Disclaimer: This text comprises mentions of kidnapping and assault. Reader discretion is suggested.
American Nightmare, Netflix’s newest three-part docuseries, seems into Denise Huskins’ story and the case in opposition to her kidnapper Matthew Muller. In response to The Guardian, Muller is a Harvard-trained disbarred lawyer and ex-marine. He’s now a convict of a number of federal crimes in addition to Huskins’ rape and false imprisonment, amongst different fees. The documentary sequence premiered on the streaming service on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.
The outlet reported that Denise Huskins’ kidnapper, Matthew Muller, broke into her boyfriend’s Vallejo, California, residence in March 2015. The couple have been asleep on the time. He then tied up the duo and terrorized them earlier than taking Huskins captive. The kidnapper then took her to a distant location the place he drugged and raped her.
Investigators have been in a position to hyperlink Muller to Huskins’ case, which police initially believed was a Gone Woman hoax after arresting him for a separate crime in June 2015. Years later, in 2022, Muller pleaded no contest to forcible rape and pleaded responsible to theft, housebreaking, and false imprisonment. On the time, he was already serving a 40-year sentence for federal crimes. The kidnapper obtained 31 years in jail for the costs stemming from Huskins’ case.
How was Denise Huskins’ kidnapper, Matthew Muller, caught?
The incident occurred on March 23, 2015, whereas Denise Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, have been asleep on the latter residence. Matthew Muller reportedly broke into the home, sporting a scuba swimsuit with a pretend gun. The Guardian acknowledged that he had been spying on the couple utilizing a drone earlier than that.
Muller then sure the couple utilizing zip ties, made them drink a sleep-inducing liquid, and blindfolded them. He then performed a pre-recorded message, making it seem to be there was a couple of kidnapper earlier than abducting Huskins and taking her to a distant location. There, the abductor raped her and held her captive for 2 days. Two days later, on March 25, he launched the sufferer in her mom’s Huntington Seashore residence.
Within the meantime, Huskins’ boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, reported the kidnapping to the police, as per the New York Publish. Quinn informed them about an e-mail he obtained from the abductors demanding a ransom of $17,000. Nonetheless, detectives solid doubt on his model of the occasions and even suspected his involvement in what they thought was Huskins’ homicide.
Moreover, as soon as the kidnapper launched Denise Huskins, the press and police dubbed the case the “Gone Woman” kidnapping, after Gillian Flynn’s standard guide. Nonetheless, in June of that very same 12 months, police arrested Matthew Muller in Dublin, California, for an unrelated however related residence invasion.
Radio Occasions reported that in the course of the incident, the home-owner managed to scare off Muller, and he fled the scene, leaving his telephone behind. Detectives then used the telephone and tracked it to Muller’s mom. She informed them that the telephone belonged to her son, who was staying at her South Lake Tahoe cabin.
Police arrested Muller on the lake home and likewise discovered different proof that linked him to Denise Huskins’ kidnapping. These included a pair of blacked-out swim goggles with a single strand of blonde hair. In response to the aforementioned The Guardian report, the search additionally turned up a pc he had stolen from Aaron Quinn. Furthermore, investigators discovered movies of Muller arranging cameras in a bed room. Additionally they discovered proof of him recording himself as he sexually assaulted his blindfolded sufferer twice.
The place is Matthew Muller now?
In response to Enterprise Insider, Denise Huskins’ kidnapper, Matthew Muller, confronted indictment in a Sacramento federal court docket on kidnapping fees in October 2015. The next 12 months, he pleaded responsible to kidnapping for ransom, and on March 16, 2017, he obtained a 40-year jail time period. Later, in 2018, the state filed fees in opposition to the kidnapper, to which he pleaded not responsible.
Nonetheless, Muller’s trial got here to a pause in 2020 after he was discovered mentally incompetent to face trial. He finally pleaded no contest to 2 counts of forcible rape in 2022. Muller additionally pleaded responsible to theft of a residential dwelling, housebreaking, kidnapping, and false imprisonment. He obtained 31 years in jail.
In response to the Federal Bureau of Prisons database, Muller is presently serving his sentence in FCI Tucson in Arizona.
