Dubbed the real life ‘Gone Girl’, ‘American Nightmare’ details the 2015 kidnapping of Huskins and the elaborate “hoax” police accused her of.
Netflix’s new true crime doc, American Nightmare, was just released Wednesday and it’s already gripping viewers across the nation.
The doc tells the story of the 2015 kidnapping of Denise Huskins, who was taken from the Mare Island, California, home of her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, and held her hostage for two days.
Dubbed the “real-life Gone Girl,” the wild case explores how the couple was accused of staging the kidnapping despite overwhelming evidence, corroborated accounts of events, and proof that Huskins had been sexually assaulted by the kidnapper, Matthew Muller.
On March 23, 2015, Quinn, then 30, reported that a man in a wetsuit entered his home, flashing bright lights and lasers before drugging him and kidnapping Huskins. He said the kidnappers demanded a $15,000 ransom and had installed surveillance cameras in his house to track whether he had called law enforcement.
Two days later, Huskins, then 29, reappeared near her family home in Huntington Beach, over 400 miles away, after being been held in a remote home in Lake Tahoe where she was sexually assaulted.
Vallejo, California police would go on to doubt both Quinn and Huskin’s stories, despite them each recounting the exact same details. Huskin even completed a rape kit upon her release that showed sexual activity had taken place — but local police remained suspicious, first pegging Quinn for the crime before accusing the pair of orchestrating a kidnapping “hoax.”
Comparing the story to that of the 2014 film, Gone Girl, in which a woman, played by Rosamund Pike, stages her disappearance in order to frame her husband (Ben Affleck), they publicly accused the couple of wasting the police department’s resources.
“Mr. 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,” Vallejo police spokesperson Lt. Kenny Park said following Huskins’ reemergence.
It took three months and one very persistent police officer, Sgt. Misty Carausu, of the Dublin Police Department, to crack the case and get Muller — a disbarred lawyer and former marine — behind bars.
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Thanks to Carausu’s work, police were also able to discover Muller’s previous history of crime in the Mare Island area, earning the label of the Mare Island “creeper” for spying on college kids in town, as well as years of sexual assault and attempted on attacks on other women.
Muller was ultimately found out after leaving his phone at the crime scene of a robbery, and it contained proof that he had kidnapped and assaulted Huskins. While it was revealed that the kidnapping was originally intended for Quinn’s ex-fiancé, Andrea, it was never revealed why she was targeted by Muller.
He was convicted on federal kidnapping charges and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Huskins and Quinn later filed a defamation lawsuit against the Vallejo Police Department in 2016, for falsely accusing them of staging the kidnapping, and were ultimately awarded $2.5 million.
Now, nearly 10 years on, the pair, have attempted to move on, re-locating to California’s central coast and getting married in 2018.
They would go on to welcome two daughters Olivia, in 2020, and Naomi, in 2022.
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Huskins and Quinn would not get an apology from the Vallejo P.D. until 2021, when then-incoming police chief, Shawny Williams, issued a statement to ABC7 News.
“What happened to Ms. Huskins and Mr. Quinn is horrific and evil. As the new Chief of Police, I am committed to making sure survivors are given compassionate service with dignity and respect,” Williams said at the time.
He added, “Although I was not chief in 2015 when this incident occurred, I would like to extend my deepest apology to Ms. Huskins and Mr. Quinn for how they were treated during this ordeal.”
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In addition to raising their two daughters, Huskins works as a physical therapist, focusing on Pilates, while Quinn works for Apiros — a company that trains high school athletes to become professionals.
Huskins also devotes her time to advocating for those accused by law enforcement of false reporting — particularly those who have been sexually assaulted.
“It breaks my heart to know just how many sexual assault victims get attacked by law enforcement and charged for false reporting,” she wrote in December post on Instagram. “Bullying and charging sexual assault survivors only leaves the public less safe, and tells victims that the police are not safe to turn to.”
American Nightmare is streaming on Netflix now.
The National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline — 800.656.HOPE (4673) — provides free, 24/7 support for those in need.
