How many children does Sherri Papini have? Details explored about her alleged kidnapping

Sherri Papini, a native of Redding, California, became the subject of widespread media attention in November 2016. She was kidnapped during an afternoon jog. She returned home after 22 days, claiming that she had been abducted and tortured by two Hispanic women. However, her story has changed over the years.

The 42-year-old woman has two children, Tyler and Violet, with her ex-husband, Keith Papini. They were married from 2009 to 2022, but Keith filed for divorce after it was proven that she had faked her own kidnapping.

Her story has been covered in the Lifetime television film Hoax: The Kidnapping of Sherri Papini, released in 2023. Hulu also released a documentary series titled Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini in June 2024.

Everything to know about Sherri Papini's kids

Sherri Papini as seen with her kids from the docuseries Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie (Image via X/@Investigation Discovery)

As reported by People on May 27, 2025, Sherri had married Keith Papini, an audiovisual specialist at Best Buy, in October 2009. They welcomed two kids together - a son named Tyler and a daughter named Violet. They were 4 and 2 years old, respectively, at the time of their mother's alleged kidnapping.

After it was revealed that Sherri had staged her own kidnapping and pleaded guilty to the charges in April 2022, Keith filed for divorce. He requested full custody of their kids. He told People Magazine at the time that he was solely focused on providing "a loving, safe, stable environment" for his two children.

In May 2023, the court handed Keith full custody of the children, and Sherri was granted monthly supervised visitation rights. As per Keith's statement to People in 2024, Tyler and Violet were "thriving" in school and kept themselves busy with extracurricular activities like basketball and dance.

"A lot of their childhood years were, in my opinion, stolen from them. So my biggest goal is giving them a happy and healthy life and surrounding them with loving people," he said.

According to a report by ABC7, published on March 22, 2025, Sherri was seeking to reunite with one of her children and increase visitation time with the other.

A look at Sherri Papini's kidnapping hoax

According to a report by The Guardian on November 25, 2016, Sherri went missing following an afternoon jog in Redding, California. After 22 days of extensive search, she was found on the side of the road near Interstate 5 in Yolo County on November 24, Thanksgiving Day. She claimed that two Hispanic women had abducted her and that she was subjected to torture and physical assault before her release.

However, an investigation revealed that she had faked her own kidnapping. She reportedly stayed with her ex-boyfriend, James Reyes, in Southern California during the three weeks that she was missing and inflicted physical wounds on herself to make her story seem believable.

As reported by CBS News, published on April 12, 2022, Sherri was arrested on March 3, 2022, and charged with 34 counts of mail fraud and one count of making false statements to the FBI. She pleaded guilty to one count each six weeks later in April 2022.

Thirty-three other counts of mail fraud were dropped as part of the plea agreement. NBC, on September 19, 2022, reported that she was ordered to pay $309,902 to various government entities as restitution.

She was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in September 2022 and was released in August 2023 to community confinement.

Despite taking responsibility for orchestrating the kidnapping in the past, Sherri has recently claimed that she was indeed abducted by James. Her explosive new claims are explored in a four-part docuseries titled Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie, which premiered on Investigation Discovery on May 26, 2025.

Viewers can stream the docuseries Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie on HBO Max.

About the author

Deepti is an entertainment writer at Sportskeeda. She comes with more than 6 years of experience in the creative writing field and has written extensively for the entertainment and travel domains.

She holds a degree in Chemistry, but her true interest always lay in the creative field. A passion for reading from a young age fueled her desire to make a career change later in life and take up writing as her profession.

Apart from reading, her hobbies include watching movies, listening to music, and going to the beach. In her free time, she can be found looking up reviews of new and old films to add to her watchlist. She also enjoys watching foreign language films that help expand her knowledge base regarding different cultures around the world.

Asked to describe herself, she would promptly mention that she is a die-hard Swiftie and enjoys nothing more than listening to Taylor Swift songs on loop while writing.

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Edited by Sriparna Barui