Sherri Papini, a 34-year-old mother of two, claimed to have been abducted while out for a morning jog in her Redding, Calif., neighborhood on November 2, 2016.
Her husband, Keith Papini, reported her missing that evening after returning home to find she was not present and had not picked up their children from daycare.
After more than three weeks lost and an exhaustive search, a motorist spotted Sherri on Thanksgiving morning strolling along the side of the road in Yolo County, Calif. — approximately 150 miles from where she had gone missing — and notified authorities.
She appeared malnourished and severely battered. Sherri informed police that she was kidnapped at gunpoint by two Hispanic ladies in a dark SUV, who tortured her and branded her flesh.
When Keith learned that she had been recovered alive, he raced to a hospital in Woodland, California.
“As soon as I saw her face, the way she looked up at me in that moment, I just felt, this is fake, this is not real,” Keith previously told PEOPLE.
Sunday, November 24, marks eight years when Sherri Papini was discovered. After several years of research, the truth about Sherri’s alleged kidnapping was exposed, and she eventually admitted to fabricating the entire narrative.
Despite his initial gut sense, Keith, who assisted authorities in the inquiry, stood by his wife for years, believing she had been taken against her will.
“I was constantly trying to solve the case,” Keith told PEOPLE in June 2024. “I was continuously reaching out to the FBI. Every time she told me something, I would write it down or look for a picture of it to present to the FBI.”
However, the case appeared to be becoming cold, with no leads on the suspects who Sherri claimed abducted and abused her. During the inquiry into her disappearance, detectives began to poke holes in her assertions. Authorities discovered that Sherri was freely visiting her ex-boyfriend’s home in Costa Mesa, California, for the entire 22 days she was absent.
Sherri was arrested in March 2022 in relation to the hoax. Keith informed police that he was “blindsided” and “in shock” when Sherri was arrested for faking her own abduction.
She pleaded guilty weeks later to one felony charge of providing false statements to federal investigators and one count of mail fraud. She was also ordered to repay more than $300,000 in restitution for government expenditures spent on her following her self-imposed disappearance.
After the truth was revealed, she said in a statement through her attorney that she was “deeply ashamed” of what she had done, adding, “[I am] so sorry for the pain I’ve caused my family, my friends, all the good people who have needlessly suffered as a result of my story, and those who worked so hard to help me. I will devote the rest of my life to making apologies for what I have done.
Sherri was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was released in early 2023. Keith filed for divorce and stopped communication with Sherri following her guilty plea. He informed PEOPLE earlier this year that he now has sole custody of their two children, with Sherri seeing them once a month during supervised visitation.
“And ever since [cutting off contact with Sherri] it’s been a lot easier, because now I just get to focus on the kids,” he recalled.