Keith Papini Is Still Learning Terrifying Things About His Ex-Wife Sherri Papini

In November 2016, five days after Sherri Papini was found, her husband Keith Papini spoke with People about what she endured after being kidnapped. The distraught father of two described her injuries, which were bruises, a broken nose, and scabs from being branded. "Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see upon my arrival at the hospital," said Keith. He also made sure to say with absolute certainty that her abduction wasn't a hoax. Sadly Keith was wrong.

Six years later authorities discovered that Sheri had lied about everything and spent three weeks hiding out at an ex-boyfriend's house. The injuries she sustained were self-inflicted. This resulted in an 18-month prison sentence though she was only incarcerated for 11 months. Since then, Keith filed for divorce in 2022 which was granted the following year. What is Keith Papini up to now? He's telling his story to the world.

Keith Papini decided he was tired of letting other people control the narrative. In June 2024 he spoke with ABC 7 NY ahead of Hulu's Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini about his motivation for participating in the docuseries. "I wanted to get the truth out," he told the outlet. "There's been so many lies out there, and misreportings during that time, and I really wanted to land a message of 'this is what happened to my family, friends, the community.' We were all taken advantage of."

In the docuseries, Keith spoke about feeling ashamed and embarrassed because Papini manipulated so many people for so long. Another emotion that lived rent-free in his body was anger. He still doesn't understand why his ex-wife did what she did, and Keith said he doesn't believe he can ever forgive her. "The ripple effect of how many people probably stopped jogging, weren't allowed to go on bike rides anymore, walk to school, I think so many people were affected," he said to ABC 7 NY.

As of the time of this writing, Sherri is allowed one hour of supervised visitation with her children per week. Perhaps this has something to do with a story Keith's daughter Violet told him. In the docuseries, he spoke of a time he was putting Violet to bed while Sheri was in prison. While getting up, Keith grunted a bit. It's the kind of sound anyone over the age of 40 is familiar with.

This caused Violet to ask if he was sick. She then said something strange. "Why don't you do what Mommy always did," suggested Violet. Confused, Keith asked her what she meant by that. "You just breathe in this rubbing alcohol," said Violet. She grabbed a bottle from the bathroom, soaked toilet paper in the odious liquid, and handed it to her father.

According to Violet, Sheri used to fill plastic bags with rubbing alcohol–soaked toilet paper and would then tie that around their necks. This forced them to breathe the rubbing alcohol in until they felt ill. Then she would take care of them. While Keith doesn't expressly say this, it sounds as if he's describing Munchausen syndrome by proxy, or factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA) as it's now called. It would certainly explain the kidnapping hoax as well.

The Cleveland Clinic defines FDIA as a "mental illness in which a person acts as if an individual he or she is caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick." Evidently the motivation behind this is to gain sympathy which in turn will get more attention. This is seen most often in mothers who then benefit from being praised for being such good caretakers.

Regardless, Keith's primary focus is taking care of his children. "I need to make sure I'm the best dad I can be to those kids," he said in the docuseries. "They have to grow up in this world, at the end of the day, their mom left them and lied to them and kept them in a bubble. So, they just don't want to be around her. It's just sad."