween Morbid.
Merry Christmas, everyone. It is.
Happy Hanukkah. Happy Holidays.
Happy Holidays. Holidays, they're coming.

I'm a little bit in my post-Halloween-like man.

Sad.

I'm sorry.

I have joy.

Not that Halloween is over.

I'm not joyful about that because I fucking fuck so heavy with Halloween.

But I became a November 1st girly this year.

You did.

I'm never a November 1st like, everything gone, Christmas decorations up, let's fucking go girly. But you did i'm never in november 1st like everything gone christmas decorations up let's fucking go girly but i feel that way but this week you said i am yeah i started my christmas shopping i am gonna i decided also this year i'm switching it up i'm gonna get a fake tree this year that's that's a move it's a huge move for me it is i never got to i never got to have a real tree growing up because we always like lived in apartments and stuff so it was difficult and my mom was like i'm not going to get a fucking fake tree like i'm busy and um so when i me and drew first got or when i first moved in with mom and papa they always got me a real tree because i was like please because we always got real trees yeah and then when me and drew got together i was like we must have a real tree except for the one year that we were in an apartment.
But this year I was like, Drew asked me, he was like, can we go back to like a fake tree? Like it's a pain in the ass to have a real tree. And I don't do anything for it.
So I was like, no. We have to have a real one.
And then yesterday I was thinking, I don't know, you can buy them pre-lit and shit. Yeah.
And I'm always cleaning up the pine needles which drives me insane. And then you can get that Febreze that smells like the Christmas tree.
It's true. I'm gonna get a fake one this year.
I don't know. I was just feeling it.
I'm a real tree girly. You're a real tree pierced.
Yeah, I can't relate. I usually am.
I'll see how I like this and then if I don't like it I can always just like bring it to Sabres and get a real tree. Yeah I love the I love there's a different smell.
It is different. Of a real tree to like a chemical smell.
Yes. Of pine.
One thing that I don't like well our cats are fucking annoying a little bit. That's why I don't have cats though.
And also um I don't like the stickiness when you're taking out the tree when it's all done. Yeah.
And then like you look and like the wall was sticky. I don't like that.
Yeah. And the floor gets sticky.
You're like, I'm going to convince myself that I'm not a real tree. I don't know.
I don't. It's just a feeling.
I actually hate it. It hit me over like a freight train.
Yeah. It just said, fake tree.
I mean, good for you, man. I support that for you.
Thanks. I think the girls would kill us if we didn't get a real tree.
think they love the process of picking out a tree it's very fun and like the whole shebang yeah yeah i feel like when we have kids we'll go back to that yeah it's like the process of picking out a tree is such a yeah it's a cute family day thing yeah oh if you're now you're making me second guess how i feel it's that's the thing i just couldn't give up is the process of picking it out. I know.
Going to pick it out is fun. But also I was thinking too, I'm just in the mood to put my tree up now.
Like I want to put up a tree. Yeah, and you can't do that.
And you can't. You only get like two weeks out of that bad boy.
Maybe three. You get more than that.
I don't know. I was going to say you get more.
I have no idea. You definitely get more than that.
How much time do you get out of your tree? Three, four weeks? You get a few weeks. Yeah.
And then we always keep it up until the new year. So.
Yeah. I don't know.
Yeah. Trees.
Trees, you know. We also have, I mean, the holidays are coming.
So like get ready. We have.
Get ready. If you're listening right now, I think it's November 14th.
That's what Mikey told me. Because we never know.
We never know. Someday we'll know.
Right. It is not November 14th right now.
It is. Someday we'll get this right.
But yes, if you're listening right now on Wondery Plus, we have some new merch that went live. We got like a fun fall holiday collection going on.
Whoop. We got lots of cute new shirts.
One of them says Malevolent Deity. So I'm like pretty obsessed with that.
That one I love. That one's really cool.
There's a new hat that also says Malevolent Deity. I like the stay weird with like the moth on it.
Oh, yes. That's a new one that we've got going.
We got it in cropped and regular. Very cozy too.
Yes. Very cozy.
We were very adamant about the feel of something. Yes.
We're very much trying to get our hands on those things. We want soft shit.
We want soft shit. Because I'm very, I'm'm a texture person same if i have a yeah scratchy sweatshirt or t-shirt oh no scratchy t-shirt i'll like the thought of it makes me want to scream i'm like cringing at the moment i don't like it yeah um and then one thing that is also really exciting is the holiday sweater there's a morbid holiday sweater yeah it's like our take on a holiday sweater.
It's like an ugly sweater. Yeah.
But it's like so ugly it's cute. Yeah, exactly.
And there's like lots of cute little details. And then one thing I am so fucking excited about, I was like, like I needed this, is the charm bracelet.
Oh, I love the charm bracelet. The charm bracelet is very cute.
Very fun. If you are listening right now on Wondery Plus, head your booty over to our shop and go grab that stuff.
And if you're listening wide, do it retroactively. Go back.
Go back. Go back in time.
Do it. Go do it.
See ya. Yay.
Yeah, I think that's all like the biz nasty that we have going on. Yeah.
You have anything? No. One thing, this is just a random thing thing it has nothing to do with really anything i love but it's just um ash had brought it because we covered uh pan's labyrinth on scream oh recently and uh i love guillermo del toro and ash had mentioned and i remember seeing this a long time ago i just never watched it and ash brought it back to my attention that guillermo delo had done this Netflix anthology series called Cabinet of Curiosities it's like eight episodes all a different director that he has his hands in oh that's cool that he like curated and it's all a different like a less than an hour long like mini movie yeah each one and so far fucking delightful yeah I love it, good.
So if you haven't jumped on it, I'm telling you, it's a fun thing to jump into. The Autopsy is my number one so far.
It is. That's what I figured.
Fucking awesome. Yeah.
I'm telling you, everyone go watch The Autopsy because your mind is going to be fucking blown. Yeah, I haven't seen, I like didn't watch any of the episodes, but I was scrolling for something to watch on Netflix and I saw Guillermo del Toro and I was like, oh, I was only to see this shit.
I was only to see this. And then I looked at like what the, like what it was and I saw like the witch, the autopsy and I was like, oh, this bitch has got to see this.
It's real good. So if you guys are looking for something to keep the spooky season alive forever.
I love that. It's definitely a good one to do.
And if you're an Ash, I started rewatching Grace and Frankie. There you go.
So two polar opposite girlies up in this room. Very different.
I am obsessed. So we're going to talk today about the suspicious, super suspicious kidnapping of Sherry Papini.
Suspicious is a very kind way to say it. So suspicious.
So she jogged out of town like, don't be suspicious. Kidnapping is also very kind way to say it so suspicious so so she jogged out of town like don't be kidnapping is also a kind way of saying it yeah i don't really know what else you'd call it the hoax the great hoax yeah the absolute scam yeah that sherry papini and you know terrible terrible woman yeah truly terrible woman complete asshole complete yeah douchebag of the century truly so let's get into it if you don't know this story you're about to when 34 year old sherry peppini did not show up to pick up her kids from daycare on the afternoon of november 2nd 2016 everyone was immediately alarmed the the teachers at school her family, they were like, that's fucking weird.
Yeah, because who would willingly not pick up their children from daycare? Oh, yeah, Sherry Papini. Yeah.
Because she literally chose to leave her children at daycare to perpetuate this. Yeah, incredibly fucked.
Whoa. Alina's just throwing up her finger every time she does it.
Whoa. But up until that point, everyone just knew her as like this lovely, doting, stay-at-home mom.
That's what's so scary. All her energy went to her children.
So you would never think she would do something like this. Very cookie cutter, white picket fence vibes.
Yeah. So her husband Keith told anchors on Good Morning America, everybody who knows my wife knows there's no reason for her to leave.
She was definitely taken against her will. And he was not in on this.
I'll tell you from the jump. Keith was blindsided.
And why would he have any reason to believe that somebody that is like you would never think? No, he thought he had like a great life. There's several layers of this story.
Yes. That you go, in no world would I ever believe that someone would go this far or do this kind of absolute nonsense and it just keep it piles on the more that adds into this you go no no no one would do that for what like Sherry what did you why I mean she got money out of it like that's for sure but it's like but't even think that was.
Not nearly enough. Not nearly enough.
To do what you're doing. And I don't really think that was the ultimate goal.
Yeah. Like, at least in my opinion, just like knowing about the case.
I don't. Yeah.
I think the goal was like attention. There's a lot of.
Mental illness. Yeah.
Was a factor for sure. For sure.
Like. It has to.
Like, this is beyond comprehension. Yeah comprehension yeah like there's a documentary about it yeah it's called uh I think it's the perfect life on Hulu hold on I wrote it at the end of my notes it's a this documentary will blow your mind it's so good I think it's three episodes it's perfect wife the mysterious disappearance of Sherry Papini and there was things in the documentary that I hadn't even heard about just like watching the case fold out oh yeah like the end of it i was like oh wow yeah you're just awful yeah in every way that you could be that's the other thing this isn't just like you know some mental health issues going on she's just a shit person to the core like when you find out like the the details of who she is yeah she.
She's an asshole. So it's like, yeah, it's wild.
I feel so bad for her family. I do too.
I really do. So let's go back to the start.
So earlier that day, Sherry left her home in Reading to go for a jog, something she'd done countless times before. It was her routine.
Just before leaving for her jog, she texted Keith to ask if he was going to be home for lunch and he said no, so she went out. When Keith got home from work that night a little after five, he was surprised to find the house completely empty.
Sherry at that point was a stay-at-home mom, and with the exception of a few days a week that the kids were in daycare, she was always home with them in the afternoons, and she always went and got them from daycare, so by the time Keith got home, everyone was home. Now, according to Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bozenko, Sherry was last seen by a neighbor, quote, in the area of the Old Oregon Trail and Sunrise Drive, about a mile and a half from their home.
So not far at all. Sheriff's deputies were able to trace Sherry's phone to the intersection where she was last seen using a Find My iPhone with Keith's help and it was there they went out to that intersection and they found her phone her earbuds and several strands of blonde hair which Sherry was or is a blonde her mother-in-law Suzanne said of the discovery I would say my personal reaction is that it's twofold one is that it's good to have some sort of clue but the other portion is that it really points to she's been taken.
I mean, she wouldn't just drop her phone if she was running away. No.
You wouldn't think. No.
The hair is like. Yeah.
Again, when you know like what's going on, it reminds me of Scream 4. Yes.
When Jill is tearing out chunks of her hair. Yes, so true.
And people also always compare this to Gone Girl. Yeah, yep.
Which I want to say Gone Girl came out before this. I think it was, yeah, because I think it was called, a lot of people said it's like the Gone Girl case.
Yeah, I think you're right. Fact check me, I'll continue and you can interrupt me.
Yeah. So Sherry had, she'd always been a dedicated wife and mother.
Up to that point, she rarely deviated from a routine. She didn't have any physical or mental health conditions

that anybody knew about at that point. And she had never had any interaction with law enforcement.

So simply put, she was the last person that anybody would have ever expected to just disappear

without a trace. Bonkers.
Initially, sheriff's deputies fanned out across the area where she

was last seen looking for any evidence that might point them in the right direction. But with the

Thank you. a trace bonkers initially sheriff's deputies fanned out across the area where she was last seen looking for any evidence that might point them in the right direction but with the exception of the phone the earbuds and the hair evidence the search really didn't turn up anything else as far as clues so a few days later nearly 150 friends family and neighbors spread out across reading to help search for sherry and many others handed out flyers or posted on social media.
Like the community was very active in this case. It was one of those cases where you actually see the best of a community like banding together.
Yeah, everybody kind of bands together to help someone. Yeah.
That they think needs help. That they think needs help and they spend resources and money and time looking for this person.
Also Gone Gone Girl, the book, came out in 2012, and the movie came out in 2014. Oh, okay.
So, like, the movie came out, like, right before this. Someone took notes.
Somebody absolutely took notes. Not a doubt in my mind.
So, there were local businesses even offering their services or aiding in the search themselves, and local organizations like Shasta Support Service or Shasta county guardian angels were helping to coordinate different searches these poor people they put that's the thing like this community really was amazing yeah like everything you would all the praise yeah and everything you would hope would happen when somebody actually fucking disappeared yeah they all did their job and above it sherry's sister sheila told a reporter i was just overwhelmed with all of the community involvement like yeah couldn't believe it within a few days. Sherry's sister, Sheila, told a reporter, I was just overwhelmed with all of the community involvement.
Like, couldn't believe it. Within a few days of Sherry's disappearance, a massive Facebook group was generating a large number of tips, but at that point, none were particularly useful.
And meanwhile, in Reading, investigators started questioning the known sex offenders living in the area, but all had alibis that quickly checked out, so they were ruled out as suspects. And in an effort to encourage more tips from the public, Secret Witness, a community-based organization to help with missing persons cases, offered a $10,000 reward for any information leading to Sherry's safe return.
A day later, that reward was raised to $50,000 thanks to a huge number of private donations. Unbelievable.
And those who couldn't donate money seemed more than happy to donate their time. People were literally driving to Reading from other parts of California, having been just absolutely moved by the growing number of articles about this woman that everyone at that point was referring to as Supermom.
Wow. Think of how big California is.
Yeah. And people were driving from all over just to go participate in the search because this woman was so like such an inspiring mother to them and inspiring wife.
That's what's so scary is it's like this. That's the thing.
Like people were not wrong to to be taking that from her. That's what was being portrayed.
Yeah, exactly. And it's like, damn, there's a lot of compartmentalization of personalities here.
Yeah, definitely. So despite the truly remarkable community effort and countless man hours from local law enforcement, a week passed and there was still no sign of Sherry or even the slightest hint of where she could have possibly gone.
By that point, the sheriff's office had to consider the possibility of foul play, obviously, but they still weren't willing to confirm anything just yet. Lieutenant Anthony Bertain told reporters on November 8th, just based on the way this investigation kicked off, we're still handling this as a missing person at risk.
We're investigating all avenues right now. We're not set on one particular direction.
Now, the lack of news from local law enforcement was obviously frustrating for the family and for the community, who were starting to feel like all their efforts weren't getting them any closer to finding Sherry. Yeah.
I can't imagine that. Her sister Sheila said at the time, The frustrating part is we feel like we're going on nothing.
I think we exhausted the resources that we have out here to search for her. We feel that it's moved to where she's been taken from this area and everyone in the nation needs to be looking.
So they were thinking she was taken out of California at that point. Yeah.
And that must be the scariest thought. Yeah.
Just thinking she could be anywhere. Yeah.
Literally anywhere. And like, how are we going to find her in this like entire fucking country? How do we narrow this down at all?

Exactly.

Now while the family's concerns of a kidnapping were understandable, they also were entirely plausible. Because less than a month earlier on October 12th, 51-year-old Stacey Smart disappeared from her home in Lewiston, which is only about an hour from Reading.
And with Sherry's disappearance happening so soon and with the two women sharing pretty similar features, many in the community started to worry that maybe there was some kind of serial offender operating. Which was probably the aim.
Probably. So with no new evidence and a growing fear that something truly, truly nefarious had happened to Sherry, suspicion, of course, fell on Keith Pepini, particularly among the Facebook group that was dedicated to finding Sherry.
And this is where it can get dangerous. This is where it can get dangerous, exactly.
Because, sure, it happens a lot. Of course.
But there are also cases where they are not involved and they are just dedicated to finding their wife. Well, and it's when it starts happening on, like, particularly Facebook, I feel like.
Or, like, any kind social media. Where it's like any kind of social media where it's like people are just getting kind of roasted at the, you know, like at the stake for just like theories.

It's like that's when it can get bad.

Because, well, and also anybody can go on Facebook and say anything.

Literally on any social media and say anything about anybody.

So it's like.

That's dangerous.

Yeah.

And then it can compromise the investigation,

especially when it's an active investigation.

Yes, exactly.

So on November 9th, Sherry's father, actually, Rod Rodriguez,

took to Facebook to defend his son-in-law, saying,

we recognize that in 80% of the disappearance cases,

the spouse is responsible.

But conversely, that means in 20% of the cases that the spouse is not involved,

this case falls into the latter category. That's a big thing right there.
Yeah. For her father to be like, I'm not even going to entertain that idea.
He knows the guy. That's huge.
Like he knows the guy more than anybody on social media knows the guy. Yeah, exactly.
And as evidence of Keith's innocence, Rodriguez pointed to the fact that Keith had fully cooperated with law enforcement and noted that his alibi checked out. He was at work at the time.
His boss confirmed that he had been at work at the time. And the police even checked the cell and GPS data recovered from his phone on the day of the disappearance.
And that also checked out with his alibi. You've got like a fully like a three pronged way of telling that he is not involved exactly but if he wasn't responsible who the fuck was yeah this was obviously the question that the sheriff's office was grappling with once they cleared all of the more likely suspects on their list because i can't i feel like obviously clearing suspects is a good thing but the more and more you cross people off that list and their alibis are checking out you're losing losing steam.
Where do you go from there? Like, that's the thing. Like, once you cross people off, it's great because you're saying, cool, that husband didn't do it.
That's A+. That's great.
That's reaffirming. And like, you know, other people, it's like, yeah, you're narrowing it down, but sometimes it gets too narrow and then it's like you got nothing left.
Yeah. Like, what avenue do you search? And where do we go from here? Right.
So investigators searched, this is where they went from here, They searched state and local databases for cases with details that were matching Sherry's, but they didn't even find any connections. In fact, they even ruled out non-human attackers like mountain lions.
Sometimes in that area, mountain lions wander down into town and they can pose a threat to the public. I get the fact that they even went that far to narrow that, like that's pretty big.

They were doing their due diligence for sure.

The sheriff said there were no signs of blood or struggle and tracking dogs also never picked

up the scent of a body.

It seemed like Sherry had literally jogged out into that intersection outside of town

and just evaporated into the air, leaving behind only her phone and the earbuds and

the hair as evidence that she was even there. Hi, weirdos.
I'm Candace DeLong, retired FBI criminal profiler and the host of Killer Psyche. If you enjoyed Morbid's coverage of the tragic murder of Jennifer Levin,

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So despite the incredible community-wide search effort and the considerable reward for information, which at that point had reached nearly $100,000. Damn.
Three weeks passed with no new leads, no new evidence, nothing. Then in the early morning hours of November 24th, 2016, a driver on Interstate 5 in Yolo County spotted what appeared to be a young woman standing on the side of a rural road trying to flag him down.
And this was about 150 miles from from redding wow so the driver pulled over and was stunned to find that the woman who was still bound at the wrists and it looked like she had been severely beaten was none other than sherry pepini i remember this it's so weird i don't remember this at all i remember and i was like out of high school i literally don't remember this in any way I remember this. And I was like out of high school.
I literally don't remember this in any way. I remember it and I remember everyone, probably including myself at the time, thinking when I was watching it like the husband did it.
Yeah. Like immediately you thought it.
You do automatically think that. Yeah.
And then later you're like, oh, what an asshole. I know.
For thinking that. Damn.
But. Yeah.
It was a wild news story. Yeah.

Because when she was found, it was like, whoa.

And then things started happening and you were like, whoa.

Yeah.

What is going on?

Because that really never happens.

No.

Like, obviously, like, it does.

Very rarely does it happen.

But it's few and far between.

And then when somebody does get recovered and, like, they still can't find the people that did it.

And it was how, it was her immediate, and we'll obviously get to it but her description of her attackers immediately i think went huh huh that's weird her immediate description of her attackers and then they dig into her past and her opinion exactly and that's why it went huh yeah we'll get there huh Trigger warning right up here for racism. Yeah.

So the driver immediately obviously called the California Highway Patrol to report the discovery, and officers were at the scene within minutes. They quickly requested backup for what they described as a woman who was quote unquote heavily battered.
And she was. In his statement to the press, the sheriff said, we are very ecstatic to report that sherry papini has been located and has been reunited with her husband and family on this day of Thanksgiving.
I'm happy to say that Sherry is now safe and that she has been treated at an area hospital outside of Shasta County for non-life-threatening injuries. So at the time, the sheriff's office had little to say in the way of details, telling reporters just that Sherry's injuries were non-life-threatening.
Authorities were now on the lookout for a, quote, dark-colored SUV with two Hispanic females armed with a handgun. In the days that followed, small details about the case started to emerge via the sheriff's office.
Sherry had been discovered a, quote, short amount of time after being dropped off by her captors, according to the sheriff. But he added, there is sensitive information that is being withheld at this time that i'm not able to put out and please respect this until such time when we're able to make an arrest and bring these criminals to justice and sherry's abduction so there was a lot that they were working on at this point that they were keeping close to the chest yeah but by the end of the month the family had put out a press release detailing some of the information yet to be released to the media.
In the three weeks since her abduction, Sherry had dropped to 87 pounds.

Wow.

And was, quote, covered in multicolored bruises, severe burns, red rashes, and chain markings.

Which sounds fucking horrific.

Absolutely. And you would never in your mind think that somebody would be able to create those injuries on their own yeah just like willingly yeah but according to her husband keith sherry had quote suffered incredibly through intense physical agony and severe mental torture among other things her hair had been cut off she had been branded with the word exodus like genuinely literally branded And she told police that she believed it was a reference to the Bible.
And in addition to her other injuries, the bridge of her nose had been broken. Damn.
So she had any part of her body that was visible was injured. And also like her hair being cut off.
Like that's so psychologically fucked. Yeah.
Horrifying. In his statement, Keith said, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see upon my arrival at the hospital, nor the details of the true hell I was about to hear.
The mental prison I was in over the past three weeks was shattered when my questions of my wife's reality became known. That's like, I can't imagine seeing the person you love like that.
No that no thinking about what they've gone through for three weeks think about in the three weeks that sherry's been gone i'm sure all keith is doing is imagining what's happening to her and where she is and who has her and his mind is probably coming up with all these fucked up scenarios while trying to be a parent while trying to still take care of his two little kids by the way these kids were little and then he walks into the hospital and sees her and it confirms like probably his worst nightmares were true yeah so i can't imagine horrific so while most people were happy to learn that sherry had returned home safely some found her safe return to be a bit suspicious for one thing there appeared to appeared to be no motive for the abduction. To hear the story as Sherry told it, and as it would be repeated by the sheriff and family members, she was abducted by, quote, two Hispanic female adults who, quote, spoke Spanish the majority of the time of her captivity and concealed their faces in an attempt to hide their identities from her.
So according to the sheriff's office, these were the only known abductors. But when it came to a motive, the sheriff said, we still do not have a motive as to the reason why Miss Pepini was taken.
We do not know if she was a specific target or if this was a random abduction. Because it's like they weren't asking for ransom.
They weren't asking for ransom. So they just abducted her to hold her and beat the shit out of her for a few weeks.
And then let her go. And then drop her on the side of the road.
Like why? And like not like that's like that's I'm not saying that like people aren't fucked and people don't just do things to do them. We cover cases all the time where people do things just to do horrible things.
There's a case that I'm going to reference in a minute here where like that very thing did happen. So I think that's also why the police weren't really saying like, okay, this is impossible.
Well, and they can't. They can't.
They have to explore every avenue and you're right. They have, there's got to be at least a slight precedent to be like, okay, this is possible.
Right. Is it a little out of the realm of, you know, likely? Yeah.
But we got to look at it. But we can't investigate it like it didn't happen.
Because again, what if that is what happened? You don't want to be sitting there being like, hmm, you're lying. Like, you know what I mean? And find out that this is really what happened.
This person is traumatized from it. The police in this case absolutely did their due diligence.
Like, absolutely. But lack of motive was not the only reason people were suspicious.
There was also what many people perceived, and you kind of hinted at it earlier, to be an overemphasis on the kidnappers' race. Yeah.
In a case surprisingly light on details and evidence and one where the kidnappers wore masks or obscured their identities otherwise, there was an unusual focus on their racial characteristics. Through the course of their investigation, reporters discovered multiple blog posts apparently written by Sherry in 2007, where she, quote, made racist comments about Latinos, among other things.
Ding, ding. In one post, she wrote, I used to come home in tears because I was getting suspended from school all the time for defending myself against the Latinos.

The chief problem was that I was drug free, white and proud of my blood and heritage.

This really irked a group of Latino girls, which would constantly rag and attack me.

That right there tells you everything.

But wait, there's more.

Saying I was drug free, white and proud of my blood and heritage.

That screams a certain grouping of people who believe that.

Well, and she's about to call them out.

Yeah.

Post went on to say, being white is more than just being aware of my skin, but standing behind skinheads who are always around in spirit as well and having pride for my country. Yeah.
If you were wondering whether she's an asshole. Ding, ding, ding.
There you go. Asshole.
Yeah. Who the fuck takes to a blog post to write that? Well, and what's very interesting to me is like you were you were so open about how racist you are and then you went and did this and decided to take it a step further and it's like babe their job is uh to investigate your past they're gonna find out that you're racist against this group of people yeah you don You don't think they're going to question.
Yep. Why you might be emphasizing the race of the.
And women. Women specifically.
Because she specifically says this group of girls. Yep.
It's definitely girls. And then it happens to be two women.
Of that particular group of people. Which is not likely.
That two women abduct another woman exactly it's like could it happen again totally nobody's saying it couldn't but we do have to put on our like logic hats here and say this doesn't happen a lot at all like the the precedent for this is tiny tiny tiny minimal of course if it ended up being true then you go wow stick that

in that precedent bucket and right holy shit we'll reference that later but it's like they are looking at this and going hmm the fact that it's two women and she's already talked about girls like a group of girls that were like being mean to her and that she didn't like and she's so proud of being white and shit like come on come on saying you're proud to be white is crazy i just have to say it goes crazy i just have to say that's a fucking insane thing to say and i'll move on now okay weird okay like just be proud to be a good human yeah i'm gonna have to be a good never have i ever been proud to be a white person like what it? It's weird. I'm proud of my Irish heritage.
I'm proud of my Scottish heritage. I'm not proud to be a white person.
No, that's the thing. What? That's insane.
That's the thing. That's exactly how I feel.
I am super proud of having Scottish heritage and Irish heritage. I'm proud of my 1.4% italian heritage i'm jealous of your italian heritage but like to be like i am proud to be white like no crazy i'm just proud that i have this very interesting heritage that i can look back on yeah and discover and research and take you know recipes from and like you know like cool legends and folklore to each their own to bring like it's just a straight it's a strange thing to like point at and be like i am i don't understand i do not understand also very weird saying that skinheads are always around in spirit does that mean sherry i don't understand fuck does that mean sure i don't understand sherry I hope not.
I'm glad I don't understand Sherry? I don't understand. What the fuck does that mean, Sherry? I don't understand, Sherry.

I hope not. I'm glad I don't understand, Sherry.
I don't ever want to understand her. Yeah.
But anyway, she said all that. And then in her post-recovery interview with the FBI, she's continued to seem very focused on the ethnic aspects of her abductor's appearance.
She told one agent the smaller one had dark curly hair that's kind of short and so curly that if she didn't put product in there, it would probably be really frizzy. Wow.
What the fuck is that going to mean to that arresting officer? Look out for a girl with frizzy hair. Who uses product, so it's not.
I love that she's literally like, it wasn't frizzy, but I bet if she didn't put product in it, it would be a fucking mess. So look out for that girl.
Like, what are you talking about? Okay, asshole. Like, cool microaggression.
Yeah. She also described their clothing in racially coded and overtly classist terms, saying their, quote, brown shoes looked like guest knockoffs.
Wow. And they wore, quote, those big hoop earrings and had thin, almost drawn in eyebrows.
Wow. You're an asshole.
A true, true asshole. You know how many things we could say to describe you, Sherry? Well, that's, I'm like, bold.
Really? Bold of you. Bold of you.
I won't. I won't say shit because I'm not an asshole.
But I'm thinking it. But bold of you.
Super duper bold. That's all I'm going to say.

Anyway, given the lack of evidence and the overtly racist comments that Cherry had made in the past, some people suggested, hey, maybe this entire kidnapping was a hoax deliberately planned to demonize the Latino community in Northern California. Maybe.
and that's the thing here

it's like in situations

where it's like somebody has had

like you know a mental health break

and there's been like some thing that you're like, okay, they perpetuated this idea or something like this and they went too far. Like we've had cases like that.
Of course, I can't point to one right now because I haven't had enough coffee. But you know where like you can sit there and you can look at it and go, okay, like I can at least have some sympathy for what this person was going through at some point.

Yeah.

This case. None.
You just. Zero.
I can't find sympathy in my heart, one, for a racist. And two, I can't find sympathy in my heart for someone who wastes the resources of an entire community.
Yes. And traumatizes her own young family.
Yes what her family like i can't find sympathy for that i can't husband so that's why we are like she's such an like she is in my opinion i think she's an asshole i think this entire thing to traumatize your family and loved ones like this and again to suck on suck on the resources of a community. That needs them.
That needs these resources. And has bigger fish to fry.
And to take money from people and time from people and emotional allowances from people who are putting them into this whole thing because they care. Right.
And just because they're a good tight-knit community, that's so fucked. It is fucked.
And I't. That's so, like, you're an emotional vampire.
You are. And it's like, that's shitty.
And, like, we'll get there, but spoiler alert if you somehow don't know this case, she was, like, watching the news coverage. Oh, yeah, she saw what was going on.
She was watching her family on television. I can't.
Like, that's how I could, like, even just think, I could never look at Drew on television, like, begging me to come home and be like,

No, and just be like, oh, my God.

Hilarious. You want to throw another hockey puck at my face?

Yeah, like, let's wait a couple of days. Like, no.
And again, if you somehow find sympathy for this person in your heart, that's, like, totally your-

Yeah, you're a better person than us.

Your prerogative, and you're probably a better person, and, like, you know, that's fine.

Yeah.

But I don't.

Everybody's allowed to have their own opinion. Yeah, I don't.
Yeah. And I'm not going to.
And you're allowed to give your sympathy where you see fit. Yeah, exactly.
I have sympathy for the fact that like I'm sure she's very mentally ill. Absolutely.
Like I absolutely have sympathy for like whatever is going on in her mental. That's fucked.
Yeah, for sure. But it's like when you talk about insanity versus mental illness, I don't think she's insane.
I think she's mentally ill. I still think she knew what she was doing was wrong.
And she's racist. She literally did all this like partially to demonize an entire community of people.
That's like not mental illness. That's just evil.
That's 100% evil. That's why I can't find the, I got nothing.
I don't blame you. I feel like the mental illness comes into play with like the injuries.
Like you have to be mentally ill to do what this woman did. Yeah.
But it doesn't take away the. But no, I completely.
The absolute evil shit that's going on around there. Completely agree.
I completely agree with you too. Completely agree with you.
I agree with you. I agree with you.
So. Sorry.
We're like good point. Good point.
Yeah. Support so in response to uh everybody saying this was a great hoax Keith Papini told a reporter those people should be ashamed of their malicious subhuman behavior we are not going to allow those people to take away our spirit love or rejoice and our girl found alive and home where she belongs I understand why people want the story pictures proof that this was not some sort of hoax, plan to gain money, or some fabricated race war.
And it's like, you understand why he's saying that's disgusting. Of course.
Because it would be disgusting if his wife did that. He can't fathom it.
And he can't fathom that she did that, exactly. And of course, why would you? You would hope and pray that the woman that you married and procreated with could not be that evil.
Yeah, exactly. Could not be capable of something like this.
And the sheriff's office was similarly supportive of Sherry and the Pepini family at that point, saying, We currently have no reason to disbelieve Sherry Pepini's story. She was assaulted and had injuries, which she's been treated for.
I think that was the main thing that everybody held onto, that you couldn't fathom somebody allowing themselves to be hurt to be hurt that way or hurting themselves that way. You're like, there's no way.
Branded, broken nose, hair cut off, bruised beyond. If you see pictures of her, she beat the shit out of herself and had help beating herself.
It's crazy. It's unbelievable.
And like she wasn't eating so she lost weight. Like when I say drop down to 87 pounds that you can't even picture that.
No. You think of like your tiniest friend.
They are not that tiny. Exactly.
That's crazy. Yeah.
So while those who questioned the legitimacy of Sherry's claims were far outnumbered by her supporters, skepticism did continue to grow in the days that followed, particularly as information remained vague and everyone involved was very tight-lipped. The investigation then was further hampered by Keith Papini, who, in an effort to disprove the skeptics, released details to the media.
Sheriff Basenko said, I did not know he was going to release this until a short time before I did a media interview.

I think with some of the details he has provided, it could affect the integrity of the investigation. Oops.
Which is not great. Yeah.
Because the sheriff had hoped to keep the few details that they did know about the abductors quiet until they narrowed in on a suspect. And they felt that Keith's rush to defend his wife pretty much compromised their case.

Luckily, they didn't technically have a case. Yeah, luckily it really wasn't going to matter in the end.

They weren't looking for anybody, but if they were, it could have fucked it up. Yeah.
But you also understand why he wants to rush to defend his wife. Of course.
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But despite the sheriff's attempts to quell the growing interest and debate over the legitimacy of the claims, skepticism about Sherry's kidnapping just kept on growing.

In certain ways, experts on the matter found this to be entirely reasonable, if not expected, given the lack of details and the outright just fucking strangeness of the claims being made. for instance there aren't that many reasons why an adult would be kidnapped and if any of them

result in the abductor just letting the person go without having achieved some kind of objective a ransom of some sort or something yeah like you don't really see a case where they just let you go to let you go it happens but it's but like maybe once or twice to find a handful of cases like that i don't even think there is a handful that I know about at least.

But also Sherry had said that she was abducted by two women, which is an extremely, like I said, rare occurrence.

Former FBI agent Mary Ellen O'Toole said women don't commit these kinds of crimes because it involves an element of predatory behavior.

But those same experts also caution the media to keep an open mind about the

case. O'Toole also told a reporter, I've had some pretty bizarre but righteous cases where people

look at it and say that didn't happen, even when it did. And yeah, absolutely.
It happens all the

time. And Kenneth Ryan, a professor of criminology at Fresno State, echoed O'Toole's sentiment,

saying, I know of no other cases like this, but that does not mean it's not legitimate.

Exactly. There's always precedent comes from somewhere.
Yes. And speaking of precedent, in addition to the handful of experts who also cautioned people to remain open-minded, several members of the press were quick to point to the 2015 kidnapping of Denise Huskins in Vallejo, California.
There weren't many similarities in the details of the cases, but in the Huskins case, her kidnapper abducted her from a home she shared with her boyfriend, held her captive for several days, and then just released her. Yeah, not shocking.
Which was crazy. And initially, the police concluded that the entire kidnapping was a hoax, and they actually treated her and her man terribly.
Like, it's rough to watch. But they then had to retract their statement once evidence conclusively proved that she had in fact been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by matthew moeller a former lawyer suffering from a very serious mental illness at that point holy shit really good um docu-series on the case it's called american nightmare it's on netflix jarring that's horrifying genuinely terrifying it will have you buying a security system immediately do you know anything about that case yeah fucked so but so to point that that can happen yep you know where the there's details that vary with sherry having been abducted by two women versus like a man who could overpower her.

Well, that's the other.

There's like differences here where it's like a man abducted a woman, sexually assaulted her and let her go. It's also the middle of the night.
Yeah. And it's like, but this is two women? Yeah.
And like, then they just like beat the shit out of her and let her go? Right. Like, I don't know.
Exactly. You know? Now, the other bizarre part of Sherry's story was the surprising sum of money that had actually been offered up in exchange for her safe return, even though the kidnappers never asked for money.
In addition to the original sum offered as a reward in the early days of the investigation, an anonymous donor offered $100,000 as a reverse ransom for Sherry's safe return. Damn.
the donor refused to identify themselves and communicated only through an intermediary uh who was cameron gamble a local security contractor but like that was that was huge that's huge that a one anonymous donor put up that much money a hundred thousand dollars like that's a lot of money family friend lisa Jeter said, I mean, who offers five or six figures to find someone they've never met? Yeah.

Yet. $100,000? Like, that's a lot of fucking money.
Family friend Lisa Jeter said, I mean, who offers five or six figures to find someone they've never met?

Yet she and others were still convinced of the donor's intentions being good. And as he put it, quote, the hands of God had been put on my heart to find Pepini.
So that's just like a good ass person. Cameron Gamble even went on television to announce the offer of money to the kidnappers.

But as it turned out, the offer was unnecessary because sherry soon showed up in yolo county and no kidnappers ever contacted anyone to set up any kind of money drop or anything like that yeah who in their right mind abducts a woman period but then abducts a woman tortures her for a few days and then doesn't collect a reverse ransom of when it's being offered thousand dollars yeah you would at least think that some kind of money drop would be set up or at least attempted you know that's what i mean like i can understand if they were like freaked out because they were like this could clearly be a sting to get us but to not even not even have any any kind of communication about it? I don't know. That just doesn't happen in my mind.
I don't know. So by the end of the year, the public was eager for any details on the case.
But both the family and law enforcement officials had nothing more to give. In January 2017, Sherry's sister told a reporter, we would just appreciate our time to heal and privacy.

And the sheriff's office also had little to say to the press in the months that followed, other than the standard response. Bosenko insisted to the public that, quote, the investigation is still ongoing.
It's a priority case. We're still being assisted by the FBI in the case.
We're waiting for some evidence to be processed by the California Department of Justice. Now by the end of 2017, little had changed, but skepticism surrounding the whole ordeal had grown somewhat stronger.

We're getting more and more skeptics on this.

In October 2017, the Sheriff's Department released a sketch of the suspects based on Sherry's descriptions, as well as a recording of Keith's call to 911 to report Sherry missing.

And they hoped that these would generate some kind of new lead or evidence, but literally nothing came from them. Because they weren't real people.
Because they were not real people. And the same was true of the surveillance video released a month later showing Sherry emerge from the woods along the side of I-5 in Yolo County.
Which also, I want to live in Yolo County. And I just need to say that.
Yolo County, yeah. That's hilarious.
In late December, law enforcement officials released a statement to the press saying, we're still reviewing stuff with the case. And then obviously, if appropriate, and if it's going to help identify the suspects, then we'll release more information.
But we have no plans for anything to be released in the coming months. So frustrating.
So everybody was like, okay. Like, I guess we'll just never fucking know what happened here because eventually one year passed to the next and there was never any additional information never additional details released about the case and then the family just receded from the public spotlight but that which would make sense which yeah you would expect that to happen they would want their privacy but that didn't stop the speculation and of course the online arguments about the case with many people now more convinced than ever that the kidnapping had been a hoax because when you're not finding the people there's no leads whatsoever none like no motive obviously cases go cold like of course that kind of thing but there's no motive You can't find any suspects.
Where's the evidence?

You got that racist connection.

Yeah, that's the thing.

Something's wrong here.

And that was sitting heavy with investigators. They really clung on to that rightfully so.
Because if you're not finding these people, it sounds like they're made up.

And that's when you go back to that blog post and you start digging for some more shit.

So while supporters and skeptics sparred with one another on social media because that is the way of life, the sheriff's office continued investigating the case. But after repeatedly coming up empty, they actually passed the case to the FBI in early 2020.
By that time, Sherry Papini had received more than $30,000 in aid from the California Victims Compensation Board. Damn.
The fact that this asshole collected, and that wasn't the only amount of money that she received. She got money from GoFundMes and other charity organizations.
But this one from the Victims Compensation Board, $30,000, and you just accept that and spend it? Yep. Thinking you're entitled to it? This is the same person that sat and watched her family beg for her safe return and still sat there and let it all go.
Do you have a conscience? I think some people just don't. That's the thing.
I'm like, there's something wrong there that you don't have any kind, like that you were able to perpetuate this for so long? Yeah. so fortunately with their superior resources and larger reach the fbi was able to achieve what the shasta county sheriff's office hadn't they managed to get to the truth and that's why we're sitting here today talking about this fb motherfucking i that's why we're calling sherry an asshole don't worry if you don't know the case you will soon find out what an asshole she is i mean already there was some pieces of uh evidence we've given you that you that should be showing you that yeah exactly but but even more of an asshole somehow in the absence of any new evidence fbi agents turned to sherry's past and they discovered that she wasn't always the super mom she was described as in the wake of her disappearance in an interview with her first husband she, she'd been married before, she married him in 2006, so she could, quote, qualify for health insurance.
They learned that Sherry had a long history of lying and fabricating stories, and many referred to her as being, quote, unquote, attention hungry. Ah, there it is.
The ex-husband also told investigators that Sherry had, quote, fabricated stories about being the victim of abuse. According to another friend from her past, Sherry was, quote, good at creating different realities for people so that they would see what she wanted them to see, which got her really good attention.
And while the kidnapping case might have seemed like a pretty extreme length to go to in order to get some kind of attention, many people who knew Sherry and knew her, especially when she was younger, wouldn't have been surprised to learn that she had gone that far. Which is unbelievable.
If people are saying they wouldn't be surprised if you would go this far, whoa. That, like, whoa.
When you think of every, like, how far she truly went and people, she branded her, she was branded.

For people to be like, yeah, she probably could have done that herself. Probably.

It's like, whoa.

My God.

You have a history, my friend.

She sure does.

In 2003, she ran away from home and filed a police report falsely accusing her own parents of physical abuse.

So this is a.

It was determined.

This is a pathology here.

And she had also said that past boyfriends were violent with her when, like, they were not. There was evidence to prove that they were not.
She lied about being a victim of abuse many, many times. Which is fucked up.
Which is fucked up. So the deeper agents dug into Sherry's history, the more they started to question just how happy this supposed super mama really was

according to phone records she had been keeping in regular contact with her ex-boyfriend sean rays as recently as 2015 and they frequently used phone cards and burner phones to communicate that's not shady as fuck sketchy as fuck it was through an interview with rays that the real story of sherry's's quote unquote kidnapping finally came into focus. This shows you you don't know anybody.
Like, damn. You don't know anybody.
Like the whole community saw her as this super mom, happy wife, everything. Yeah.
In the age of social media, you don't know anyone. Remember that.
You don't. Remember that.
You are seeing a curated version of everyone's life. You're seeing a character.
100%. And that's, I've seen so many instances of that recently on social media where like things are happening and like people find these like, oh, this person is not what I thought they were.
Yeah.

And it's like, yeah, you don't know anyone.

No, if you don't know people personally and deeply, you don't know them. And the sooner you realize that and like are happy with that boundary being there, the better this will all be.
Yes. Because I think people are putting way too much into social media.
I think so, definitely. That's my little soapbox.
I'll get off it now. But according to Ray, Sherry called him on November 2nd, 2016, and asked him if he could come pick her up and if she could stay with him for a while.
In a statement to the FBI, Ray's cousin confirmed that he had seen Sherry at Ray's apartment on at least two occasions. Ray's told agents Sherry said that, quote, her husband was beating and raping her and she was trying to escape and that she had filed police reports but the police were not doing anything to stop her husband's abuse which sounds horrific so of course he was like yeah you can come stay with me now while she was there staying with him she concocted that fake kidnapping hoax in order to avoid having to explain where she had been and the entire time she was there she quote harmed herself to support her false claims wow while she was there she like stopped eating like she ate very minimally and he was like oh like can i make you can i make you anything didn't she have like a banana she would yeah she would literally just have like a banana she he uh she asked him to like hit a hockey puck off her face at one point a hockey puck off her leg it literally that's exactly how they said in the documentary bank a hockey puck off her leg and this guy's just like okay and i think the way they broke her nose was i think a hockey stick was involved i think you're right yeah and like a closet door or something like that there was yeah i mean wild talk about folly ado yeah damn yeah so after about three weeks of just staying there doing all that wild shit Ray's had a friend rent a car for him and he drove Sherry out to that rural spot on I-5 where she was found on the morning of November 24th 2016 a check of the rental car's odometer log confirmed that the vehicle had traveled the distance between Ray's apartment and the drop-off spot in Yolo County.
It's those little things. I love that shit.
When it comes down to these little things, I'm always like, damn. Yep.
Damn forensics. And his story also explained the unidentified DNA on Sherry's clothes when she reappeared, which was tested and later confirmed to belong to Sean.
Wow.

So she was just having a grand old time.

So she, to be clear, she bullshitted this entire thing.

The entire thing.

To hang out with a boyfriend.

Yep.

An ex-boyfriend.

An ex-boyfriend.

Yep.

Remember, she has two young children.

Literally two little, like, young, young babes.

Like, teeny tiny babes.

Left them at daycare, unclaimed.

Unconscionable.

No, I can't imagine.

And then watched on TV as her husband cried and begged for her safe return.

Her parents, her husband, her sister.

Her friends.

Everybody that loved her.

Watched the community go to all these lengths. Watched the cops talk about how much resources they were putting into it watch that dollar amount go up and up and up of people donating out of the goodness of their hearts and somehow like fed off of that yeah like it wasn't like oh fuck what have i done but what you should take from this is not wow people are the biggest shitheads in the entire world no one person is the biggest shithead in the entire world but look at the other side of it an entire fucking community of people yes showed everybody what humanity is yeah like that's the thing to take from this is and they all said we do it again yeah like we thought someone was missing we thought one of our own was that's our community that.
It's like that, take that away from it. That like most people in the world are going to do that.
Yes. Like these are the ones that you just suss out and you say, fuck off.
And you sit there and you wonder how people are even capable of existing. Yeah.
Like Sherry Papini. Like the toxic waste dump that must be her soul.
Yeah. Like talk about a trashed soul.
Like she is a trashed soul. She scares me.
Yeah. What scares me is I also feel like I like know people like her.
Yeah. And she's not happy.
Nobody who does this kind of shit is a happy person. No.
No. Not at all.
Like nobody who's an asshole being a dick to other people and like taking up other people's time, like ruining people's days, doing whatever happy person no not they're always miserable so in august 2020 agents interviewed sherry again and laid out the evidence that they discovered and warned her at the top of the interview that it was a crime to lie to the fbi so they're like here's your time however sherry quote did not retract her kidnapping story and story and instead continued to make false statements about her purported abductors and denied her ex-boyfriend's involvement. They sat there and they said, we tested the male DNA that they found on you.
It's Sean's. And she sat there and acted shocked and said, Sean would never do that to me.
It can't be him. And, like, literally started to cry like she was just having a revelation about, like, oh, my God.
It. It couldn't have been him.
No. No way.
No. Meanwhile, she had been staying with him for weeks.
She literally sits in the- Talking to him on burner phones. You guys got to go watch the interviews because they're so deeply disturbing.
And I feel so bad because her husband is with her when they confront her. And if anybody ever thought that he was involved in it, seeing his reaction when they tell Sherry, like, hello, he is blindsided.
I feel so bad for that guy. Yeah, it really is sad.
But unfortunately, oh, and then another thing, and if you watch the documentary on Hulu, you'll see it. She had perfectly described where she was being contained.
And it was this very specific closet that she kept talking talking about and when they went to her boyfriend's her ex-boyfriend's house he had that exact closet and they were like nobody else would have had the closet but no it was like a very specifically made like there were certain like pipes and wires and stuff that went certain places they were like what are the fucking odds that that's the exact closet system? And the fact that she described his closet didn't even make something. You lied about everything else.
Why are you giving the exact closet? Like, I'm glad that you did because it got us to here. And also, this is the scary thing about Sherry Papini.
She sat there in that interview room when they said, we ran the DNA testing and it matches your ex-boyfriend, Sean Ray's. And she it can't be him you have you have to check it again there's no way it could be him yeah she thought that she could get the upper hand there and convince them otherwise on dna she wanted them to rerun that's like saying can you crunch those numbers again no it's dna like no if it's hitting on a person that's involved it's the person we didn't crunch the numbers wrong like it's a fucking like what this is forensics bitch this is dna hello this is deoxyribonucleic acid you're not gonna get out of here like what the fuck like what like just the fact that she thought but that she's that diabolical that she was like let me give this Because she's gone her whole life manipulating.
And I think she was like, well, this is my magnum opus. Yes.
And I can definitely keep this going. I just have to try harder.
And it's like, no, babe. No, babe.
DNA does not lie. You cannot manipulate DNA.
No. It's just not going to happen.
No. And we got the fucking odometer telling us the exact distance.
The odometer, the closet. They even found, and again, if you watch the documentary, you'll find this out.
She had saved to her Pinterest board wood, like wood burning tools. Oh my God.
Yes, you're right. Which she then used to brand herself with the word Exodus.
She had saved those to her fucking Pinterestinterest board this this bitch pinterested her own kidnapping hoax literally that's a level of diabolical and also just completely like delulu that you can't even comprehend the malice of fucking forth out there to plan your own branding the most hello yeah hello is right hello actually goodbye is goodbye sherry goodbye but not goodbye yet so unfortunately the onset of the covid 19 pandemic really really hampered agents ability to aggressively pursue this case rona really fucked us yeah but don't worry we got there in early march 2022 they were able to get a warrant for Sherry's arrest based on the evidence and statements from her boyfriend, Sean raised there, her ex-boyfriend.

Thank goodness.

In addition to being charged with lying to the FBI, Sherry was also charged with mail fraud, stemming from her receipt of more than $30,000 in victim assistance money from state agencies, which carried a combined sentence of up to 25 years in prison if she were to be convicted.

Damn.

She should have got that.

Yep.

On March 3rd, 2022, Sacramento FBI agents were staked outside of Sherry's neighborhood,

hoping that they'd be able to stop her when she drove, like maybe going on some kind of

errand without the kids.

They were really hoping.

To not get her in front of the kids.

Yeah, they really were trying to avoid that.

And they thought that they had her when she peeled out of a neighborhood and she started toward downtown redding but then they realized that the kids were with her and they were headed to some kind of music class like she was dropping them off so once they were sure that they they like had to redo their plan really quickly so once they sure that Sherry was inside the building, they sent an agent in to tell her that somebody had hit her car outside.

Oh, yeah.

Hoping they could get her outside without alerting the kids.

So she like lost her shit and ran out.

And unfortunately, when she ran out, her kids followed her because she had made such a scene.

She screamed about it. So they witnessed the the arrest take place which is really sad she screamed no and actually tried to run away from the agents which i was like where did you think you were going one thing has it's self-confidence and audacity believes in herself and audacity yeah in abundance like where are you going where are you going where are you going hide in the piano the whole world knows who you going? Literally the entire world.
Luckily, she was quickly subdued and handcuffed before being put in the back of the agent's car. And luckily, also, the kid's piano teacher stayed with them and called Keith to let him know what was going on.
She was like, hey, you have to come get the kids because they got Sherry. A few days later, the family released a statement expressing outrage over the way in which the arrest was handled, saying we love Sherry and are appalled by the way in which law enforcement ambushed her on Thursday afternoon in a dramatic, unnecessary manner in front of her children.
I can understand. I can too.
That's their children. Yeah.
You know what I mean? That's that family's babes. I would be really upset if any kid that I love witnessed that.
So I can fully understand that. And they also didn't know that there was a completely different plan and that it just didn't work out.
Yeah. So they were thinking they just did this to do it.
And I'm sure knowing that, like retroactively, they're probably thankful that at least they tried to not involve the children. But I can totally understand why they were pissed.
Same. 100%.
Yeah. Like outside of the kids' music class, that sucks.
Yeah, that that really does suck but the news of sherry's arrest shocked friends and family and those around the country who were following the story but not everyone was surprised by the arrest a lot of people were shocked but most there there was a large group of people that were like meh the reading local tim scarborough said there was so much that questioned the validity of her story i I didn't believe it for a moment. Good for you Tim.
He had actually covered Cherry's story on his blog but in the week in the wake of her mysterious return he started to get suspicious of the inconsistencies and the various aspects that didn't make sense. And his public skepticism actually he got a considerable backlash from people.
I'm sure. To the extent that he received like threats of violence because i mean because it's it's hard it's like you're publicly being suspicious of something that could go the other way yeah and it's like that can be a obviously that would be awful that's not if you were saying like this is a hoax and then it turns out it's not and they catch the people and you know she went through this whole thing right exactly that's fucked up it's never okay to threaten violence against someone that's the thing like you can disagree with someone people who do that disagree normalize disagreements without saying i'm gonna hurt you physically it's cool it's cool if you don't agree yeah it's fine it's the way of the world everyone stop threatening everyone my god people are just everyone's gonna chill out day and age everybody's just so angry we gotta calm down everybody is really calm down you need to calm down what does she say after that yeah it's taylor swift oh yeah yeah you're being too loud so damn 7 8 alaina loves to say damn it's 7 a.m.
It's true the Swifties are going crazy right now I love that song it's a great song I think it's funny so other community members were outraged by the racist undertones of Sherry's story um Araceli Gutierrez a business consultant who works pretty name a gorgeous name Araceli Araceli really pretty. I actually I looked it up I think it means something.
I really like that. It means something but it means something pretty I was pretty sure.
You know that while you look it up there was this uh Ash and I I remember True Life on MTV it was like where it's at. I miss True Life all the time.
There was that um Respect My Sect. Yes.
Or no it was I'm a Witch. That's what it was it was like i'm a witch or respect my sect one of those yeah and it was it had that vampire cult that was in the other one in it again i think they were in at least two yeah i think you're right and uh because i think it was like i'm a vampire or something true life i'm a vampire or something yeah and there was a girl named araceli i think it was oh shit who was witch, but also was like a vampire as well.
Oh, you're right. I remember that episode.
And she seemed like such a sweet human. I just like putting it up.
I remember hearing her name and I was like, oh, that's a beautiful name. It's beautiful.
It has a beautiful meaning. It means altar of the sky or altar of heaven.
I love that. And it comes from the Latin wordsin words aura meaning altar and celly meaning sky oh that's beautiful yeah it just like every as soon as you hear it it's just like oh it feels very like whimsical it does yeah it's certain names and like words just like when they come out you feel like they like they twinkle when they come out yes that's crazy because i can see it i'm like i just feel it twinkling.
She like wiggled her fingers and then I said twinkle at the same time. That was awesome.
So your name is Araceli. Your name Twinkle.
Your name Twinkle is and me and Alina share a brain cell about it. That was wild.
That was crazy. That's been happening a lot lately.
Yeah, that goes crazy. I'm just kidding.
Don't go away. But Araceli Gutierrez, she was a business consultant and she works with the Latino community in Northern California.
And she said, saying these two Hispanic women kidnapped her and all the lies that came out of the story, it's just too much. It absolutely is.
I agree, Araceli. And you think of like, there is a huge Latino population in California.
And you probably, you fucked up their businesses as well. Oh my God, yeah.
Because you put out this shit and now all these people are probably being victimized because of your racist lies. They absolutely were.
There was like an uptick in threats and violence against the Latino community. And these like Latino run businesses, these women Latino run businesses, they're the ones suffering for your bullshit.
And that's why she wanted to do it. Ooh, it makes me so mad.
She literally, like that was part of it. It was so far reaching the bullshit that she committed.
It really was. And given the timeline and the tone around the country Gutierrez told reporters the Papini story just gave a lot of people reason to believe in Trump's rhetoric.
It really sowed division. And it's like nobody should be sowing division.
No. Especially at that time.
Like come on. Like it's just unity my friend.
Unity. Exactly.
We're're all people let's just try to get it together let's just try to do the best we can don't fuck up other people's businesses don't fuck up other people people's businesses don't be a racist asshole like support small businesses lift up communities that are like you know oppressed like yeah come on it's so much easier to do that and how much we've seen in history what happens when you're shitty to marginalized communities and when you don't so discord like why do we just continue to do it and it's also just gonna like i know we're just we're like guys stop being dicks i feel like people listen to this show are beautiful souls so they're like i'm not being yeah tell everybody that's that's being a

dick don't like you're trashing your own soul yeah by doing that you're trashing it it's true it's a waste dump in there don't trash your own soul you want to twinkle like aricelli yeah you got to bring this soul to your next lifetime it's got to be like clean and shit it's like the older you get the more you realize that it's just like damn i've said that to everybody needs to show i'm I'm like, you know, approaching the old age of 30.

And I'm just, I'm realizing time is limited no it's true and i'm not trying to do fuck shit with the time that i have here and you get you know you get more with honey yes it's true exactly honey is a cure-all i love honey it tastes good and she lasts like so long there you go anyways honey we're really we're We're really getting a little off topic. Morbid in the morning.
Morbid in the morning. And I haven't had any coffee.
According to the FBI affidavit, Sherry's emphasis on her supposed kidnapper's ethnicity led to, quote, years of tips from Reading and the surrounding communities about suspicious looking Hispanic women. And that's fucking tragic.
Yeah. Like, think of all the people that were just stereotyped.
Yeah. And harassed.
Yeah, and turned into a villain. Yeah, when they're not.
Other members of the community were simply just fucking angry that they'd been duped into expending an enormous number of resources on a woman who had never been in any real danger. Family friend Jane Atkins said she had us essentially on a witch hunt.
There were numerous posts on local social media group pages of sightings of women who looked like the suspects or similar vehicle descriptions had a lot of women on edge. And that's the thing.
It's like, so she really didn't care because people get wily in these situations. And it's like didn't give a shit if these if innocent women that happen to match that description or god forbid drove a similar car yeah like people can go vigilante on people like it's happened it's like obviously you don't want it to happen but it's like but they do people do it and especially when there's like really big uproar and something like you're being portrayed as this like blonde mom super mom housewife that like just got snatched up by these evil hispanic women and it's like so people are gonna go crazy and it's like and you just didn't care if innocent women were attacked on your behalf because she's a racist like she just doesn't care part of her wanted that to happen that's that's why she went out to me that's boggling that two hispanic women did this to her that's really mind-boggling to me fucked and it's like you said she specifically said women women because she had a problem she had claimed she had had a problem with girls in the past and it's like all i'm thinking because she was like because i was drug free and proud to be white yeah like i would proud of my blood being proud to be white but also like because you were drug for i'm i'm not like i have never witnessed in an act of bullying where some girls are angry because some girl is drug free and white well you know what that was that was another that was her putting another stereotype and being like well they were drug were drug addicts.
That's what it is. She's putting all the racist rhetoric into one little sentence there.
Little tiny blog post. It's like, me, I'm drug free, but they couldn't be.
Nobody gets bullied for being drug free. Fuck off.
Nobody gave a shit about you, Jerry. Are you fucking kidding me? Others in Reading echoed the sentiment.
Reading resident Erin Friedman told a reporter, I was worried about her and and her kids it seemed like such a kick in the teeth of a community that didn't deserve to be treated like that she stabbed our community in the back with every step she took boom I think Erin put it perfectly but unfortunately if anybody was waiting for any kind of reasonable explanation for Sherry's behavior and lies they were sorely disappointed disappointed. In a statement to the press, Sherry's lawyer, William Portanova, said his client had a, quote, complicated mental health situation, I'll say, but one that has to be confronted and dealt with, and that includes admission and acceptance and punishment.
As far as why she did what she did, Portanova did not have that answer. He said, honestly, I don't know if if anybody does i don't know if she even she knows and honestly whatever explanation she would give would not i don't want to hear it anyway no it just none of it is is valid maybe excuses for yeah piss poor behavior the only excuse you you would have is i am devoid of humanity literally that would literally be the only explanation that i'd be like thank you i'd rather hear that thank you for telling me that because like that's really it i'm devoid of anything good sorry sorry for that yeah like that would be the only i'd be like okay that's full ownership right there yeah well she didn't do that whether she could explain herself or not sherry knew that there was no point in carrying on her protest because still she was like no this really happened no but in early april 2022 she did agree to plead guilty and she provided a documented confession in exchange for a reduced sentence which i wish was never on the table the fact that she wouldn't with confronted with all that evidence she's still still wouldn't admit it until she got something out of it still wow yeah In a statement released through her attorney, she said,

I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so sorry for the pain I've caused my family,

friends, and all the good people who needlessly suffered because of my story and those who worked

so hard to try to help me. I will work the rest of my life to make amends for what I have done.

Good. I hope you do.
You know what I didn't hear in there? A direct apology to the Latino community.

You literally victimized them. Yeah.
I'm sorry to Hispanic women for completely demonizing you. She said, I'm sorry to my family, my friends, and good people.
Yeah. Who the fuck are you to determine who's a good person? How about you say sorry to the community that you completely victimized for years? Years.
Years. Like, what the fuck is wrong with you yep but per her agreement with

the prosecutor's office sherry papini was sentenced to remember she was facing 25 years and i remember watching this and being like are you fucking kidding me she was sentenced to 18 months in prison to me that is a travesty it is a tragedy it really is and it that was to be followed by a 36-month period of supervised probation and an order to pay back the $309,902 in restitution. Wow.
That's what she received. Wow.
In total from like GoFundMes and victims, compensation boards. While she was incarcerated, Keith Papini filed for a divorce and the court granted him full custody of their children.

There is a very interesting admission that Keith makes about what Sherry may or may not have done with their children.

Yeah, watch the documentary.

I don't want to get too much into it in here because it's just a detail that I can either confirm or deny.

Unsubstantiated as far as we know.

But it's interesting.

But it's what he says. And I'm happy that he has full custody.
But definitely watch The Perfect Wife on Hulu. But in August of 2023, Sherry was released from prison and she transitioned to a halfway house.
As of March of 2024, she has yet to pay any of her fine, which with penalties is now nearly $350,000. What an an asshole i love that she's just an asshole from start to finish still not even paying her fucking retribution yeah yeah or restitution whatever it is like she says i'm gonna work the rest of my life to make amends and it's like and all you can say is like yeah i hope you do yeah i do hope you do i hope you work until your last breath to make amends.
I hope that. But immediately you're not.
You're immediately getting out and not paying back any of the money. It's fucked up because it's like now you look back on it and you're like, what the fuck? Like, what an asshole.
That's insane. What a crazy story.
And it's like, while this was all going on, the pain and suffering and grief and stress that she caused for several parts of her life. And trauma.
And communities. Like trauma for her family.
It was so real. Yeah.
And it's like, you look back on it now and can at least, it can be like, wow, that was fucked up. But during it, it's like, damn.
Like the trauma you inflicted. It's fucked.
In about 40 different directions is wild. And especially.
Especially on your kids. That's the thing.
the thing and it's like lady if you wanted to disappear write a note and disappear yeah and then he can file for divorce he can gain custody of the kids if you wanted to you want to leave your whole life behind go right ahead it's just the the delulu that she thought she was going to just have the perfect like gone girl it you have the perfect disappearance and never get caught yeah i just don't know how she returned and looked in her kids eyes every day well why'd you come back oh because she had to she wanted the attention but it's like on and all of the above like how you didn't think that was gonna come out like it's just well and they they were having trouble in their marriage definitely like obviously she was still talking to her ex-boyfriend and they weren't happy and i think she saw this as her because keith even says it in the documentary she would bring it up daily like everything her ordeal that she had gone through and she would make him feel bad that he didn't save her oh yeah like she Like she would literally be like, you didn't save me. You didn't find me.
And I have to live with that. I have to live with the fact that you didn't find me.
So it made it so that she had the upper hand in the marriage. Whoa.
Like the asshole meter is, it broke. The psychological torment.
Because she did all the things that we just talked about and then had the fucking audacity to look at her husband who she tortured psychologically for weeks. Yep.
And say, well, I have to live with the fact that you didn't find me because you didn't want to be found. Like, holy shit.
Exactly. You went to great lengths to not be found.
To make sure you weren't found. Like, damn.
Meanwhile, you watched him beg for your return, search, do all the things. And it still wasn't enough.
While taking care of your children. And it still wasn't enough.
And still you're gonna make him feel like the shithead? Yep. You are the ultimate shithead.
And I think it was all so that she could come back and have him dote upon her and like, I think she thought he was gonna realize what he lost. Yeah.
It didn't quite work out that way. It is just the case is maddening.
Bonkers. Maddening.
I'm glad they caught her. Yeah, same.
Because if it was still hanging out in the air, is it a hoax, is it not a hoax? That would be maddening. I found another, I can't think of the name of the case right now, but I found another hoax that I want to cover.
Yeah. I find them fascinating.
They are fascinating. I find them disgusting and horrific, but I find them fascinating.
So infuriating. That somebody can go to those lengths and just have not a care in the world for what they're doing to everybody.
That's nuts. That's the real thing that gets you is they don't care how it's affecting everyone that they supposedly claim to care about like that is void of all empathy yeah of all empathy to take it so far it's crazy but yeah crazy case i definitely want to cover some more like these i do like cases where people don't die like you know yeah that's nice that's pretty nice a nice break to have i mean it's horrifying still horrifying but Still horrifying, but in a completely different way.
Yeah. I think I'm probably going to take you back to a dark place.
Yeah, that's what you're here for. A darker place, I should say.
Oh. What do you have cooking in the kitchen? I guess we'll have to see.
We'll wait and find out. That was so ominous.
I tried. Alita's still so thick and spooky season.
I am. Spooky season for life.
I love it. I'm like, Merry Christmas.
Happy Hanukkah, everyone. And I'm like, still spooky.
So spooky. Well, to all our spooky listeners out there and to all our November 1st girlies and guys and they's and them's, we hope you have a wonderful day and we hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you go and you develop an entire hoax kidnapping story

of just be an asshole don't do that i talked so much i don't go listen to listener tales

because there's a video yeah maybe there will be another one

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