Rittenmeyer on The Project: Papini Update

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nicole Rittenmeier, how are you welcome to the Vinnie Penn Project.
Thanks for having Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker. Congratulations on
those accolades. It might just be another one in your future.
This is compelling stuff. Sherry Peppini caught in the lie
A story. I actually recall covering. I've been doing my

(00:23):
little show here for about fifteen years now. This is
but for people who need a refresher course. And I
did too, Like I knew the name was familiar, but
when I watched the trailer, I'm like, oh, yeah, she
was like the mom who It was very gone girl.
I remember thinking, yeah, yeah, which a lot of people
probably do say. She disappeared, mother of two turns up

(00:46):
on a highway three weeks later, claiming to have been
abducted and beaten and they were all self inflicted wounds
and catch people up on the story, and is this
her that you have an interview with her in this
documentary that airs begins airing Monday night. It's a Monday

(01:09):
into Tuesday, and it's also going to stream on Max
for those of you who want to check it out.
You have the first interview with her since like twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Two, the first interview with her ever. Actually, she has
never spoken to anyone other than the people in her
closest to her about what she says actually happened.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
You know, how could I even do this? I mean,
my knee jerk reaction to that is what did she say?
But I know you're just going to say, well, watch
the documentary, And of course begs the question, though, and
particularly someone in your position, why should we believe her?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
And that's exactly the question I asked her. I think
you sort of have to consider if someone lies once
or even many times, does that mean they're always a liar?
She maintains. I mean, I can tell you in broad strokes,
she maintains that despite what the conventional wisdom is about

(02:07):
what happened to her, she actually was kidnapped. If that's true,
and if you believe her, and I hope we give you, you know,
quite a bit of material to make that determination. You know,
that means there's been this horrible miscarriage of justice. Right
If even one little part of what she says is true,
that kind of changes the narrative significantly.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
But and I hate to talk about something I really
have no aptitude. I have you know, I've watched maybe
too many movies as far as this kind of stuff
is concerned. But a self inflicted wound, I'm of the
belief it's fairly easy to determine, like you know, the
by the angles and this and that. Wasn't that the

(02:54):
case when it came to her, to Sherry Peppini some
of them.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
But remember, the most consequential wound that she received was
a branding on her back. She was branded with a
wood burning tool on her right shoulder blade. I believe
might have been her left but she couldn't have done
that herself. The question is did she you know, did

(03:19):
she ask someone to do it or was it done
you know, against her will?

Speaker 1 (03:24):
And someone well, I guess it could have been her
ex husband. They're in the throes of a custody battle,
or at least they were at one time, right, So
it wasn't him. Maybe it was the ex boyfriend. Maybe
she was caught up. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, that's definitely wasn't the ex husband. That part I
can I can spoiler that for you, but I won't
say who she says it is because that is part
of the reveal that person denies it.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
I will say that how old are the kids now?

Speaker 2 (04:01):
I believe they are twelve and ten, And you're quite right.
She is in the throes as we are, speaking of
a custody trial on that she has her ex husband
has had custody since she went into prison. She's asking
the court to revisit since you know now that she's out,
so she gets increased custody and that's being determined now.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Damn you know hearing those I mean there were babies.
I mean when this went down, they were babies. Do
you have any footage? Do you have any idea? Is
there any love for mom? Or are they you know,
I can't imagine what they feel, what they think of her.

(04:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, it's a great question. I don't want to get
too much into their custody situation. As I said, it's ongoing,
but I will say this, there have been other documentaries
that have that Keith participated in, and he made it
a point to show the kids' faces, have them on camera,

(05:10):
show tons of footage, you hear their names, you hear
from them. For our show, Sherry was adamant the only
way she would do it would be if we promise
not to exploit the children because she felt she's they've
been exploited in the past. So we don't say their names,
you don't see their faces. Their faces are blurred. We
remove their voices when you can hear them in the video.

(05:31):
That was really important to her.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
You know, I struggle with that. I mean, you know,
I wonder how theatrical that is. Suddenly caring if what
we're all believing to be true is true, how much
could you possibly care about these children? That seems theatrical
to me. But I'm also being judgmental, so.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Well, we all are, and I think that's because we've
only heard one side of the story, right, So I
would only say that when you watch, keep an open mind.
I think Sherry has a she does have you're calling
something out here of any that people have commented on.
She has my very performative aspect. And when you're dealing

(06:15):
with somebody who's an unreliable narrator and you know, maybe
you're not going to trust, you think they're going to
play you, you know, you come to it thinking she's
working me. Right. I spent more time with her than
the FBI, and what I learned pretty quickly is that
is her personality. She has a big, expansive personality, and

(06:36):
the more time you spend, you realize, oh, this is
kind of just who she is. You know, I met
her mother, Her mother's interviewed on camera. Her mother has
the exact same personality, So it's not like, you know
that was was kind of a surprise to me because
I expected that there was a whole lot of performance happening.
And I think it's just kind of who she is.

(06:56):
She's a little bit goofy and a little bit theatrical,
but given her history, you know, everything she says you're
gonna is highly scrutinized. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
I remember when I was covering the story back in
two thousand and sixty, I just felt like there were
shades of Casey Anthony in the theatrical way, in the
there's more going on here, and it's kind of written
all over your face way. And I don't know, maybe
it could have been the dad in me too, especially
back then my kids were considerably considerably smaller, but I

(07:31):
remember feeling there were parallels. Fortunately, in this case, neither
child was hurt, and it's still with us. Does the
dad come across as level headed and like he's done
a good job all these years.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
That's a very good question. Keith did not participate. We
did invite him to. He but you know, he did
his own documentary with one was done last year. I
want to say on whom with his full participation. His
side of the story is out and in it as
you might expect, he you know, makes it pretty clear

(08:06):
that he feels that he is also a victim of Sherry.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Sure, I feel that too, Sure, you know. Yeah, when
you say he did his own, I'm sorry, excuse me, Nicole,
and again wrong with Nicole Rittenmeyer. She's made the documentary
Sherry Peppinie Caught in the Light airson i D Monday
night into Tuesday night and then we'll stream on Max.
But when you say Keith Pepinie he did his own, like,

(08:31):
did he make his own or he's just already been
in one?

Speaker 2 (08:35):
He's been in one. But they really based their story
on two narratives. One was what Keith told them and
the other was what the FBI, you know, investigated. And
what's interesting about this is Sherry does not dispute that
she lied to the FBI. Yeah, her story is YEP,
I lied. I lied the whole time. I was hiding

(08:56):
the identity of the person who did this to me,
and we explain why she would do something that odd.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Got to watch it, which is exactly what you want. Yeah,
you did a great job of aiming me right in
that direction. Compelling stuff. I want the full truth to
come out. I don't know if the full truth ever
comes out when it comes to these kinds of stories,
but I appreciate your work and your time.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Anny.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Take care.