Vallejo 'Gone Girl': The Police Refused to Believe Her Abduction

It was deep in the night.

It started with voices in the background, but she couldn't really make the words out. She thought she was just dreaming until she realized it wasn't. A voice said,

"Wake up. It's a robbery. We are not here to hurt you."

Her eyes shot open.

Her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, was equally shocked. The room was illuminated with strobe flashlights and laser light from the gun attachment. The masked intruder ordered Denise to zip-tie Aaron's legs and arms, and she was ordered to enter the bedroom closet and bound. Aaron followed suit.

The couple was blindfolded with duct-taped snow goggles and had earphones on, playing calm, relaxing music with pre-recorded messages.

In the pre-recorded messages, they were told if they did not take the sedative voluntarily, it would be forced intravenously. If one fails to follow the instruction or has a mismatched answer, the other would be hurt by electric shock and then by cutting their face. Aaron grew even more alarmed when the pre-recorded message referred him by his name.

He was targeted.

But Denise was wrongly targeted.

A few months back, Aaron was engaged to his fiancée, but that engagement fell off when he found out she cheated on him and had just recently moved out of Aaron's place. Like Aaron's ex-fiancée - Denise too had long, blonde hair.

Aaron had hoped the intruder would leave after that since he had the wrong intel. Instead, he was led downstairs and warned that he would be watched by the camera installed on the wall.

The intruder left instructions that included coming up with excuses for his and Denise's absence from work the next day, withdrawing money for ransom, and Aaron will be contacted through email and text messages. A pair of scissors were left behind for Aaron to help himself out. The intruders took off with Aaron's car, with Denise forced into the car trunk.

Aaron managed to slip off his goggles, but by then, the drugs were taking effect, and his consciousness drifted off. He woke up the next morning, but he could only call in sick for Denise and himself before falling asleep again until 11:30 AM.

When he woke up the second time, the intruder had left two messages demanding $8500. Panicked, he quickly responded but did not receive a response. He was still fearful of contacting the police, as he had been warned that he was being watched. Instead, he called his brother, who works for the FBI. He was told to dial 911 immediately.

The Police Arrival

Police officers first noticed that no vehicles were parked in the driveway and the 911 dialer, Aaron, seemed to be under the influence. The officer asked,

"Are you on drugs?"

Aaron shared what happened in the home invasion and Denise being kidnapped. He explained that the red duct tape on the floor marked the perimeter that Aaron must not go over, and the intruder was monitoring through the CCTV.

Aaron agreed to a polygraph test during his questioning. Some reported the result was inconclusive and some reported that the officer allegedly told Aaron he failed. Aaron soon realized that the detective believed he had fabricated a cover story and he had something to do with Denise's disappearance. He said,

"The story you're telling here, I ain't buying at all."

It did seem quite unbelievable. Aaron was 'conveniently drugged' and the house seemed like it was recently cleaned except for small spots of blood on the mattress. He only called the police after ten hours and only after calling his brother first. Aaron would have a motive too as Denise recently found out that Aaron was still texting his ex-fiancée. Aaron said,

"I thought maybe I did have a schizophrenic breakdown."

He had recounted again and again what happened, what he saw and heard, but it didn't seem like the authority believed him.

That afternoon at 12:23 PM, things took an unexpected turn.

Henry Lee, a San Francisco Chronicle newspaper journalist, received an email from the abductor. In that email, the abductor wrote that Denise would be returned safely tomorrow. Attached with the email was an audio file of a female-identifying as Denise, and as proof of life, Denise shared the news of a German airliner that crashed in the French Alps that morning.

Aaron was called back in to the police station to get in contact with the abductor. Up to this point, the investigators had put Aaron's phone on airplane mode even though it was the only means of communication between Aaron and the abductor. When it was turned on, messages flooded the phone, and two missed calls from the abductor.

Denise's Return

The next day, on March 25th, Denise was dropped off 400 miles away at her hometown, Huntington Beach, California, as stated in the email. She was still dazed with the drug aftereffects, but she was able to recognize the street and walk to her mother's home. She ran to a few hitches - her mother was not home and when she tried her father's home - neither was he. She borrowed a stranger's cell phone to contact her father, but it went to voicemail.

Luckily enough, a neighbor let her into the house. She later managed to get in contact with her father and the Huntington Beach Police Department. Unaware of Aaron's experience in his questioning, Denise recounted her abduction and captivity to the police.

That night, she was told to drink a sedative that knocked her unconscious as she was transported away in the car trunk. For two days, she was kept hidden in a bedroom. She believed that at least four people were involved in the abduction, and whenever any of them were in the room, she was forced to be blindfolded. She never saw any of their faces, but they seemed organized as if they had done this before.

Accordingly, the abductor was tasked to target people with money and Denise had nothing to do with it. The main target was Aaron's ex-fiancée's family. Denise left out two details she had been raped twice and her kidnapper was likely related to the military. Denise said,

"I had no reason to believe, at that time, that they doubted me. I was just more so afraid … that speaking to them was going to put me or my family in harm's way."

She only revealed the full truth to her new attorney, Doug Rappaport, that she had been raped twice and it was recorded. When Doug reportedly asked for a rape test, the Vallejo police were slow in conducting the test.

Labeled as the 'Gone Girl'

It was clear that the police did not believe the couple. On that very same day, the Vallejo police spokesperson, Lt. Kenny Park, said to the media,

"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. So, if anything, it is Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins that owe this community an apology."

The case made national headlines and the public viewed the couple negatively. Denise was labeled as the 'Gone Girl' for bearing a similar physical appearance to the movie's main actress, and the case bears a certain resemblance to the plot.

Spoiler ahead for the Movie Gone Girl.

'Gone Girl' is a popular psychological thriller movie where the main actress faked her death to have her revenge on her husband. Her husband became the prime suspect of her disappearance.

Spoiler ends

The Abductors to Clear Her Name

March 25th

In yet another unexpected turn of events, it was the abductor that stepped forward for the couple. The abductor sent numerous pages of an email to the same journalist, Henry Lee, clearly stating that the abduction was not fabricated.

In the lengthy email, the abductor wrote that they could be referred to as "professional thieves" although they will not call themselves that. The group consisted of at least two individuals but fewer than eight individuals, most of whom were highly educated with a degree.

Before this, they were involved in several auto thefts and burglaries in Mare Island, but they decidedly wanted to move on to something with a better payout that only had to be carried out once or twice - kidnapping and ransom.

As for why the abductors stepped forward with great risk to themselves when they could have let the couple take the fall, here's an excerpt of the email :

Why would we do this when the information could be used to catch us?

We are human beings, albeit poor ones. We cannot stand to see two good people thrown under the bus by the police and media when Ms. Victim F and Mr. Victim M should have received only support and sympathy. We are responsible for the victims' suffering, and the least we can do is come forward to prove they are not lying. Over the course of the crime, we realized what we had become and developed deep remorse for the harm we inflicted.

March 26th

The next day, the abductor emailed again. This time, they described their background in great detail, including the auto thefts they had done. They attached photos of items they took and wireless router passcodes from their burglary in Mare Island. The abductor encouraged residents of Mare Island to step forward if they recognized any of their stolen items to convince the police that Aaron and Denise's case was not a hoax.

Denise and Aaron's home invasion was supposed to be a "live fire exercise" for their bigger plans. They entered the house through the window and exacted their plan. But it didn't matter how much they planned; things went awry.

The router's reset button wasn't working. Their monitoring software wasn't compatible with Aaron and Denise's phones. And what's worst was they had the wrong woman. Photos of the fake guns they used, cameras, and the bedroom Denise was held in captivity were all attached.

March 30th

The abductor sent another email. This time, a threat straight to Lt. Kenny Park, demanding a public apology for Denise Huskins to stop the victimization of Denise. Else, something will be set into motion in 24 hours.

March 31st

The abductor apologized for his ultimatum in his last email and assured that nothing would happen. He again explained why they were risking themselves. At the end of the email, he offered to turn in and confess to everything if all three of them would be given immunity.

The Truth

Three months later, Vallejo officers were contacted by Alameda County officers in Dublin, California, a city an hour away regarding a home invasion that they believed might be related to Aaron and Denise's case.

The home invasion didn't go as planned too. The husband fought back with the intruder while the wife swiftly ran into the bathroom with her phone, locked the doors and dialed 911. The intruder later fled the house, but in the chaos, he left his phone in the house.

The officers later identified Matthew Muller as the intruder and a search warrant was issued. Amongst Matthew's belongings, they found blonde hair stuck to a pair of goggles and an Asus Laptop belonging to Aaron. They found Denise's drop-off location in Matthew's car navigation system as well. And the most damming evidence of all, they found the videos of Matthew sexually assaulting blindfolded Denise.

Matthew Muller is a former marine and a disbarred Harvard immigrant attorney. He claimed he has bipolar disorder with extreme paranoia and psychosis. Friends described Matthew as an intelligent, organized and determined individual.

In 2011, he was sued by his law firm for allegedly sleeping in the office and stealing clients' information such as software, passwords and archived emails. The suit was settled, and Matthew resigned from the firm. Four years later, he was disbarred after he filed for bankruptcy.

Matthew Muller pleaded guilty to one count of federal kidnapping and was sentenced to 40 years. He still faces additional state charges for kidnapping, rape, robbery and burglary. He has yet to stand trial for the state charges as he is deemed mentally unfit.

Aftermath

Even after the truth is out, the trauma and stigma of 'Gone Girl' were never truly erased and the couple still suffers online harassment. Denise and Aaron sued the City of Vallejo for defamation. The City of Vallejo's police chief, Shawny Williams, extended his apologies on behalf of the police force for poorly handling the case and discounting Aaron and Denise's story. The city compensated $2.5 million as a settlement for Aaron and Denise.

Denise and Aaron are now married happily with two children and have published a book about their experience, "Victim F: From Crime Victims, To Suspects, To Survivors."

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