'The Vanishing Act' How Sherri Papini faked her own kidnapping | Nightline — Transcript

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1. 0:02um so I just got home from work and uh
2. 0:05my wife wasn't there which is unusual
3. 0:07you had this beautiful blonde mom of two
4. 0:10who all of a sudden had vanished she is
5. 0:13considered at risk due to the suspicious
6. 0:16circumstances
7. 0:17I knew something was wrong my first
8. 0:20thing was somebody took her and that
9. 0:23begins the search for Sherry papini
10. 0:27police were pretty shocked to find that
11. 0:29Sherry had been branded on the upper
12. 0:32right portion of her back
13. 0:35there is a massive break in the case and
14. 0:38now it all comes crumbling down
15. 0:40night the
16. 0:42tale of Sherry papini and The
17. 0:44Disappearance that engrossed the country
18. 0:47from everyone we talked to Sherry who
19. 0:50was a stay-at-home mom cherished her
20. 0:52family life doting on their
21. 0:54four-year-old son Tyler and their
22. 0:55two-year-old daughter violet
23. 0:58take me back to that day I went to work
24. 1:00and I didn't get home until around five
25. 1:04o'clock I looked in a few different
26. 1:06rooms and I couldn't find anybody
27. 1:08and I called our daycare type place
28. 1:12first thing I said is what time did
29. 1:14Sherry pick up the kids today and when
30. 1:17she said the kids are here
31. 1:20that was like
32. 1:22something is wrong Miss papini has been
33. 1:25entered into a national computer for
34. 1:27missing persons she is considered at
35. 1:30risk there's so much about the abduction
36. 1:33that just doesn't add up and so what's
37. 1:36so very little to go on investigators
38. 1:39can only do one thing at this point and
39. 1:41that's Focus their attention on Keith
40. 1:43papini local officials are saying her
41. 1:45husband's polygraph test indicates that
42. 1:47he had no involvement with her
43. 1:49disappearance adding that they were also
44. 1:51able to confirm his whereabouts the day
45. 1:54she went missing
46. 1:56for 22 days the police searched for
47. 1:59Sherry when in the pre-dawn hours of
48. 2:01Thanksgiving morning 150 miles south of
49. 2:04reading a driver spots a woman in
50. 2:06distress on the side of the highway
51. 2:09and I want emergency what are you
52. 2:10reporting
53. 2:12hi I have an emergency there's a lady on
54. 2:14the side of the road needing help he
55. 2:17stays chained up her vision flurry and
56. 2:20she needs an ambulance do you see her
57. 2:22chained up yes her name is Sherry panini
58. 2:26Sherry is taken to the hospital where
59. 2:29her clothing gets processed and sent out
60. 2:31for DNA testing looking at her injuries
61. 2:33at the hospital
62. 2:35I was shocked by them for it to be all
63. 2:37over her face her arms her legs and her
64. 2:40chest and her back was just alarming
65. 2:42Sherry told investigators that her
66. 2:45kidnappers told her that she was going
67. 2:49to be sold to someone as part of a sex
68. 2:53trafficking ring she tells detectives
69. 2:55she was kidnapped and physically abused
70. 2:57by two Hispanic women I think she may
71. 3:00have teased me I'm not I don't remember
72. 3:02I don't remember the magazine
73. 3:07police were pretty shocked to find that
74. 3:10Sherry had been branded on the upper
75. 3:12right portion of her back
76. 3:14and I they said I was Brandon that's
77. 3:18what they said thanks it hurts so bad
78. 3:23Sherry papini has endured three weeks of
79. 3:26bathing and abuse and torment then after
80. 3:29all that the kidnappers Let Her Go
81. 3:31Sherry says she has no idea why they
82. 3:35suddenly decided to release her
83. 3:38once she returned home we went from
84. 3:41worrying about finding a lady
85. 3:43to now finding her abductors
86. 3:46in this just released video you see
87. 3:48detectives from the Shasta County
88. 3:50Sheriff's Office interviewing Sherry at
89. 3:53her home she was in a ball and a cocoon
90. 3:55essentially with her knees up to her
91. 3:57chest there was boards on the windows
92. 4:00Sherry tells investigators that she was
93. 4:02chained to a very specific kind of pole
94. 4:05in the closet there was a chain around
95. 4:07my waist
96. 4:09do you know what what you were affixed
97. 4:11to was it the tether was it like a robe
98. 4:14a metal cable
99. 4:16was the cable affixed to the wall and
100. 4:18like the cable was loose the cable was
101. 4:20affixed to a pole that went up into the
102. 4:23ceiling
103. 4:27the sheriff held a news conference today
104. 4:29describing Sherry papini as courageous
105. 4:31and revealing details about her
106. 4:33three-week ordeal suspect number one had
107. 4:36long curly hair
108. 4:39she had a thick accent suspect number
109. 4:41two get straight black hair with some
110. 4:44green color but there are others who
111. 4:47thought that certain details of Sherry's
112. 4:49story weren't actually consistent with
113. 4:51sex trafficking
114. 4:53in the months following her return
115. 4:55Sherry says she continues to suffer from
116. 4:58trauma she gets professional help from
117. 5:00the government from a government program
118. 5:03that gives financial aid to victims of
119. 5:06crime and it paid thousands of dollars
120. 5:08for therapy to treat the anxiety and
121. 5:10PTSD that Sherry claimed she suffered
122. 5:13from that kidnapping
123. 5:18this morning the FBI released these new
124. 5:21suspect sketches
125. 5:25chose two Hispanic women but with their
126. 5:29faces covered up around the same time
127. 5:32investigators also get back results from
128. 5:34the crime lab that's been examining
129. 5:36Sherry's clothing and there's a DNA hit
130. 5:38exactly what they were hoping for but
131. 5:41the results are confusing the DNA was of
132. 5:45a male and it would be somewhat
133. 5:47incongruent with the allegations that
134. 5:50she made that she was abducted by two
135. 5:52Hispanic women The Next Step was to
136. 5:55enter that DNA profile into the law
137. 5:58enforcement database to see if this
138. 6:01unknown guy is in the system and we get
139. 6:04a return that it nothing matched with it
140. 6:07and so now we're back to the drawing
141. 6:09board I assume you're also looking into
142. 6:10Sherry's background there's some a
143. 6:12little bit of red flags there
144. 6:14investigators talked to her first
145. 6:16husband because Sherry had been married
146. 6:18before according to the police he said
147. 6:21yeah but you know she was a real liar
148. 6:24she made up a lot of stories police say
149. 6:27many friends and relatives were less
150. 6:29than supportive and then you had the
151. 6:31other half that say she's super mom she
152. 6:33would never leave you know there was
153. 6:35some infidelity issues in her background
154. 6:38that even Keith had told us about issues
155. 6:41with infidelity issues with lying and
156. 6:43history of running away I was telling my
157. 6:46staff unless we have some very strong
158. 6:47evidence to disprove her allegations we
159. 6:51need to continue forward with the
160. 6:52investigation
161. 6:57as the years went on it went maybe from
162. 7:00frustration that they couldn't find the
163. 7:03two alleged abductors to more curiosity
164. 7:06whatever happened with Sherry papini's
165. 7:08case
166. 7:09investigators asked permission of the
167. 7:12courts to be able to run that DNA
168. 7:16against all those DNA ancestry type
169. 7:20websites they're hoping somebody in this
170. 7:23guy's family had used one of those DNA
171. 7:25websites if they find a relative they've
172. 7:28got a lead and it worked this man has
173. 7:31two sons one of those Sons used to date
174. 7:34Sherry papini it came back to James
175. 7:38Reyes an ex-boyfriend and you see James
176. 7:41Reyes in a photo with Sherry from one of
177. 7:44her social media posts it's a massive
178. 7:46break in the case so the FBI field
179. 7:49officer and myself went down to James's
180. 7:51residence to do the confrontation hello
181. 7:54good morning
182. 7:56we're here guarding Sherry papini okay
183. 7:58I'm just trying to figure out how you
184. 7:59know her when was the last time you
185. 8:01talked to her well me and Sherry dated
186. 8:03back in no too and I haven't talked to
187. 8:06her in years there's information that I
188. 8:08think you have about the induction yeah
189. 8:10I mean I just that's all I can get I
190. 8:12don't I all I know is what I read about
191. 8:13it and it's not until 53 minutes into
192. 8:16this interview that they get Reyes to
193. 8:19finally come clean
194. 8:21I didn't kidnapper you know I just
195. 8:24friend in need asking for help and that
196. 8:27was that
197. 8:33I don't know what her deal was she made
198. 8:36up stories you know Keith was abusing
199. 8:39her she needed to get out of that
200. 8:40relationship the ex-boyfriend's version
201. 8:42of what happened is radically different
202. 8:45but you're saying absolutely it was just
203. 8:48human her in the car there were no
204. 8:50females involved I don't know anybody's
205. 8:51minerals I mean this is yeah this is he
206. 8:54was duped by her but he went along with
207. 8:56it I didn't know what the final plan was
208. 8:58like were we gonna end up together was
209. 9:00that her plan but it's fair to say you
210. 9:02were hoping maybe you can get together
211. 9:03with her uh no no I wasn't there yet
212. 9:06she instructed James to get a rental car
213. 9:10leave his cell phone at his house and
214. 9:13drive the nine hours or so to get to
215. 9:16Redding California to pick her up he
216. 9:18gets her down to his apartment gives
217. 9:20Sherry the bedroom and he sleeps on the
218. 9:23couch
219. 9:24Sherry told the world that she had sat
220. 9:26there locked up chained miserable abused
221. 9:29but Raya says the truth
222. 9:32was that she voluntarily spent time
223. 9:34alone reading the news about her own
224. 9:37disappearance
225. 9:39starts to act
226. 9:41according to him he starts losing a lot
227. 9:44of weight
228. 9:48far more
229. 9:49to remember all those terrible injuries
230. 9:52covering Sherry's body
231. 9:54how did all that stuff I mean she did
232. 9:56while she was here I mean she just hit
233. 9:58herself with something creative bruise
234. 10:00or something she's bleeding bruised
235. 10:03burned and scarred then she says to him
236. 10:07I need you to Brand my back I'm like oh
237. 10:11this is probably gonna hurt I mean I
238. 10:12don't I've never done this
239. 10:14and then she was like I'm ready to go
240. 10:16back to the kids and she started missing
241. 10:18her baby and I'm like of course she's
242. 10:20like I'm ready to go I was like
243. 10:22Thanksgiving day I'm just like seriously
244. 10:26then Before Dawn on that now Infamous
245. 10:29Thanksgiving morning James Reyes says he
246. 10:32dropped Sherry off in a remote area when
247. 10:36we come back the authority close in on
248. 10:38Sherry papini and what she says when
249. 10:41confronted by Detectives
250. 10:49hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here
251. 10:51thanks for checking out the ABC News
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