The ‘Supermom’ Who Became a Real-Life ‘Gone Girl’
Sherri Papini was regarded by all who knew her as a “supermom” who went above and beyond for her two young children as well as her husband Keith. So when the blonde-haired, blue-eyed 34-year-old vanished in 2016 while on a jog not far from her Redding, California, home, her family and the community were rocked. It wasn’t long before Sherri’s disappearance became national news, and things only got stranger when, 22 days later, she was miraculously found, the apparent victim of brutal torture. The story she spun horrified her loved ones and captivated the nation. As Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini reveals, however, it was actually a tall tale that resulted in far more questions than answers.
Hulu’s three-part docuseries (June 20) concerns a woman who seemingly had it all, and yet was clearly unhappy enough—for reasons that are open to debate—to risk everything via an unthinkably brazen stunt. Director Michael Beach Nichols’ docuseries benefits from the participation of virtually everyone close to this case (save for Sherri herself), and it suggests a number of hypotheses regarding why it happened in the first place. As multiple interviewees admit, Sherri’s true motives for her actions remain unknown, but that merely enhances the speculation-fueled mystery of this bizarre, headline-making saga.
On Nov. 2, 2016, Sherri dropped her kids off at daycare and went for a routine run. When Keith arrived home from work later that day and didn’t find her or the children waiting for him, he became suspicious. He soon learned that his son and daughter were never picked up, and that no one had heard from Sherri. When he snooped around the nearby area, he discovered her cellphone and headphones (with a bit of her hair) on the ground near their mailbox. This implied something awful, and he reported it to Shasta County police officer Kyle Wallace, who took the lead on the ensuing investigation into her whereabouts.