In a startling development that has reignited interest in a notorious 2015 kidnapping case, Matthew Muller, the convicted abductor of Denise Huskins, has confessed in prison letters to additional crimes dating back to 2009, prompting renewed scrutiny of law enforcement's handling of the original investigation. Muller, a former Marine and Harvard-educated lawyer serving a 40-year sentence, wrote to Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges, admitting to attempted sexual assaults in Palo Alto and Mountain View, California, six years before he kidnapped Huskins from her boyfriend Aaron Quinn's home in Vallejo. The confessions, detailed in letters obtained by investigators, include specifics only the perpetrator would know, according to Borges.
The saga began in the pre-dawn hours of March 23, 2015, when Quinn and Huskins were asleep in his Vallejo home. According to their accounts, they were awakened around 3 a.m. by a man in a wetsuit who declared, "This is a robbery. We are not here to hurt you, stay calm." The intruder, whom they referred to as "The Voice" because they never saw his face, used red laser dots and flashing lights to disorient them. He instructed Huskins to zip-tie Quinn's hands and feet, then bound her as well, forcing them into a closet where he made them drink a sedative.
Quinn recounted hearing noises downstairs, including cabinets being rummaged and a drill running, suggesting accomplices. "The Voice" told Quinn that Huskins would be held for 48 hours until he completed tasks, including withdrawing ransom money from a bank. A security camera was mounted to monitor him, and Quinn was warned that contacting police would result in Huskins's death. After hearing Huskins loaded into the trunk of his car, Quinn passed out from the sedative. Upon waking, he freed himself but agonized over calling 911, fearing for her life. "My thought was if I call the police, I know I'm gonna be safe. But then my fear is, am I actually killing Denise?" Quinn later told CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith.
Quinn did call emergency services, reporting, "My girlfriend got kidnapped last night." Vallejo Police Department officers responded, but as Quinn detailed the bizarre intrusion—complete with wetsuits, lasers, and sedatives—detectives grew skeptical. Lead investigator Detective Mathew Mustard interrogated Quinn for about 40 minutes before leaning back and saying, "What I'm telling him is far-fetched and he doesn't believe me." Mustard accused Quinn of fabricating the story and implied Huskins was dead, stating, "Denise is going to be found ... And when I say she's found, she's dead. ... They did not come into your house and kidnap her and take her for ransom. That did not happen!"
Quinn cooperated fully, surrendering his cell phone, clothes for forensic testing, and agreeing to a station interview. He was even given prison garb to wear during questioning. Meanwhile, media coverage exploded, with outlets assuming Huskins was deceased and pegging Quinn as the prime suspect. Investigative correspondent Julie Watts of CBS News California noted, "Folks assumed from the beginning that she was dead. ... And immediately, her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, was the suspect."
Huskins, blindfolded and sedated, was driven for hours in trunks of cars before arriving at a secluded home in Huntington Beach, where "The Voice" held her captive. She described fearing torture and worse, recalling, "You think of all the possible things that are gonna happen. Where am I gonna be taken? ... Am I gonna be tortured?" The captor raped her and mentioned his group had done this before. The next morning, he left, and Huskins, still in and out of consciousness, walked to her childhood street. A neighbor alerted Huntington Beach Police, and news spread quickly: "A Bay Area woman reportedly kidnapped for ransom is safe tonight. What exactly happened to her? That's still very much a mystery," a news report stated.
Despite telling Huntington Beach officers the same story as Quinn, Huskins sensed disbelief. "It was, 'OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But ... we need to figure out what's going on with Vallejo,'" she said. Vallejo Police held a press conference that night, with Lt. Kenny Park declaring to reporters, "Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins has plundered valuable resources away from our community ..." They labeled the case a hoax, and media dubbed it the "Gone Girl" kidnapping, referencing the 2014 film about a staged abduction. Watts explained, "In the first few days after ... the kidnapper released her, all of the headlines had the word 'Gone Girl' in it ... and it stuck."
Huskins's attorney informed Vallejo Police of the rape and requested a sexual assault exam for DNA evidence, but officials refused until she spoke with them. "I could hear whoever was on the phone say, well, how do we know she was raped? She won't even talk to us," Huskins recounted. She endured a six-hour interview with Mustard, who assured her, "We're not here to judge, um, and we are just looking to figure out the truth." Only then was the exam scheduled at a hospital. Initial tests yielded no leads, and the couple feared charges for false reporting while knowing their attackers remained free. "That was I think the most terrifying thing, knowing ... They will do this again," Huskins said.
Three months later, on June 2015, another home invasion occurred in Dublin, California, about an hour south of Vallejo. A wife called 911 as her husband fought the intruder, who fled but left his cell phone behind. Detectives traced it to a South Lake Tahoe cabin, where they arrested 38-year-old Matthew Muller. "He is a Harvard-educated lawyer. He is formerly a Marine. He is not the type of person that you would expect," Watts said. Searches uncovered Quinn's stolen laptop, blacked-out swim goggles with a strand of Huskins's blonde hair, and GPS data from a stolen car pinpointing her drop-off location in Huntington Beach.
The evidence validated the couple's story. Muller was charged with Huskins's kidnapping and rape, as well as the Dublin attack. "The only way they were vindicated was not by police work, it was by other people being harmed," Watts observed. Quinn and Huskins believed accomplices existed, but no one else was charged. Muller pleaded guilty, receiving 40 years—31 for the kidnapping and rape, plus nine for Dublin. The couple had hoped for life imprisonment. "The idea that he'll be too old when he gets out to do something like this again ... I don't think that's true," Huskins said.
In response to the mishandling, Quinn and Huskins filed a civil lawsuit against Vallejo for defamation and emotional distress, settling for $2.5 million. The department did not comment to "48 Hours" but issued a statement post-settlement: "The Huskins Quinn case was not publicly handled with the type of sensitivity a case of this nature should have been handled with ..." Despite this, they never received a formal apology. "It was always ... this case was too strange to believe," Quinn reflected.
Years later, the couple married, started a family, and shared their story in the 2022 book Victim and the 2024 Netflix series American Nightmare, viewed by millions. Seaside Chief Nick Borges, uninvolved in the case, watched the series and messaged Huskins on Instagram to apologize for law enforcement's failures. "I'm watching this, just thinking, I want to reach out to these people. I want to hug her. I want to hug him and just like, oh my God, I'm so sorry," Borges said. Huskins replied, "I think I got really emotional, um, cause it's not – we're not asking for a whole lot, you know, like just to be respected and listened to ... It meant the world to ... feel like we had an ally."
Borges invited them to speak in Seaside, where Quinn shared, "I gave them access to everything, and it wasn't enough because they had already decided I killed her." Determined to help, Borges wrote to Muller in prison: "I was very honest with him ... I want to know if you acted alone or not." Muller initially claimed he did, but in a thicker second letter, confessed to the 2009 incidents. "They were full-blown confessions with specific details that only the suspect would know," Borges said. Muller hinted at more crimes without full details.
El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, where Huskins was held, also engaged Muller using "science-based interviewing" techniques via an FBI specialist—contrasting Vallejo's judgmental approach. "One of the hallmarks of science-based interviewing is ... speaking to somebody without revealing any judgment you might have," Pierson explained. He noted Vallejo's errors: "They passed judgment ... and they sought to confirm, confirm, confirm ... And every time he would say, no, that's not what happened. They would cut him off." Pierson's method elicited further admissions, though questions about accomplices and additional crimes linger.
The confessions have reopened old cases and highlighted flaws in victim treatment. Palo Alto Police had once suspected Muller for prowling but lacked evidence to charge him. Now, with his admissions, those 2009 assaults can be closed. Yet Huskins and Quinn maintain the trauma persists, and they hope for full accountability. "We can ... take back control of — of our trauma and maybe use it for good," Huskins said. As investigations continue, the case underscores the need for unbiased policing, with Borges vowing, "I don't have a problem shaking the tree a little bit and flipping rocks."