The Bees Sam Stanton, Denny Walsh and Ben Egel contributed to this report. 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. Then they continued to question Quinn about what hed been doing before calling for help. Attorney Douglas Rappaport, who is representing Huskins, said the departments public accusations in the aftermath of the couples kidnapping ordeal compromised their jobs as physical therapists, their integrity and their friendships. Is California a better place to live? Matthew Muller was a Marine and Harvard-educated lawyer who was convicted in federal court for carrying out a kidnapping so bizarre Vallejo Police believed the victims were lying as part of an elaborate hoax. Matthew Muller, who was sentenced to prison after being convicted of kidnapping a Vallejo couple, has yet to be listed in Wikipedia. Quinn said the moment was so shocking that it froze him in his place. Powered by. Unlike typical criminals, Matthew Daniel Muller served in the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999 and graduated summa cum laude from Pomona College in California before eventually attending Harvard Law School. Quinn was let go and Huskins dropped off two days after she was abducted near her familys home in Huntington Beach. Muller enlisted in the Marines after high school, and ended up in Okinawa, Japan, where he worked for a newspaper off of his base and played trumpet in the Marine Corps band. In video recordings of the interview, detective Mathew Mustard could be heard asking if there was tension in the relationship and if Quinn was cheating. Quinn said he realized the interview was taking a turn when, about 45 minutes into it, Mustard leaned back in the chair and told him, I dont think youre being truthful, and I dont think anybody came into your house., Mustard could be heard telling Quinn in the videotaped interrogation he the story youre telling here, I aint buying at all.. 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. Huskins says that her captor told her that he was part of a criminal organization that included three other members. But Quinn says the detectives began to ask about his relationship with Huskins. 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. But some of Mullers problems are documented in legal filings in federal and state court. The biography went on to say that he knows Spanish, Russian and German. The suspect made the victim drink a small amount of what she thought was Nyquil, the affidavit states. Her defense attorney, Doug Rappaport, said he insisted she shouldnt get on that plane and should take a commercial flight instead. Huskins says that in the end, the couples experience of trauma and survival is ultimately a love story with a happy ending. Quinn said he was told to call out sick at his job and to text Huskins boss that she had a family emergency and would be out for a week. Johnson said that Muller grew up with his parents, who divorced sometime after high school. According to court filings, when Rappaport pushed for Vallejo police to conduct a rape exam, they delayed. Denise Huskins made a promise to herself in the last moments she believed her kidnapper would allow her to live. VINELinkMatthew Mullers California jail records. Vallejo police at the time publicly labeled the case a hoax, but FBI documents released this week make clear that the agency is taking it seriously. This a robbery." Those are the words Denise Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, heard in the early morning of March 23, 2015. He filed a lawsuit against the city and three of the cops involved in the case. By Jennifer Tisdale. 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. They were going to give us a sedative and if we didnt take it, they would inject it intravenously., Quinn said his pre-recorded message referred to him by name. Matthew Muller. Matthew Mueller. 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. Because their accounts of what had occurred seemed too extreme and bore a striking resemblance to the book and film Gone Girl, the authorities deemed it to be an orchestrated event at first. Matthew Muller. 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. READ NEXT: Denise Huskins & Aaron Quinn Today: Where Is the Couple From the Gone Girl Case Now in 2021? Muller was convicted in federal court in Sacramento in 2017 and sentenced to 40 years in prison, according to The Mercury News. According to Huskins, Mustard told her cousin Nick, Well give immunity to whoever confesses first to making this whole thing up, said Egan. She said a neighbor allowed her into the house. Id washed those sheets multiple times. They demanded two payments of $8,500, he said. Matthew Muller, who was formerly serving a 40- time judgment for civil offences, was doomed to Solano county superior court, according to the county quarter attorney's office. He did very well at Harvard, too, Johnson said, adding that he couldnt detail exactly when his clients mental state began to deteriorate, or how it played out. Muller ended up resigning from the firm and the suit was settled. "He was a very, very hard worker," said Volberding, a UCLA law student who also attended Pomona College with Muller from 1999 to 2003. The FBI, which also got involved in the case, gave Aaron Quinn a polygraph exam -- something he was eager to take to prove his innocence -- which they say he failed. I just had to figure out where these other crimes occurred.. Carausu said they also discovered Muller was driving a stolen car. "Wake up. Others called him friendly and funny. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? The same year that Reeves hired Muller, their relationship went south. I peeled the tape off my eyes and I was by myself in this alleyway, she said. He graduated summa cum laude from Pomona, and received his juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School. He starts asking if Id been partying. I thought maybe I did have a schizophrenic breakdown, he said. Today, Muller is in the custody of a California jail and in court-ordered mental health treatment, according to his jail records. The case has remained open. 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. But he was stationed at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, at Camp Pendleton, at the Naval School of Music in Little Creek, Virginia, and at the III Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa, Japan. Im telling [Mustard] everything because I have nothing to hide, Quinn said. He is 44 today and his full name is Matthew Daniel Muller, his prison records show. The cell phone number pointed police to Muller's South Lake Tahoe address and in turn much of the evidence against him in the Vallejo case, according to the FBI. The FBI says the victim was connected to Muller because she had attended a 2008 event at Harvard University which he had organized. It turned out Muller was not a typical criminal. But it was on June 5, three months after the fact, when Matthew attempted to break into another home in California, that he was identified as a suspect. You can go through any kind of trauma to where it leaves you devastated and in a place where you just think, This is impossible to move forward from. I slowly counted to 10. Attorneys for the woman and her boyfriend have demanded police issue an apology, calling Huskins "100 percent, positively a victim.". The man then used duct tape to tie Quinns ankles and asked him if he was comfortable, Quinn said. This story was originally published July 14, 2015, 11:49 AM. He was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, plus a $2,500 fine and restitution of $1,250. Mustard has denied making this statement. Huskins said she hoped that the confusion would result in the intruder deciding just to leave them, but that is not what happened. Matthew V. Muller. Denise Huskins, who was abducted from her Vallejo home in 2015, pleaded no guilty to two charges of forcible rape. or. So, if anything, it is Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins that owe this community an apology, Park said during the press conference. Matthew Muller. Maybe we were experimenting with drugs. Today, with their assailant Matthew Muller in prison, theyve chronicled their story in a new book called Victim F: From Crime Victims, To Suspects, To Survivors.. Dublin Police/Marine Corps At some point, they are going to have to say it if they screwed up, he said. When Quinns parents and brother arrived at the police station, the Vallejo police questioned them, too. @ARobach's report shares never-before-seen interrogation video of Aaron following Denise's kidnapping Watch tonight at 9/8c on @ABC. Several weeks later, on Oct. 18, 2009, the FBI says a 32-year-old victim - a Harvard University student studying at Stanford - was sleeping in her Palo Alto apartment when she awoke to an unknown man wearing tight-fitting black clothing straddling her. In this March 26, 2015, file photo, Amy Morton and Daniel Russo, attorneys for Aaron Quinn, state that their client was bound and drugged at the scene of the abduction and the $8,500 ransom was directed at him. 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. 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. The last thing that youre thinking about is, If I do survive, I need to make sure that Im believable.. They spoke to ABC 20/20 about their experiences, and say their trauma was inflicted both by Muller and the judicial system. Quinns struggle eventually came to a head when, in February 2015, Huskins found out that Quinn had been messaging his ex-fiance about getting back together. Furthermore, in 2016, Matthew pleaded guilty to the accusation levelled against him and was sentenced to 40 years in jail. However, the physical evidence soon made it apparent that Matthew Muller was their perpetrator. There were a number of replica squirt guns, Campos said of the evidence theyd found. William Vizzard, professor emeritus of criminal justice at California State University, Sacramento, said law enforcement sometimes ends up with egg on your face when calling out hoaxes. I brought pizza and we sat on the couch most of the night and talked, she said. Hes being asked questions and at some point, the intruder realizes theyve got the wrong person, said Melanie Woodrow, an investigative reporter with San Francisco ABC station KGO, who covered the story. How can you reach a resolution to any case, much less a very, very complicated one, in several hours? he asked. Huskins said the man tied her up inside and then brought Quinn to the closet and placed him inside. Here are five things to know about the case. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In a statement to 20/20 on Monday, Vallejos public information officer Christina Lee admitted, It appears that the follow-up personal public apology did not take place.. Aarons car is missing, and they know that he waited a substantial period of time before dialing 911. Here are the latest totals, Hiker calls for help on dark Hawaii trail. Investigators brought Aaron Quinn back to the station that same day and asked him to send a message back to the kidnapper. He was originally a suspect in the Palo Alto case, but authorities believed they had insufficient evidence to arrest him, said Palo Alto police Lt. Zach Perron. 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. Quinn told police he heard a noise similar to a stun gun, and then a man, who authorities allege was Matthew Muller, told Huskins and Quinn to lie face down on the bed. "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.". Matthew Muller was arrested in South Lake Tahoe on June 8, 2015, and charged with kidnapping for ransom in a federal court. At times he could be highly productive. San Francisco judge sentenced the first of two men connected with a plot to bomb the state Democratic Party HQ. The FBI now links the case to a Dublin home invasion last month in which a man fought off an intruder. Matthew Muller. Log In. Quinn had lived with his ex-fiance in that house before their breakup, and she had only recently moved out all of her belongings. Another former classmate, Noah Helpern, went to both undergraduate and graduate schools with Muller. They were ostracized by everyone other than family, he said. He has had only one interaction with him, he said, but it was memorable. Not only was Muller a good student, he was in top physical condition, running five miles a day before class started. She said that she had been raped twice by her kidnapper, which he videotaped. Matthew Muller was sentenced to prison after abducting a woman from her family's home in the Southern California desert and rapping her before releasing her. The suspect in both cases is described as a tall, lean man wearing black clothing and a black mask. Still sedated, Huskins realized that shed been dropped off near her mothers house, but when she arrived at her house, no one was there. Where is the public apology? asked Jim Marshall of San Francisco. Matthew Muller has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. All rights reserved. Gavin Newsom likes to bash Texas. At Bella Vista, Matthew Muller was a high achievement student but was largely unmemorable, said Mary Shelton, his ninth-grade English teacher. 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. How much rain and snow fell in Northern California storm? Student dead, another injured following stabbing at a Santa Rosa high school, police say. When Weldon asked Muller to move so he could park without blocking his wifes access to their driveway, Muller got confrontational, and threatened him. Court documents, interviews and other information gathered by The Sacramento Bee show that, despite Mullers academic successes, trouble has followed him in recent years, including an accusation that he stole data from a Bay Area law firm where he worked and that he failed to provide competent legal services to clients. He described Muller as someone who loved music and studying, who didnt have a wide circle of friends. At one point, the suspect placed something the victim said she thought were blacked out swim goggles over her eyes. / CBS/AP. I asked for a blanket, and he goes, Oh, Im sorry. "Despite going to both Pomona and Harvard with him I didn't know him especially well," Helperen wrote in an email. Soon after Huskins was abducted in March 2015, boyfriend Aaron Quinn called police saying she'd . Watch The outbreak of hepatitis in children is unusual and concerning Latest News, Mwai Kibaki Illness & Death Cause: The Former Kenyan President Passed Away. The Police Department declined to speak to The Bee about the case Tuesday, as did Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis. Despite these messages, the Vallejo Police Department never backed down from its assertion that the couples story was fabricated. Denise Huskins & Aaron Quinn Today: Where Is the Couple From the Gone Girl Case Now in 2021. It just would have been impossible to have been done by one guy, Huskins said. "Certainly never observed any mental illness; just a lot of intelligence and drive.". 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. Whitney further alleges in the lawsuit that he was in the room and that he heard Bidou instruct Parks to "burn that bitch" prior to Parks' March 25, 2015, press conference where Parks suggested that Huskins and Aaron Quinn had lied about their home invasion and abduction. His family later received . Join Facebook to connect with Mathew Muller and others you may know. She said Muller was pleasant, had friends and played saxophone in the school band. The FBI said in a July statement that in the early morning on March 23 in Vallejo, Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, were awakened by a bright light. In 2013, the California Bar Association suspended Mullers license and began disciplinary proceedings that led to his disbarment, according to documents. I knew that hed be a great partner but I could see that he was struggling.. While Matthews last known location remains the Napa State Hospital, it seems that he will be serving his sentence at a federal prison. What would follow was a series of terrifying events . If I went to the police, they would kill her, he said. Quinn woke up the next morning with only enough energy due to the sedatives to call out sick for Huskins and himself, and then he fell asleep again until 11:30 a.m. Lawyer Kerry McInerney Freeman said in an email that she was "not authorized" to comment about the case, or share the video. In 2011, an immigration law firm he was working for, Reeves & Associates, sued Muller for allegedly sleeping in their offices and stealing client information and passwords, with the hunch that he wanted to start his own firm. Two days later, she was found near her parents' house in Huntington Beach, Calif. Huntington Beach police officers arrived at the neighbors apartment where Huskins was waiting and began questioning her, who recounted everything that had happened two nights earlier, including the events that unfolded after she was taken from Aaron Quinns home. During questioning, Quinn recounted what had happened the night before. He will enter a not guilty plea when he arrives in about two to three weeks, Johnson said. Matthew Mueller. As a result, he was handed down 31 years in prison, with the sentence to run concurrently with the 40-year term. Gary Silva of Huntington Beach proclaimed the department the dumbest organization in America.. Nicole Egan, co-author of "Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors," discusses the 2015 home invasion and kidnapping of Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins. Today Muller, 38, is behind bars in Alameda County, accused of one of the most bizarre and twisted kidnapping cases in recent memory. Exhausted, worried about Huskins and anxious over the detectives refusal to believe him, Aaron Quinn said he began to doubt his own sanity. Quinn said the first question the police asked him when he answered the door was, Are you on drugs?. Eventually, a cousin, who had recently passed the bar exam and had become an attorney, insisted he be allowed to see her. He woke up to new emails and texts from the intruder. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Pentagon records show he rose to the level of sergeant and played the trumpet something he did in high school, too. 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. On Tuesday, federal search warrants obtained by NBC Bay Area show that the FBI seized drones, black night vision goggles, an empty zip tie bag and a blood pressure cuff, among other items. In December 2020 former Vallejo Police Captain John Whitney filed suit against the city and the police department alleging he was wrongfully terminated for speaking out on a variety of issues that he characterized as misconduct, including ones related to Huskin and Aaron Quinn's case. Watch tonight at 9/8c on @ABC and streaming this weekend on Hulu. He allegedly told. The comparisons began after Vallejo Police announced that Huskins abduction appeared to be an orchestrated event and not a kidnapping.. It was later discovered that the kidnapper had called the phone three times. Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins married in 2018 and have a daughter together named Olivia. If any of these accusations are true, Johnson said that its very likely his clients mental state played a part. Yet, in 2015, following filing for bankruptcy and being accused of neglecting to refund roughly $1,250 to a client when a court ordered it for failure to provide competent representation, he was disbarred for good. Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins were married in 2018. He was also charged by the state of California, the article said, and although he faced a preliminary hearing in 2018, he has not yet faced a trial. What do I do next? she told ABC News Amy Robach. Muller has pleaded not guilty in the Dublin case and plans to plead not guilty in Huskins' case, too, Johnson said. He allegedly restrained the woman's arms, tied her ankles using Velcro, used surgical tape to cover her eyes, and forced her to drink Nyquil, the document states. Mattew Muller was arrested for raping the victim, according to reports. "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. 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.. As new details of Huskins ordeal emerged this week with the unsealing of the FBI documents, Vallejo city police came under fire for their handling of the original kidnapping report in March. Muller was later interviewed in the case by a detective, the affidavit states. But the 38-year-old didnt always suffer from mental illness, which he told federal agents is Gulf War Illness, even though he served in the Marines years after the Gulf War. Furthermore, a search of his family home yielded not only several squirt guns with laser pointers taped to them and blacked-out swimming goggles but also video evidence that confirmed he was Denise and Aarons offender. ET. She said that after their conversation, as they went to bed around midnight, it felt like a fresh start.. On June 17, Alameda. 15 2022, Published 4:24 p.m. Matthew Muller served as a Marine from 1995 to 1999. The letter also said the comments from Lt. Kenny Parks were unnecessarily harsh and offensive. Bidou promised the department would apologize in public when Muller was indicted.