Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Denise Huskinsâ infamous 2015 âGone Girlâ kidnapping has been in the headlines for nearly a decade. People Magazine reported that Matthew Muller, an ex-marine and disbarred lawyer, broke into Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinnâs Vallejo home on March 23. Muller terrorized the couple, kidnapped Huskins, and took her to a remote location where he raped her. The kidnapper kept her captive and finally released her two days later.
Authorities and media initially refused to believe the coupleâs story and dubbed Huskinsâ kidnapping the âGone Girlâ hoax after Gillian Flynnâs famous book. Per the outlet, they only found justice a few months later when Muller was caught committing a similar crime. Investigators then found evidence that linked him to Quinn and Huskinsâ claims.
In 2016, Denise Huskinsâ kidnapper, Matthew Muller, pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping charges and received a 40-year sentence. Muller faced additional state charges of kidnapping, rape, burglary, and robbery, but was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Meanwhile, Huskins and Quinn sued the City of Vallejo and reached $2.5 million in 2018, per The New York Post. People Magazine further reported that the couple tied the knot that same year and are now parents of two daughters.
Recently, Netflixâs true-crime series American Nightmare chronicled Huskinsâ story. The three-part series is now available to stream on the platform.
How was Denise Huskinsâ kidnapper caught?
According to People Magazine, Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn had to wait months to get justice after the March 2015 attack. Law enforcement caught Huskinsâ kidnapper, Matthew Muller, three days after the second home invasion incident. Initially, the media and police believed the coupleâs claims to be a hoax. Then, in June, police investigating a case of home invasion 40 miles away in Alameda County found evidence that linked Muller to Huskinsâ kidnapping incident.
The New York Post stated that the three months between the attack and Muller getting caught were âunsustainableâ for the couple. Quinn told People Magazine, âThose months in between were unsustainable and we werenât able to go back to work.â He claimed that the cause was âpartly because of trauma and partly because they wouldnât let us.â
Quinn claimed that the hoax made it difficult for him and Huskinsâ to return to work, âWho wants to hire a hoaxer? So thatâs a big challenge in the digital age. You canât move towns and get away from it. Anyone can just search you and then decide âI donât want to work with this person,â or âI donât want to hire this person.'â
Denise Huskinsâ kidnapping took place in the early morning hours of March 23, 2015, per the outlet. She and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn were asleep when Muller broke into their home, bound them using zip ties and put blacked-out swimming goggles and headphones on them playing recorded messages. The intruder also forced the duo to ingest a sedative before kidnapping Huskins, Quinn recounted to ABC News. The attacker also stole their belongings, including Quinnâs laptop.
Quinn claimed to have woken up the next afternoon after taking the sedative. He then informed police about the said abduction, but they treated him as a suspect in Huskinsâs disappearance. Law enforcement reportedly accused him of harming his girlfriend and helped him in questioning for 18 hours.
On March 25, two days after the kidnapping, Denise Huskins turned up alive near her motherâs house in Huntington Beach. People Magazine reported that Huskinsâ recalled details from her kidnapping in Netflixâs American Nightmare. She claimed that the kidnapper Matthew Muller raped her twice while he held her captive for ransom. She alleged that the attacker recorded videos of both the assaults and threatened to release the footage publicly.
After Huskinsâ release, the Vallejo Police Department called the incident an âorchestrated event and not a kidnapping.â During a press conference at the time, a Vallejo P.D. spokesman said, âMr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins have plundered valuable resources away from our community and taken the focus away from the true victims of our community while instilling fear among our community members. So, if anything, it is Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins that owe this community an apology.â
Eventually, in June of that year, an investigator looking into a break-in in Dublin, California, 40 miles from Vallejo, made a breakthrough. On the night of June 5, 2015, an intruder broke into a coupleâs home, but they fought off the attacker and called 911. The attacker escaped, leaving behind a cell phone, zip ties, duct tape, and a glove.
The detectives who cracked the case, Misty Carasau, traced the phone to Matthew Mullerâs stepfather. Authorities later learned that Muller was also a suspect in a 2009 home invasion robbery in Palo Alto. Reportedly, Carasau found a pair of swimming goggles blacked out with duct tape in the suspectâs possession. Attached to those, they found a blond hair. Investigators then reported the evidence to the FBI to look into him as Denise Huskinsâ possible kidnapper.
Dublin police arrested Muller on June 8, 2015, for the local home invasion case. The FBI soon took him into custody after discovering evidence that linked him to Huskinsâ kidnapping. The evidence included Aaron Quinnâs stolen laptop.
According to People Magazine, David Muller is an ex-Marine and a disbarred attorney. Muller claimed that he suffered from the Gulf War illness. His attorney later said that he also suffered from bipolar disorder.
Muller pleaded guilty to one count of federal kidnapping in September 2016 and received 40 years in prison. Moreover, he faced state charges such as kidnapping, two counts of rape by force, robbery, and burglary. At first, Muller was mentally incompetent to stand trial on the state charges, but then, in 2022, he pleaded guilty, per People Magazine.
According to the California Department of Corrections, David Mullerâs current location remains undisclosable.
