Kriti Mehrotra
It was November 2, 2016, when the entire community of Redding, California, came to a standstill as 34-year-old mother of two Sherri Louise Graeff Papini vanished without any clue left behind. Though little did anyone know she’d reappear 22 days later claiming she’d been kidnapped, as profiled in Hulu’s ‘Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini,’ only for it to later prove to have been a hoax. And we do mean “anyone” since her friends, husband, parents, as well as sister didn’t know this truth either, which is why they were all heavily involved in the ensuing expansive search for her.
Sherri Papini’s Relationship With Her Parents Was Once Difficult
Although born on June 11, 1982, in Northern California to Loretta and Richard “Rich” Graeff as the younger of their two daughters, Sherri’s childhood was far from cozy, happy, peaceful, or stable. That’s because apart from them not being financially comfortable, there was also “a lot of drug and alcohol abuse” within their small household, according to elder daughter Sheila Graeff Koester. This admittedly traumatized the youngsters to such an extent that while the latter became responsible at an early age, her sister began looking up to her as a mother figure before rebelling during her teenage years.
It turns out verbal exploits plus yelling matches were also apparently quite prevalent while the girls were growing up, which ultimately drove Sherri to drop out of high school and run away at 16. As per Sheila’s account in the documentary series, “She was down in the LA area for a while and then she was in the Bay Area for a while in her teens and 20s,” just to later return for good. But alas, that’s when things went from bad to worse, as evidenced by the fact Loretta and Rich made several calls to local law enforcement about their young daughter between 2000 and 2003.
While one report by Rich in 2000 alleged Sherri had broken in and vandalized his home, another from the same year claimed she’d kicked in her sister’s back door before simply walking away. Though arguably the worst of it came in 2003 when the then-21-year-old — back to living with the family at home — made unauthorized cash withdrawals from her father’s account and also began harming herself while putting the blame for the injuries on her mother. Yet, in the end, the family managed to internally handle their differences, so the then-close parents were unquestionably involved in the extensive search for Sherri after she went missing in 2016.
Where Are Sherri Papini’s Parents Now?
Despite the fact neither Loretta nor Rich has publicly spoken about any aspect concerning their family since 2017, they did release a statement once Sherri’s aforementioned dubious past came to light. They asked for privacy while expressing, “It is shameful that a media outlet would intentionally exploit Sherri and Keith Papini and their young children’s trauma for the sole purpose of clickbait,” especially as she was also being accused of lying about her alleged abduction. Little did they know it was indeed a hoax, as a result of which she was arrested, convicted, as well as sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in 2022, only to be released in August 2023.
Coming to Loretta and Rich’s current standing, it appears as if while they have never condoned or understood why Sherri did what she did, they do have a close relationship with her these days. In fact, according to recent court filings for her custody battle with ex-husband Keith Papini, her parents are now based in the same remote mountain town of Shingletown, California, as her. Furthermore, even though the Graeffs are around the age of retirement, she has even claimed they “work on the property of my house so they will be around to share their love and warmth with their grandchildren” if she is finally granted unsupervised visits/custody. Yet, no matter what the case may be, it’s evident they prefer to lead relatively quiet lives these days.
Read More: Sheila Koester: Sherri Papini’s Sister is Now Focusing on Her Family
