Keith Papini Says Ex-Wife Sherri Falsely Claimed FBI Thought He Was Involved in Her Kidnapping (Exclusive)

After authorities confronted Sherri with evidence that she faked her own kidnapping, she continued to deny her involvement for years, her ex-husband says

Four years after Sherri Papini vanished while on a jog near her California home, Shasta County Sheriff's detectives called in her and her husband, Keith Papini, to talk.

"I felt before we went into that meeting, 'Hey, something good's about to happen,'" Keith tells PEOPLE.

Keith believed that finally, investigators had discovered who kidnapped his wife Sherri in 2016. On Nov. 2 of that year, Sherri disappeared in Redding, Calif., then miraculously was found 22 days later on a highway in Yolo, Calif., on Thanksgiving Day. She had a chain around her waist and was wearing restraints. Sherri claimed to authorities and her family that she was abducted at gunpoint and tortured by two Hispanic women.

For years, Keith had tried to solve the case, frequently contacting authorities and encouraging his wife to write down and explain details about where she was held. In 2020, when the Papinis received the call to come into the FBI office, he believed they had finally cracked the case.

"We sit down and [detectives] start displaying everything and as soon as they start putting the photos out, you can see my excitement," Keith says.

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Authorities showed him and Sherri multiple photos of a room that mirrored the description of the room Sherri said she was held captive in. Immediately, Keith thought this meant the detectives had a solid lead on the suspects, or had possibly even caught them. But he was perplexed by his wife's reaction.

"Sherri is just calm, cool, and collected," he recounted. "She doesn't get excited."

Related: Sherri Papini's Ex-Husband Offered Kids to Change Last Name So They Wouldn't Be Identified with Notorious Mom (Exclusive)

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Then, the detectives told them something even more shocking: The DNA found on Sherri's clothing when she was found linked back to her ex-boyfriend — and they were confident that Sherri concocted the kidnapping story and lied to everyone for years.

Keith — who shares two children with Sherri and was still married to her at the time of the interrogation — says he was completely blindsided.

"I'm just stunned and disgusted," Keith says. "I realized that she lied to everyone, or at least I thought in that moment."

After the interrogation, Sherri still claimed she was innocent and was not arrested at the time because of a lack of evidence.

"She says she didn't do it, she swears," Keith says. "Then she proceeded to tell me that when she was in the room with the FBI when I wasn't, they were telling her that I never passed the lie detector test and that I might have something to do with her kidnapping — which I started laughing. I was like, 'There's no way that's what they said.' So it starts immediately with Sherri. She starts planting her seeds."

Related: Keith Papini Says Ex-Wife Sherri Lied to Him About Her Faked Kidnapping and Torture for 6 Years: 'I'll Never Know the Truth' (Exclusive)

But authorities continued their investigation into Sherri's claims. Nearly two years later, she was arrested in connection with the kidnapping hoax in 2022 and eventually pleaded guilty to one felony charge each of lying to law enforcement and mail fraud in April of that year. (The ex-boyfriend who detectives determined Sherri stayed with for the 22 days she was missing was never charged.)

Days after her plea deal, Keith filed for divorce. Sherri was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and was released early in 2023.

Keith now has sole custody of their children, who are 9 and 11 years old, and no longer has contact with Sherri.

Keith Papini tells his story in Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini, a new three-part documentary series that began streaming on Hulu on June 20.

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