On November 2, 2016, 34-year-old mother of two Sherri Papini said that she was kidnapped while jogging in her neighborhood in Redding, California.

When her husband Keith Papini got home that evening and discovered she was not there and hadn’t picked up their kids from daycare, he filed a missing person’s report.

A driver in Yolo County, California, saw Sherri walking by the side of the road on Thanksgiving morning, almost 150 miles from where she had vanished, and reported her to the authorities after she had been missing for more than three weeks and an extensive search.

She seemed horribly bruised and famished. Sherri told police that two Hispanic women in a dark SUV had abducted her at gunpoint, tormented her, and branded her body.

Keith hurried to a hospital in Woodland, California, as soon as he heard that she had been found alive.

Upon seeing her face and the way she gazed up at me, I immediately thought, “This isn’t real,” as Keith had previously told PEOPLE.

Sherri Papini was found eight years ago on Sunday, November 24. When the truth of Sherri’s supposed kidnapping came to light after years of investigation, she finally acknowledged that she had made up the whole story.

Keith, who helped police with the investigation, supported his wife for years despite his first instincts, thinking she had been taken against her will.

In June 2024, Keith told PEOPLE, “I was always trying to solve the case.” I was contacting the FBI all the time. Whenever she told me something, I would either write it down or find a photo of it to show the FBI.

But with no leads on the persons Sherri said had kidnapped and mistreated her, the case seemed to be fading. Detectives started to question her claims during the investigation into her disappearance. During the 22 days that Sherri was missing, authorities found that she was freely visiting her ex-boyfriend’s house in Costa Mesa, California.

In March 2022, Sherri was taken into custody in connection with the scam. Keith told the authorities that he was shocked and taken aback when Sherri was taken into custody for pretending to be kidnapped.

Weeks later, she entered a guilty plea to one count of mail fraud and one felony charge of giving false statements to federal agents. Additionally, she was mandated to pay back nearly $300,000 in restitution for government expenses incurred after her self-inflicted disappearance.

In a statement issued through her lawyer after the truth came to light, she expressed her deep shame at what she had done and said, “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 shall spend the remainder of my life apologizing for my actions.

Sherri was freed in early 2023 after receiving an 18-month prison sentence. After Sherri pled guilty, Keith filed for divorce and cut off contact with her. He told PEOPLE earlier this year that Sherri sees their two kids once a month during supervised visitation, but he now has sole custody of them.

“And it’s been much easier ever since [severing contact with Sherri], because now I just get to focus on the kids,” he recounted.

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