The man who kidnapped and sexually assaulted a Northern California woman in a horrific crime that police initially dismissed as a Gone Girl-style hoax has now been charged with two 15-year-old home invasions and sexual assaults.
Matthew Muller, 47, pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping charges and was sentenced to 40 years behind bars in 2017 after Vallejo police finally charged him with abducting Denise Huskins and taking her to a secluded cabin.
The former Marine told prosecutors that he suffered bipolar disorder and was medicated when he abducted Huskins two years prior.
One month after the arrest, the FBI said Muller may have committed other crimes that resembled Huskins’ nightmare kidnapping, offering new details of the crime and asking for the public’s help, Mercury News reports.
Now, as Muller is serving his prison sentence for the 2015 kidnapping that shocked America, he faces two new felony charges of assault with intent to commit rape during a burglary, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The first incident occurred in September 2009 when Muller allegedly broke into a woman’s home in Mountain View, California.
The victim told police she woke up to see a man in a mask pushing her face down in her bed and telling her he was committing an identity theft robbery, prosecutors claim.
The intruder reportedly handcuffed the woman and bound her ankles with ‘some sort of Velcro restraint.’
Matthew Muller, 47, pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping charges and was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2017
Over the next two hours, the intruder allegedly made several phone calls and at one point carried the victim downstairs before returning her to the bedroom.
He also allegedly made the victim drink Nyquil and used her phone to send text messages to her employer stating she was calling in sick.
The intruder allegedly told the woman in her 30s he was going to rape her, but she convinced him not to.
Muller then left after recommending the woman get a dog, prosecutors said.
The following month, prosecutors claim, Muller allegedly broke into a Palo Alto home and ambushed a sleeping woman while he was wearing a mask over his head.
A police report states that the man spoke in a ‘low growl,’ as if he was ‘knowingly trying to disguise his voice,’ while restraining her with fabric fasteners on her ankles and arms, putting plugs in her ears and covering her eyes with surgical tape.
The victim was also allegedly made to drink Nyquil, and at some point, the suspect allegedly stated his intention to rape her before she pleaded with him by describing a past sexual assault, which police say caused him to relent.
Muller is then accused of warning the woman against calling police as he left.
Denise Huskins and her then-boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, claimed a man broke into their Vallejo, California home in 2015
Detective Mat Mustard (left) initially suspected Quinn (right) before pushing the theory the abduction was an elaborate sham similar to the plot of the movie Gone Girl
Years later, Muller abducted Huskins from the home she shared with boyfriend Aaron Quinn in Vallejo, California.
She claimed she saw a man in her room brandishing a fake gun, and said she and Quinn were drugged and blindfolded with blacked-out goggles before she was thrown into the trunk of a car and driven nearly 500 miles away.
When police arrived at the scene they found blood spattered throughout the house, zip ties, toy guns and even a blow-up doll.
Suspicion first fell on Quinn who was taken in for questioning about an argument with his girlfriend over messages she had found on his phone shortly before her disappearance.
The culprit had been demanding $15,000 in ransom for Huskins’ safe return during the two-day ordeal.
But days later her captor inexplicably dropped her off in an alley outside her parents’ home – much to everyone’s astonishment.
The unusual circumstances lead to police to begin suspecting the episode was a hoax.
‘We were not able to substantiate any of the things that he was saying. If anything, it is Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins that owe this community an apology,’ Vallejo Police Lt. Kenny Park said at a press conference.
Muller, a former marine, was finally connected to the crime after he was arrested by police in Dublin, California for a similar home invasion
Muller was finally connected to the crime after he was arrested by police in Dublin, California for a similar home invasion.
Authorities said they found a cellphone they traced to Muller and a subsequent search of his car and home turned up evidence – including a computer Muller stole from Quinn, linking him to the invasion.
Muller was then sentenced in 2022 to 31 years in state prison after pleading no contest to two counts of forcible rape, as Huskins and Quinn went on to wed.
They welcomed their first child in 2020 and their second in 2022.
Amid renewed attention to the case following a Netflix documentary series called American Nightmare, Palo Alto police revived the investigations into the two home invasions after they were contacted by Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges.
Borges had been corresponding with Muller at his Arizona prison, and said he received letters from Muller in April and May from the suspect in which he volunteered information implicating himself in the 2009 home invasions and assaults.
The police chief said he offered details that closely aligned with police reports and the victim’s accounts, which were not publicly available.
In one letter, Muller reportedly described coming forward as the assailant as art of a ‘common goal of (protecting) victims and strengthening laws for future potential victims.’
As part of the renewed investigation, Palo Alto police reexamined DNA traces from the fabric fasteners used in the home invasions and connected Muller to the scene.
‘The details of this person’s violent crime spree seem scripted for Hollywood, but they are tragically real,’ District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement.
‘Our goal is to make sure this defendant is held accountable and will never hurt or terrorize anyone ever again.
‘Our hope is that this nightmare is over.’
Muller is now facing a possible sentence of life behind bars and is due back in court on January 17.
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