The. Gov. But the voice kept talking and I just remember my eyes shot open and I could see the walls illuminated with a white light that was flashing and I could see a couple of red laser dots crossing the wall, and I could hear, Wake up, this is a robbery. Matthew Muller. She said it was devastating. Muller is the suspected mastermind in the March 23 kidnapping of Denise Huskins, who says she was drugged and taken from her Mare Island home by an intruder in the middle of the night. These are among the first accounts that highlight a different side of the accused kidnapper since his arrest was announced by the FBI on Monday. California law dictates that a defendant who cannot understand his or her charges and who cannot assist in their own defense cannot stand trial, but once they are again deemed competent, charges can be reinstated, The Mercury News reported. In interviews with NBC Bay Area, Johnson and his former college roommate,Alex Volberding,who is working at a law firm in San Francisco this summer, described Muller, of Orangeville, California, as someone who stood out in college because of his drive and wit. The kidnapper, who had taken Huskins bags when he abducted her, had removed them from the car and placed them on the ground. He wasnt in combat. Matthew Muller, who was sentenced to prison after being convicted of kidnapping a Vallejo couple, has yet to be listed in Wikipedia. Thats something that weve had to live with and somehow make peace with., Huskins said the Vallejo Police Department never came out and publicly apologized for saying what happened to them was a hoax. I finally just put my foot down and said, Look, I dont deserve this. And it was a couple of weeks of kind of going back and forth, she said. But while 39-year-old Matthew Muller 's guilty plea to one count of kidnapping may begin to resolve part of the criminal matter, the victims, Denise Huskins, 30, and Aaron Quinn, 31, want to. The man was masked and wearing tight-fitting black clothing, the FBI stated, and he handcuffed the victim's hands and used Velcro to bind her feet. He told the detectives about the goggles placed over their eyes, the specific directions they were given and the recordings that played on the headphones. According to Huskins, Mustard told her cousin Nick, Well give immunity to whoever confesses first to making this whole thing up, said Egan. FBI spokeswoman Gina Swankie said anyone who has undergone a similar incident should call 1-800-call-FBI. In September 2015, Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn came forward and admitted to being kidnapped, sexually tortured, and held captive for three days. Denise Huskins, who was abducted from her Vallejo home in 2015, pleaded no guilty to two charges of forcible rape. ", This news comes as a total surprise, he said. Huskins was held captive for just over 48 hours before being released, but the couple continued to fear for their lives with a kidnapper on the loose and the police dismissing their account of the incident as too incredible to be believed. . In this July 13, 2015, file photo, Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn stand in silence during a press conference in Vallejo, Calif. Matthew Muller was charged in federal court in Sacramento, California, with kidnapping for ransom. Muller is in the custody of the Solano County Stanton Correctional Facility, which has held him since September 15, 2018, his jail record shows, which was around the time of his federal conviction. While they were investigating that incident, city police received a series of anonymous email communications, allegedly from Muller, saying that he and a group of accomplices kidnapped Huskins and Quinn. On March 22, 2015, the couple made a plan to meet at Quinns home in Mare Island, Vallejo, to decide if they wanted to continue their relationship. He has had only one interaction with him, he said, but it was memorable. By Jennifer Tisdale. His adult life has been marked with mental health issues, including diagnoses of bipolar disorder and psychosis, Johnson said. Detectives in Palo Alto and Mountain View say theyre also looking into Mullers possible involvement in home invasions in 2009 that had similarities to the Vallejo and Dublin cases. I had no reason to believe, at that time, that they doubted me, she said. She later explained she feared that the kidnapper had threatened her and her family if she revealed two specific details: that anyone involved in the abduction was in the military or that she had been raped. In 2015, Matthew Muller Kidnapped a Woman for Over 48 Hours but That Was Just the Beginning. She said Muller was pleasant, had friends and played saxophone in the school band. They said, Well, just have her sleep in her clothes and dont take a shower and well talk in the morning., Marianna Quinn said she was shocked when the police, too, started calling Huskins Gone Girl., You go through something like that, and every moment, every ounce of energy is about How do I live to see another second? That is all you can think about, said Huskins. "Certainly never observed any mental illness; just a lot of intelligence and drive.". The FBI did not name Huskins in the document. This is a robbery.. Huskins, 29, turned up safe two days later in her hometown of Huntington Beach, where she says she was dropped off, hours before a ransom demand was due. Alleged kidnap of Vallejo woman now treated as hoax, Police search for apparent kidnap victim from Vallejo, Trump supporter in plot to firebomb Sacramento Democratic HQ sentenced to prison. When Carausu researched the kidnapping, she remembered the so-called Gone Girl case that had gotten so much media coverage. The FBI now links the case to a Dublin home invasion last month in which a man fought off an intruder. Denise Huskins, left, and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn listen as their attorneys speak at a news conference Monday, July 13, 2015 in Vallejo, Calif. Explosive found in checked luggage at Pennsylvania airport, feds say, Closing arguments begin in double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, Where things stand in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial, Dramatic police chase airs live during sheriff's radio interview in Florida, bizarre California kidnapping that police initially dismissed as a hoax. Muller pleaded guilty to the federal kidnapping charge and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. One of them had just your typical pen-style laser pointer that was duct-taped to it., There were several swim goggles that were duct-taped black, Carausu added. I thought maybe I did have a schizophrenic breakdown, he said. She said that after their conversation, as they went to bed around midnight, it felt like a fresh start.. He was working as an immigration lawyer for the firm of Kerosky Purves & Bogue at the time, the Sacramento Bee reported. But the jail, which warns people that it records conversations with inmates, recorded the interview, including the portions that the accused requested to be off the record, the FBI said. According to FBI documents, Quinn said the man told Huskins to bind Quinn's hands and feet with zip ties and forced them both into a closet before Huskins was taken to the next bedroom. They cried and held each other when they finally reunited nearly a week after that terrifying night, Huskins said. "These recurring crimes involving nighttime home intrusions in which passwords are demanded indicates some plan for further use of computers and/or the Internet for crime.". The details of the kidnap were extraordinary, involving drugs, ransom, duct tape, wet suits, swim goggles and anonymous emails to newspapers. The victims in the so-called Gone Girl case, Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, are now married with a daughter. He allegedly told. See Photos. 15 2022, Published 4:24 p.m. Matthew Muller graduate Harvard University in 2006. In 2013, the California Bar Association suspended Mullers license and began disciplinary proceedings that led to his disbarment, according to documents. The Bees Sam Stanton, Denny Walsh and Ben Egel contributed to this report. What would follow was a series of terrifying events . Huskins said that while walking to the closet she noticed two sets of legs from what she believed to be two different people in the bedroom. At Harvard, he was among the youngest scholars voted onto the law school faculty. To make matters worse, the detectives had also found a small bloodstain on Quinns sheets. The suspect had tried essentially the same things to another couple, 20/20 learned. Matthew Muller pleaded guilty Thursday morning to the 2015 kidnapping of Denise Huskins from her Vallejo home, ending the prospect of a drawn-out legal fight and giving Muller's family hope. They demanded two payments of $8,500, he said. Police arrested Muller on June 8 at what was apparently his parents' South Lake Tahoe vacation home for an alleged attack at a couple's Dublin home three days earlier. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Today, Muller is in court-ordered mental health treatment. He was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, worked for a newspaper off base and played trumpet in the Marine Corps band, according to the Sacramento Bee. I tell him no. Mattew Muller was arrested for raping the victim, according to reports. The affidavit states that the victim was sexually assaulted during the kidnapping. Her defense attorney, Doug Rappaport, said he insisted she shouldnt get on that plane and should take a commercial flight instead. Little did I know, a quarter-sized bloodstain was going to mean that I was a murderer.. When he attempts to tie up the wife, the husband jumps across the bed and tackles the suspect. Huskins says that her captor told her that he was part of a criminal organization that included three other members. As a former decorated officer with qualifications that proved his intelligence, Matthew was able to get a stable job as an immigration attorney at a San Francisco law firm. With a bipolar disorder, the pendulum swing can be tremendous:from feeling grandiose to not being able to put your two feet on the floor.. Eventually, a cousin, who had recently passed the bar exam and had become an attorney, insisted he be allowed to see her. When they searched the cabin, the Dublin officers found several laptops, cellphones, a few stun guns, a lot of ski masks and an empty bed with no blankets but a sheet that appeared to have been slept on, Carausu and Campos said. Thats the same year Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinns property invasion and abduction matter transpired. Johnson, Muller's lawyer, said his client hasn't been charged in either the Mountain View case or the Palo Alto case, and that the events outlined in the FBI affidavit don't amount to formal allegations. Matthew Muller, 39, a disbarred San Francisco immigration lawyer, has agreed to admit to kidnapping 30-year-old Denise Huskins from the Mare Island home of her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, in March. He has pleaded not guilty. Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. One, in particular, had a blonde hair strand attached to the duct tape. Carausu did a search of Mullers name and found that although he had never been charged, he had been a person of interest in several other incidents in nearby cities. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. If I went to the police, they would kill her, he said. Matt's parents Robert and Noelle preceded him in death. Matthew Muller has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. Muller was convicted in federal court in Sacramento in 2017 and sentenced to 40 years in prison, according to The Mercury News. Mullers stepfather declined to speak with NBC Bay Area, deferring all calls to his lawyer. Muller, a former U.S. Marine, attended Harvard University where he also taught, according to court documents. Although Huskins mother and father were both in Vallejo assisting police, they contacted family back in Huntington Beach to go be with her. Today, with their assailant Matthew Muller in prison, they've chronicled their story in a new book called "Victim F: From Crime Victims, To Suspects, To Survivors." Huskins says that in the end, the couple's experience of trauma and survival is ultimately a love story with a happy ending. Johnson said that Muller grew up with his parents, who divorced sometime after high school. People named Matthew Muller. Matthew Muller Today: Where Is the Gone Girl Kidnapper Now in 2021? The additional related criminal offenses of sexual assault and the robbery against Aaron were not placed on him as the federal court has no jurisdiction over them. He was a U.S. Marine for five years and graduated summa cum laude from Pomona College in California before going to Harvard Law School. Soon after Huskins was abducted in March 2015, boyfriend Aaron Quinn called police saying she'd . No ones going to understand what they went through except each other., The two married near the water in Monterey, California. After all, the sequence of events was very similar. "Gone Girl" kidnapper Matthew Muller a former Marine and a Harvard-educated lawyer who was later disbarred will spend 40 years in prison for the 2015 abduction of a woman that was revealed. 1. Attorneys for the woman and her boyfriend have demanded police issue an apology, calling Huskins "100 percent, positively a victim.". Matthew Muller was arrested in South Lake Tahoe on June 8, 2015, and charged with kidnapping for ransom in federal court. Muller's attorney, Thomas Johnson, is asking a judge to throw out much of the evidence in the case, saying it was obtained through an illegal search of the cellphone. Im just going to stay calm and be grateful for the life I had," Huskins said. Then, in 2013, while working as an immigration lawyer for the firm of Kerosky Purves & Bogue, Muller got into trouble with the State Bar for failing to show up for cases, among other things. In video recordings of Aaron Quinn's interview, detective Mathew Mustard could be heard asking if there was "tension in the relationship" with Denise Huskins and if Quinn was "cheating.". Federal Bureau of PrisonsMatthew Mullers federal prison records. Huskins borrowed a cellphone from a stranger and called her father, who did not answer. Huskins said she had thought about the safe feeling of being in his arms while in captivity, and that she was sick with anticipation wondering what he thought of her and if she was really this horrible liar. He said he was eager to see her, too. Detective Miguel Campos, of the Dublin Police Department in California, discusses finding the suspect in the so-called "Gone Girl" kidnapping case. The FBI said the suspect then allegedly retrieved Quinn's bank account information from his laptop. Huskins' Boyfriend Quickly Reported Her Missing. It was devastating to see both of them, said Marianne Quinn. I also didnt trust myself anymore., I could see who Aaron was and the man he was and the good in him, Huskins said. Aarons car is missing, and they know that he waited a substantial period of time before dialing 911. 'There was an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence that linked Muller to the crime but now there's direct evidence which is his detailed admission he was the kidnapper that was recorded during your jailhouse interview," Huskins' attorney, Doug Rappaport, told Goodrich Wednesday. She said her captor told her he was being instructed to make the recording as a form of collateral over Huskins. This is not a dream.. Today Muller, 38, is behind bars in Alameda County, accused of one of the most bizarre and twisted kidnapping cases in recent memory. He abducted Denise Huskins for two days and demanded a $15,000. Matthew Mueller. He is survived by his sister Karlie Powers, (Michael), and his nephew Hayden. That terrifying night, both of them were bound and Huskins was kidnapped. Odd behavior got him fired. Right out of high school, Muller joined the Marines. A home invasion in Dublin in June led police, and then the FBI, to Muller, through evidence in his car, including goggles with a long blond hair attached. or. Huskins said she hoped that the confusion would result in the intruder deciding just to leave them, but that is not what happened. The intruder says, We have a problem and he says to Aaron, Do Denise and your ex-fiance look-alike?, At that moment, Quinn said he released a guttural sigh., I was like, Yes, they both have long, blonde hair, Quinn said. I just wanted to hold her. Quinn and Huskins continue to believe that there were others involved in the home invasion and kidnapping, but Muller is the only person who has ever been charged. Pentagon records show he rose to the level of sergeant and played the trumpet something he did in high school, too. Matthew Muller is accused in a bizarre California kidnapping plot, and the contents of his "off the record" jailhouse conversation are now public in an FBI affidavit . She said that he looked unremarkable when he was escorted out. People named Matthew Mueller. Any abnormality he might have shown in college was his drive.. Sign Up. Carausu also tracked down the owner of the stolen car, who told her that it had been stolen around the time of a kidnapping in Mare Island, where Aaron Quinn lived. Eventually, Muller disappeared into the house. Aaron Quinn said their first song together as husband and wife was Dierks Bentleys Riser. It is, he said, very much about overcoming a tragedy and rising like a phoenix from the ashes., 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Campos said that Mullers mother told them he was staying at their cabin in the South Lake Tahoe area. or. However, the physical evidence soon made it apparent that Matthew Muller was their perpetrator. Other items confiscated included a blood pressure cuff found in a stolen white Mustang discovered near the Muller family vacation home in South Lake Tahoe. A component of the defense is going to be a progressive debilitating illness, Johnson said, adding that Muller did not show any signs of mental illness before graduate school. The authorities were able to corroborate the details of Aaron Quinn and Huskins case, even finding Aaron Quinns computer at the South Lake Tahoe cabin, Aaron Quinn said. See Photos. I told him, Look, this is going to be a nightmare and theres no way youre going to be able to pinch yourself and wake up.. So now, lets find out all that there is to know about him and his current whereabouts, shall we? See Photos. Matthew Muller served as a Marine from 1995 to 1999. In addition to the Dublin home invasion and kidnap charges, Palo Alto and Mountain View police suspect he may be linked to 2009 robberies in their cities, too, though they havent made any arrests. [In] the Dublin home invasion, none of them had blonde hair.. He allegedly left a note stored on a USB drive that read, "I am going completely off the grid - no phone, email, credit cards, etc., so please do not try to reach me as it will only draw attention. Muller was arrested in Huskins' case following an attempted Dublin, Calif. home invasion in June which allegedly had similarities to the Vallejo kidnapping, according to the FBI. "The fact that Muller knew facts about his victims indicates that he probably conducted online research of his targets," the FBI affidavit states. RELATED: Attorney: Kidnapping victims' family outraged over Vallejo officer's award Matthew Muller is facing federal charges as he is accused of kidnapping Denise Huskins from her boyfriend Aaron . Rappaport and Russo both went to bat for their clients, even as they endured repeated questioning by the Vallejo police and the FBI. Up until this point, neither Huskins nor Aaron Quinn had seen each other since the incident. Two days later, the affidavit states, Muller called his then-wife from Utah, and she picked him up. There were a number of replica squirt guns, Campos said of the evidence theyd found. During a jailhouse interview with a reporter in July, Matthew Muller, 38, allegedly said he acted alone in the March 23 kidnapping, which police initially claimed was a hoax. Matthew Muller, who was already serving a 40-year sentence for federal offences, was sentenced to Solano county superior court, according to the county district attorney's office. I asked for a blanket, and he goes, Oh, Im sorry. @ARobach's report shares never-before-seen interrogation video of Aaron following Denise's kidnapping Watch tonight at 9/8c on @ABC. Maybe we were into weird sex things and something went wrong.. Huskins recalled sitting in the airport fearful for her life, paranoid that the kidnapper might find her and take her away again. 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