In the Papini case, the process led investigators to Reyes. A DNA sample collected from items in his trash confirmed the match: the male DNA on Papini’s clothing, recovered in 2016, came from James Reyes.
FBI agents interviewed Reyes on August 10, 2020. His initial statement was that he had not spoken to Papini in years. That statement did not hold.
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## James Reyes: What He Told Investigators
Reyes changed his account during the August 2020 interview and provided what investigators and prosecutors would later characterize as a materially different and accurate version of events.
He told agents that Papini had contacted him before she disappeared. She had told him that her husband Keith was abusing her. He had believed her. At her request, he had used a rental car — leased through a friend — and driven to pick her up in Redding on or around November 2, 2016, the day she was reported missing.
Papini had stayed with him at his home in Costa Mesa, in Southern California, for the duration of the period during which she was “missing.” She had been there voluntarily.
Reyes said he had known nothing about the kidnapping story — about the two Hispanic women, the dark SUV, the captivity in a closet. He did not know that Papini had staged a disappearance. He had been helping a woman he believed was fleeing domestic abuse.
The injuries — the bruising, the brand, the weight loss — were, Reyes said, in large part self-inflicted or arranged at Papini’s request. He said she had asked him for help with some of the injuries, including the branding. He said the branding was her idea and her request. He was specific. He passed a polygraph examination administered by law enforcement.