Sherry Papini cheated on her husband Keith and was previously married to an army veteran whom she married in order to access his public health insurance, according to a criminal lawsuit against her.
The 39-year-old man is currently charged with making false statements to the police. She claimed that in November 2016 she was held captive by two Hispanic women for 22 days.
Police say she was instead with her ex-boyfriend James Reyes, whom she tricked into hiding by saying she wanted to get away from her abusive husband.
Reyes told police that they did not have sex while she was with him and that she took over his bedroom while he slept on the couch.
The criminal case against Sherry reveals that investigators spoke to two other men as part of their investigation. One said he had a relationship with her when she was married after meeting her on a business trip.
Sherry Papini with her current husband Keith in a photo shoot. Investigators spoke to her ex-husband, two men who had previously dated her, and the director of a youth program in which she participated. Everyone said she was lying.
Another worked with her on a youth program and said she “craves attention” and “makes up stories to get attention”.
When the FBI confronted Sherri last August, she admitted to talking to other men while she was married and said it was a mistake.
James Reyes, 37, is a former boyfriend who hid California “supermom” Sherry Papini for 22 days.
The complaint also details how she was once married to an army veteran whom she convinced to marry her so she could benefit from his health insurance.
He spoke to investigators and told them that Sherry had told him that she needed insurance to treat her heart murmur. On other occasions, she said it was due to health complications caused by multiple egg donations.
In addition to Reyes, the ex-boyfriend with whom she allegedly spent 22 days of her absence, the police also spoke to a man named Person 1.
He told FBI agents that he met Sherry in 2011 while out of town for work and that they “spent the weekend together.”
According to him, after that they continued to exchange flirtatious messages.
He flew from his home state of Michigan to California weeks before she disappeared, and the couple planned to meet but never did. According to him, he returned home the day she disappeared without meeting her.
Man 2 met Sherri “around 2000-2001” on the youth program Friday Night Live.
He told police that they had been dating for “several years”.
“He described Papini as an attention-hungry man who told stories in an attempt to get people’s attention. Man 2 stated that Papini fabricated stories about being abused by her family, her father, and later Man 2 after the couple broke up.”
The program director was also interviewed by FBI agents and they said Sherry was “the only student” they were afraid of.
Papini asked her ex-boyfriend to pick her up on November 2 from her home in Redding, California. Then she got into the back seat, lying down as he drove seven hours south to Costa Mesa. For three weeks they lived in his apartment. According to prosecutors, she occupied the bedroom and he slept on the couch. He then took her back north, dropping her off at Woodland.
“Supermom” seemed to bounce back when she went out for pizza with her husband Keith in Redding, California in December 2017.
Reyes said the couple spent three weeks hiding in his Costa Mesa apartment and helped her fabricate the injuries she sustained when she returned home.
“Person 2 stated that Papini was the only student who was afraid to participate in the program because Papini “had a knack for creating different realities for people to see what she wanted them to see, which got her really good attention.”
Sherry’s first husband also gave an interview. He told investigators how their mutual friends told him after they broke up that she was a liar.
The couple married in 2006, before he traveled abroad.
Sherry’s husband Keith thought she needed marriage to get health insurance for heart murmur, but ex-husband said it was because she donated so many eggs that she had health problems.
Throughout the criminal case, he was referred to as “Man 3”.
“Man 3 has stated that he and Papini have never lived together or traveled together, except on one occasion when she visited Man 3 in Japan.
“When Man 3 returned from a business trip, Papini told him that she had found someone else and wanted a divorce, to which Man 3 agreed.
“Papini told Man 3 that her family abused her when she was growing up.
“After the divorce, man 3 heard from mutual friends that Papini was lying.”
When she was confronted by police in August, Papini admitted to talking to men when she was married.
She made a confession to explain why she was in contact with Reyes, an ex-boyfriend with whom she is accused of being in hiding.
She said she and Reyes “had talked a bit before” and said, “When I was out of town for work, I was talking to other guys. I made the mistake of talking to other men, and I shouldn’t have done that.”
She said that talking to other men was a mistake and added, “I’m terrible.”