Deborah Roberts talks with 20/20 Senior Producer Sean Dooley about the latest developments in the story of a California mother who once falsely claimed she was abducted, held hostage for 22 days and branded against her will. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hello, everybody. It's Deborah Roberts with 2020 The After Show. This was a story that horrified people all around the country. A young mom claiming that she had been abducted, held hostage and even branded during her captivity. Well, then her story fell apart.
Sherry Pippini arrested on charges that she allegedly lied to federal agents about being kidnapped. News breaks that the mother of two has been arrested.
Now being accused of making the whole thing up. A stunning admission. Sherry Pippini has now admitted it was all a hoax. Will plead guilty to lying to federal agents about the case.
There's a plea deal. She's avoiding trial entirely. As part of this agreement, she has to admit, which she did in writing and through her attorney, that she made the whole thing up.
Sherry was sentenced to 18 months and was ordered to pay restitution. She served just under a year in federal prison and is now free.
Now, nearly a decade later, Sherry Papini is the subject of a new documentary where she gives her account of what she says happened. So, joining me now to dig into this story and 2020's long reporting on it is senior producer Sean Dooley. Hello, Sean. Hi, Deb. Good to be here. Good to be with you. You've been with us, obviously, here at 2020 for so long.
You and I are always catching up in the hallway on all these different stories. But now we get a chance to talk face-to-face about this story that you senior produced along with Matt Gutman. Correct. Who reported on it. Correct, yeah. Sean, people, I just remember when this story happened. And I think I remember, of course, my jaw dropping at the whole prospect of it. But
You know, when you think about, you know, a story like that, right, that a mom has been abducted. And although we've seen a lot of stories where things have gone sideways, so I sort of wondered about it, but we were following it from the very beginning. And I don't know, I mean, were there doubts in the beginning?
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