True Crime Vault: Taken

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There was just one problem.

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It turns out the truth might be even harder to believe.

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Welcome to the True Crime Vault, home to 2020's most chilling stories.

This is a crazy story about a home invasion.

A 29-year-old woman being abducted from her boyfriend's home in the middle of the night doesn't happen.

People were terrified.

This ninja is suddenly in their bedroom waking them up.

I've been covering crime for more than two decades.

I've never seen anything like it.

We're talking about swim goggles, blacked out headphones giving instructions, full-body wetsuits.

I mean, when do you hear about things like this?

I feel like I am some character in this crime drama.

I'm like in a movie.

The frogmen obviously didn't do it.

So who did it now?

Not only do they tell you they don't believe you, they say we think you killed her.

He is the closest person and the last person to have seen Denise alive.

There's no question in my mind that you failed this test.

And you've failed it miserably.

You know where she is.

I don't know where she is.

I'm telling the truth.

I know the craziest thing.

I told him, look, this is going to be a nightmare, and there's no way you're going to be able to pinch yourself and wake up.

I remember being asleep

and hearing a voice and thinking it was a dream.

Denise Huskins vanished from her boyfriend's home on Mare Island.

This voice was trying to pull me out of the dream and I was resisting.

Like, no, no, no.

Kidnapped or ransomed, abducted from her Bay Area home.

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 red laser dots crossing the wall.

And I could hear, wake up, this is a robbery.

And in that moment, I just thought, oh my God, this is not a dream.

Tonight, Denise Huskins is still missing.

Police have no suspects.

I woke up on my back, and I actually was like frozen.

They questioned her boyfriend and I didn't move.

I think I was in shock.

The new twist in what some call the real life gone girl.

He tells me that he's gonna put zip ties on the edge of the bed and I'm going to secure Aaron's hands behind his back and his feet together.

So I'm kneeling on the bed and I'm looking down at Aaron

and I could see him take a deep breath in and on his exhale he just said, oh my God.

And

I am just going,

what the hell is this?

And how the hell could this be meant for anyone?

I was living on Mare Island.

Mare Island is a beautiful island.

It's part of Allejo, which is just outside San Francisco.

Mare Island used to be a naval base, and they started building residential areas around there.

Newer homes, pretty quiet neighborhood for the most part.

White picket fences, kind of that California quintessential bedroom community.

I bought that home in 2012 and I was really proud of it.

It was a, you know, it was the first big giant purchase.

When Aaron moved in there, he thought that he was going to live there for the rest of his life, get married, raise his family there.

I moved to Vallejo for a residency.

Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn meet.

They're both physical therapists.

Denise is doing a prestigious physical therapy residency, and Aaron's a physical therapist in the same department.

This is one of the most incredible, unforgettable stories I have ever covered.

And it begins as a love story.

How did you two actually decide to become romantic?

He told me that he was interested in me and he wanted to spend more time with me.

So at the time Aaron and Denise met, Aaron had just broken up with his fiancée.

I had found out that she was having an affair.

I was very conflicted because I obviously was attracted to Denise.

I also didn't trust myself anymore.

And I could see who Aaron was, the man he was and the good in him.

I knew that he would be a great partner.

But I could see that he was struggling.

As any woman in that situation might be, Denise was a little concerned that Aaron might still have feelings for his ex.

So I just advised her, just be careful.

I don't want to see you get hurt.

And then when I went up to visit and it met up with Aaron and her,

wow,

it just seemed so mature.

Aaron brought Denise up to visit and she was very pleasant, very nice, seemed smart, looked a little bit like his ex-fiancé.

Was happy that he had another girlfriend.

They're about seven months into their relationship when his ex-fiancé is still really a source of tension.

I suspected that maybe there was something going on that

he wasn't being fully honest with me about.

And so I checked his phone and saw that he had been reaching out to her and saying things like he wanted to get back together with her, which

oh,

that just devastated me.

When she found the text message, I I was at crossroads of my life and I needed to make a change.

I finally just put my foot down and said, look, I don't deserve this.

And it was a couple weeks of kind of going back and forth.

And I wasn't sure

what I wanted to do, but I wanted to hear him out.

Then just last minute that Sunday, I was like, you know what, I'll just I'll come over and I'll see what you have to say and and we'll go from there.

I brought a pizza and we sat on the couch most of the night and talked.

We talked about how it would be difficult, like we had to rebuild trust, but as long as he was willing to really give this a full shot, then we could try again.

It sounds like March 22nd would have been a memorable night in your relationship.

no matter what.

That night was a really positive night and we went to bed feeling like there's definitely work to do, but it did feel like a fresh start.

At about midnight, they go upstairs and they go to sleep.

Sometime around 3 a.m., they wake up to a voice that says, wake up, this is a robbery.

This ninja is suddenly in their bedroom, waking them up, and the first thing that this person says is, we're not here to hurt you, this is financial, which is immediately going to get some level of compliance from them.

It's like, okay, okay, just don't hurt us.

I tie his hands together and then his feet together and then the voice says, good job.

Now walk to the bedroom closet.

Keep your head face down.

Do not look up.

She's thinking, if I see their faces, they're going to have a motivation to kill me.

She's trying to comply in order to survive.

And as I'm walking and turning the corner of the bed, I could see two legs from two different people.

So it wasn't just one person, there was more than one person in that room.

Yeah, and as I walked by, the one closest to the closet followed behind me.

He tied me up in the closet and went to get Aaron and helped him hop over to the closet.

When I lay down in the closet, I could hear a drill going on in one part of downstairs and people going through my captain.

I was hoping was that they're stealing stuff.

The intruder puts swim goggles over their eyes.

The lenses are covered with with black tape and he puts headphones over their ears.

There is these pre-recorded messages giving us instructions.

What did those pre-recorded messages say?

That they were going to give us a sedative

and if we didn't take it, they would inject it intravenously.

This is an organized, planned event.

When the voice put headphones on me, my recording started with this kind of muffled whisper of, it was like, Aaron, quick to the window.

Aaron, quick to the window he called you by your name yes

what goes through your mind at that moment that we're in a lot of trouble and this is planned and then the intruder says we have a problem and so we got the wrong intel they're not there for denise and aaron they're there for aaron and his ex-fiancé

It's the middle of the night.

Denise and Aaron were woken at 3 a.m.

by intruders.

They're both now bound and are in Erin's master bedroom closet.

When the voice came back to the closet, what did he say to you?

He said he was going to move me to the router room, which is the spare bedroom where the router was located.

So he knew where the router was.

He knew the layout of the house.

Yeah, and that was another...

indication of the planning involved.

And so he guided me to the next bedroom

and again played a new set of recordings.

This time it actually had threats saying they were going to ask us personal financial information, but if they thought that we were lying that they would then cut our partner's face or give electric shock.

He got my laptop and then forced me to give up my social security number, my bank accounts.

He knew where I had banked, where I had my credit cards.

He's asking him for all kinds of personal information.

They're looking for email and password information.

They're looking for banking information.

They're going to take all my money.

That's fine.

I'll figure it out.

And obviously I was wrong about that.

He's being asked questions, and at some point, the intruder realizes they've got the wrong person.

The intruder says, we have a problem.

And he says to Aaron, do Denise and your ex-fiancé look alike?

And he knew your ex-girlfriend's name.

Yeah, I just let out.

This is like guttural sigh.

I was like, yes, they both have long blonde hair.

And he said, we got the wrong intel.

They're not there for Denise and Aaron.

They're there for Aaron and his ex-fiancé.

They used to live there together and she has moved out and in fact only recently he's gotten all of her stuff out of the house.

He said, we have to figure out what we're going to do and walks out.

Part of me had hoped, if this is the wrong person,

maybe they'll just leave.

Deep down, you knew that they weren't going to leave.

Yeah.

And then the next time he came in,

he said, this is what we're going to do.

We're going to take you for 48 hours.

Erin's going to have to complete some tasks.

It's never a good outcome when you're taken to a second location.

No.

I thought

that it was probably the beginning of of the end of my life and I could only imagine what was in store for me.

I was eventually moved down to the couch.

He right away is told that there was a camera on the wall that will be watching his every move.

There are tape markings on the ground setting up a perimeter that he can't leave.

He puts duct tape around my ankles.

He asked me if I'm comfortable.

And I was shivering.

I asked for a blanket and

he goes, oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't realize how cold it is because we're wearing wetsuits.

Wetsuits.

That is a brilliant thing for a criminal to do because you're not going to leave any trace evidence.

The intruder explains to him that they're going to communicate with him via text and email, specifically to an email account that they've set up.

Tells me I need to stay there till the morning.

I have to call in sick to work and they had given me Denise's passcode to her phone.

I need to text her boss and tell him that she had a family emergency that was going to be gone for a week.

I would need to go to the bank, get the money that they requested.

I had to keep up my phone line open.

They're going to have a camera to monitor me.

If I try to communicate, it would hurt Denise.

If I went to the police, they would kill her.

And they would give me further instructions in the morning.

Denise is then being taken away.

She doesn't know where she's going and she's scared.

He lifts her up, he puts her in Baron's trunk.

I knew I just needed to stay focused and calm.

Then

Aaron's worst nightmare, he hears the trunk of his car get closed.

I was afraid that was going to be like the last time I was going to see her.

I used a corner of the couch to push the goggles off, and there was a digital clock, and it was exactly 5 a.m.

So Aaron's desperately trying to keep his eyes open, but the sedative is really making him tired.

I was just going to say I passed out and then

my alarm went off and I called, called in sick.

I was able to wiggle my hands free.

And I text our manager and then I was trying to stay awake and I just passed out again.

I didn't wake up till 11.30.

And when I looked around it was

my house with red tape around the borders defining where I should be, where the camera can see me.

Shortly after, emails and texts start coming in from the intruders, giving Aaron instructions.

They tell me they want two payments of $8,500 to avoid the $10,000 federal reporting limit.

He starts messaging the intruders and he hears nothing.

My mind's racing.

It's like 20 minutes, about 30 minutes, and I finally calm myself.

I start trying to think.

I realize like if...

I sent give him the money, he could just take me and kill both of us.

And so I can't trust people who do this.

He starts thinking, his brother's an FBI agent.

Do I call my brother?

Do I call the police?

What do I do?

Imagine this agonizing period of time.

Finally, he makes the decision: I've got to call Ethan, his brother who works for the FBI.

His brother instructs him that they always tell you this to not call 911.

They tell you they're going to track you, but you need to call 911 right now.

Aaron's holding his breath as he dials.

He's doing the exact thing the intruders told him not to do.

I hit 9 and 1 and

I just

hesitate.

He thinks if I press this one,

if I finish calling the police, I might just get Denise killed.

Either I'm

Denise's gonna be dead or she'll

or hopefully we'll feel able to save her.

The police are summoned to his home, and phase two of the nightmare begins.

Aaron's hoping that police are gonna come to his rescue, but he is in for a surprise.

I'm telling you, it did not happen the way that you're describing it.

It did not.

Period.

I didn't hurt her.

I didn't do any of that.

By the time Aaron calls police shortly before 2 p.m., it's nearly nine hours since Denise has been taken.

After I hit 911, it was all or nothing.

I opened the door and there's two officers and

one of the first questions they asked are, are you on drugs?

I said, yes, the kidnappers drugged me.

They come in and the first thing they do is rip that camera off the wall that he believes the intruders are watching him on.

I just kind of gasped, like, what are you doing?

From the police perspective, what they're confronted with is a man who said that his girlfriend was kidnapped in the middle of the night.

There is a crazy story about this home invasion.

They noticed there was a clean scent in the home, as though the carpets had been recently vacuumed.

When they get to Erin's bedroom, they notice there's a very small amount of blood on the bed sheet.

We have a comforter that's missing.

Aaron is in possession of Denise's phone, which he used to text her employer.

Aaron's car is missing, and they know that he's waited a substantial period of time before dialing 911.

They see all the components of what you might expect to see objectively in a domestic violence murder.

Eventually, those officers seem to soften a little bit, and they tell me they were going to take me to the station to

give a statement.

My My name's Mary Ann Quinn.

I am Erin Quinn's mother.

My other son, Ethan, had sent us a text.

So I called Ethan.

He said, Denise has been kidnapped and Aaron's at the police station.

And I was just, I was shocked.

And I said, well, we're coming down.

When I first went to the police station, They take DNA samples and they tell me that they have to take my clothes.

So I go, that's fine, take it.

They hand me a pair of pants and a shirt.

And I look down at these pants and it says Solano County Prison on it.

And I realize that the prison clothes.

You're now in the police station talking to police, telling them your story.

They were asking fairly open-ended questions.

I acknowledge, I'm like, this sounds like it's a movie.

I know it sounds bizarre.

We're talking about swim goggles blacked out with tape, headphones giving instructions, intruders intruders that are in full-body wetsuits.

I mean, when do you hear about things like this?

They told me an area I needed to stay in my house, said that there was going to be video recording to monitor and make sure that I don't contact anyone.

Detective Matt Mustard basically polaces over the incident at the house and starts asking about our relationship.

I had been talking to my ex and at a time when I was still

dating Denise.

Is there tension in the relationship?

Was she mad?

Uh I mean, she's upset.

She's concerned.

Is she cheating?

No, well, she felt that emotionally that would

that was cheating in some sense.

He starts asking questions about Denise and how you guys were having problems, and the tone starts to change.

I mean, did she like discover something?

Wow, was she like going through your phone and like going, what the hell is this?

What did she learn?

Sound text messages.

What did it say?

I mean, saying I still cared to I wanted to work things through with her.

Erin admits that they've had tension in their relationship.

So you can sort of understand why police might be a little bit suspicious.

They also are going to look at him as a suspect because he is the closest person and the last person to have seen Denise alive.

At what point do you realize that you're in trouble, in big trouble?

I don't know, about 45 minutes in, he

leans back in his chair and he tells me, I don't think you're being truthful i don't think anybody came into your house the story you're telling here

i'm buying it all

you gotta think about how this is all gonna play out i don't have anything to think about i'm telling you what

listen to me there ain't no frog men came into your house

nobody dressed in wetsuits or

it didn't happen Remember, if Aaron's story is true, Denise has been kidnapped, so every minute that ticks by, she's in incredible danger.

While this is going on with him, his parents and his brother are at the police station.

They grilled his parents.

We were telling them what a good kid he was.

They kept asking, has he ever gotten angry?

Has he done drugs?

As a teenager, he was easy.

He was a quarterback for the high school.

He got voted as the boy of the year.

That's what they call for leadership abilities and commitment to good values.

They really, really did not want to hear that.

They had already decided he had killed her.

They said, maybe we're in a fight and I pushed her down the stairs.

Maybe we're experimenting with drugs.

Maybe we're experimenting with prescription drugs.

Maybe we're into weird sex things and something went wrong.

I don't think this happened intentionally.

I think something happened accidental.

And you got to the point where you reacted the way that you did and you had to come up with this story.

They were trying to get him to make the simplest concessions.

You and her weren't getting along.

Listen to me.

You're a good guy, but you lost your temper.

You killed her and threw her in the bay.

Not only do they tell you they don't believe you, they say we think you killed her.

Yes.

Did you watch the

Lacey Peterson got whatever the hell his name was?

Did you watch that story in the Public Cana Modesto?

Today is the third day of an all-out search for Lacey Peterson.

Mustard even brings up the Lacey Peterson case.

I came home and called mom, and Lacey wasn't there, and no one had seen her.

Scott Peterson famously murdered his wife Lacey in kind of the same general area, Central California.

She and her unborn baby were eventually recovered in the San Francisco Bay.

Investigators say they plan to bring Lacey's husband Scott in for more questioning.

You look at that and you go, that dude's a lion son of a bitch.

That's the way people will look at you.

They're telling him that he's going to be perceived as a monster, and he keeps saying frogman because this person told them that he was wearing a wetsuit.

The frogman obviously didn't do it.

So who did it now?

Well, it's the guy that I've been sitting here talking to tonight.

So now I get out my puzzle pieces and I start figuring out, okay, how do I make it so you look like a monster?

I don't want to do that.

Ultimately, I'm looking for the truth.

At that point, did you think about just getting up and walking out?

I didn't think about getting up and walking out because I assumed I was gonna be in handcuffs.

As soon as I stepped up, they were gonna rust me.

But then something incredible happens.

The San Francisco Chronicle actually gets a message.

You actually hear Denise's voice.

This show is supported by Unicorn Girl, an Apple original podcast.

Meet Candace, mother of two, nurse, CEO, and founder of multi-million dollar companies.

Candice went from being a stay-at-home mom to making millions, traveling the world, and saving lives.

There was just one problem.

Was it all a lie, or was it all true?

It turns out the truth might be even harder to believe.

From the creator of Scamanda, this is Unicorn Girl, an Apple Original podcast produced by by 7 Hills.

Apple TV Plus subscribers get special early access to the entire season.

Follow and listen on Apple podcasts.

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Aaron Quinn has just had the worst night of his life.

His 29-year-old girlfriend, Denise Huskins, has just been kidnapped for ransom.

But the police are convinced the person responsible for harming her is Aaron himself.

In fact, they believe he killed her.

When they believe that Denise essentially has been murdered, the police notify her parents and tell them that she's missing.

A detective told me to expect the worst.

And I said, wow.

So of course I was shaken.

He did not have one nice thing to say about Erin.

He thought everything that was coming out of his mouth was a lie.

You want me to go tell her family that she's dead?

Because that's what I'm prepared to do.

I'm going to go tell them that I'm not looking for a live Denise.

I'm looking for dead Denise.

It did feel like I am some character in this crime drama.

I'm like in a movie.

I'm living a nightmare right now.

There's blood in your house.

Blood?

Yeah.

Okay.

I knew there was an old stain on my sheet.

I had to wash those sheets multiple times.

It was just a small stain I wasn't able to get out.

Little did I know a quarter-sized bloodstain was going to mean I was a murderer.

Because this is a kidnapping, the FBI is involved.

And an FBI agent asks Aaron if he'd be willing to take a line detector test.

You took a polygraph.

I think if I wasn't so sleep deprived, I would have said no, because I know they're nonsense.

He keeps cooperating because he wants their help in finding Denise.

All right.

Aaron, there's no question in my mind that you failed this test.

And you've failed it miserably.

it's not even close at this point aaron who has not had sleep has this officer that is now barraging him with questions tell us what happened to her let's get her family closure i did not do anything okay i did i i pretty sure maybe you didn't maybe you didn't do maybe you didn't do anything

maybe maybe she something happened to her that you didn't plan maybe i don't know you tell me but it can't start with three guys showing up at the house taking that taking her away That's not what happened.

You know where she is.

I don't know where she is.

At one point, I actually started doubting my own sanity.

And I thought maybe I could have a schizophrenic breakdown.

I want you guys to find her.

I don't know where she is.

He's run out of road.

He's exhausted.

He's traumatized.

And he thinks that he's going to get arrested for murder.

Finally, he says, look, there's nothing more I can tell you, and I guess I need a lawyer.

I guess I need a lawyer.

We're done.

They convinced my brother to come in, and they're hoping that he can get a confession from me.

You see Ethan walk into that room with Aaron.

And Aaron just grabs onto Ethan and he just starts sobbing.

I know it is the craziest thing.

I just start crying because there was someone there who actually wanted to help me.

He says I'm going to get you an attorney.

It's like 6.30 in the morning.

Ethan was just calling around.

One came up with Dan's name, Daniel Russo.

And Dan ended up being in the office already.

The phone rings.

I pick it up.

He says, My name is Ethan Quinn.

My brother's being held by the Floyd Police.

He needs a lawyer right away.

I said, okay, I'll put my suit on.

Dan Brusso is a scrappy fighter.

He's the guy you want to represent you if this happens to you.

There seems to be a stream of blatant lies coming out.

He's from the Bronx.

He's got a thick accent.

He says whatever he wants.

He has basically died and gone to hell.

I know the police officers and I say, okay, is he under arrest?

Well, if he's not under arrest, it's time to say goodnight, Gracie.

And then I took Aaron back to the office.

And then he told me the whole story.

And it was hard to believe.

We all cried and cried.

I think the thing that really got to me was when Dan Russo gave us a bail bondsman card.

It never crossed my mind that he might need to be bailed out.

I told him, look, this is going to to be a nightmare, and there's no way you're going to be able to pinch yourself and wake up.

That is, unless there's some sort of proof that Denise is actually still alive.

And later that day, that is exactly what arrives.

At about 12:30 on March 24th, something incredible happens.

The San Francisco Chronicle actually gets a message from the kidnapper with what's called proof of life.

Okay, Match.

Otherwise,

fine.

It's Denise's own voice, so we know that she is still alive.

And she gives information relevant to present day.

She talks about a plane crash in the Alps.

An Airbus A320 plummeting in the French Alps.

150 people now fear dead.

Earlier today, there was a plane crash in the Alps.

My other attorney, Amy, called and said there was a proof of life and that the police want me back at the station.

I just was told by a detective an hour ago that the boyfriend was responsible for killing her and now I'm saying oh she's alive.

They say they want to send a message back and they also want me to look at my phone, the phone that they've had in their possession since I called the police the day before.

I bring out my phone and then I hear my attorneys paralegal saying Aaron's on airplane mode.

And of course if a device as we all know is on airplane mode, it's not receiving incoming messages.

And as soon as he takes it off airplane mode, his phone explodes in a million text messages.

Why would the police put your phone on airplane mode if that was the only means of communication from a kidnapper who has your girlfriend?

Exactly.

They're just leaving Denise to fend for herself.

It's not just Erin Quinn who's being interrogated.

Police are also speaking with Denise's family.

The kinds of questions they're asking seem to insinuate that they think this entire kidnapping might be staged.

The detective asked Jane, has anything bad ever happened to Denise?

I said,

she was molested as a young girl.

We were camping, the others had fallen asleep,

and

this adult kept after Denise.

And according to court filings, the detective responds with a shocking theory.

Detective Mustard tells me that those that have this molestation happen want to relive it and experience the thrill of it again.

I was dumbstruck.

Detective Mustard has denied making this statement.

She is clearly still alive, and rather than entertain the possibility that, oh my gosh, maybe this story is true,

they immediately shift into, well, this must be a hoax.

This morning, a shocking twist.

Denise Huskins found safe in Huntington Beach.

They had already decided she was dead.

Denise Huskins was located safely at an undisclosed location.

It was very inconvenient for them when she showed up alive.

Desperate search for California woman.

Denise Huskins vanished from her boyfriend's home on Mare Island yesterday.

Kidnapped for ransom in the middle of the night.

Ms.

Huskins' whereabouts are unknown, and we are treating this matter as a kidnapped ransom.

Police have no suspects.

A 29-year-old woman being abducted from her boyfriend's home in the middle of the night doesn't happen.

People were terrified.

Just gives me the tales of thinking about it.

Sometimes life is stranger than fiction.

This was, of course, going to be a huge story.

Don't hurt her.

Please don't hurt her.

This morning, a shocking twist.

Denise Huskins found safe in Huntington Beach.

On Wednesday, March 25th, news breaks that Denise Huskins, who's been missing for 48 hours, reappears in Huntington Beach, 400 miles away from where she was kidnapped.

When Denise Huskins reappears, this story explodes.

It was so sexy.

That bizarre kidnapping case that looked like a real-life gone girl.

It was Gone Girl, Nancy Grace.

Is Huskins a real-life gone girl?

Like the movie.

The movie Gone Girl is about a woman who fakes her own kidnapping.

Meticulously stage your crime scene with just enough mistakes to raise the specter of doubt.

Hints it on her husband who's cheating on her and then leaves and allows the media to hone in on her husband.

I turn on TV, it's on every news network.

Now to the latest twist in that kidnapping case in California, and then it just grew and grew and grew.

Denise Huskins was located.

She is alive and well, 400 miles away where her parents live.

It was everywhere.

I couldn't believe she was alive.

I mean, this is a bizarre case.

The mystery continues.

And that mystery has now become the subject of a book.

It's called Victim F.

Her kidnapper decides that there's too many police in Vallejo.

He can't take her back to Vallejo.

So he takes her to Huntington Beach, where her family lives.

Stops the car.

He lets me out.

He had put tape over my eyes and given me sunglasses.

Her bags are taken out of the cartoon, and she's instructed to count to 10 until the car drives away, and that they're going to to be monitoring her.

When did you realize that you were safe?

I heard him drive off.

I slowly counted to 10.

I peeled the tape off my eyes and

I was by myself in

this alley.

I grabbed my bags and I started walking in.

I looked at the corner street name and I saw Utica, which is the street that I grew up on.

I thought, oh my God.

She realizes that she's within walking distance of her mother's house in Huntington Beach.

You know, it's a street

I've walked down hundreds of times in my life.

As I'm stumbling, still sedated,

just walking down the street, all I wanted to do was to hug my mom and dad and

finally feel safe.

She goes to her mother's house, but no one's there.

She sees someone working on the home and she asks to borrow a cell phone.

She first calls her dad and he doesn't pick up and she leaves a voicemail.

I heard the voicemail and then I went into a panic.

Denise's parents were both hours away up in Vallejo, unable to get to her.

She was walking over to my house, which was a mile away, about a 10, 15 minute walk.

I'm thinking, okay, I've got about five minutes to get a hold of Huntington Beach Police.

I get to his house, I knock on the door, nothing.

And then his neighbor says, can I help you?

And I said, I'm looking for my dad.

Denise goes to the neighbor's home and asks to use the restroom.

When I came out, there were already two officers from Huntington Beach Police Department and said, you know, are you Denise Huskins?

There's actually a recording of the conversation that they had with Denise.

Where do they drop you off here?

Down Utica.

They see a woman who's wearing sunglasses who appears to be very calm and her actual overnight bag is with her.

So I noticed that you have obviously a purse and a jacket.

How did you get that stuff?

They brought it with me.

They knew that it was my stuff.

She tells them the same crazy story that Aaron had told the police in Vallejo.

Denise tells them everything from waking up at 3 a.m.

to the white flashing lights, the kidnapping and put in the trunk.

She tells them everything she can think of.

I was put in the trunk of Aaron's car and then he started driving.

I was in and out of consciousness.

I knew it was hours and hours that we were driving.

I feel the car slowed down and I realized that we're reaching our destination.

The entire time that Denise is kidnapped, she's regularly given liquid doses of benzo, likely that same sedative that she was given the first night.

Did you ever ask him to let you go?

I asked him if he was going to hurt me.

I asked him if he was going to kill me.

He had said there was no reason for that.

They also asked in that interview, you know, you were kidnapped for two days.

Did they sexually assault you?

Were you sexually assaulted or anything like that during this?

No.

They didn't touch you or do anything to you against your will?

No.

It's weird, because with all things considered, they treated me really nicely.

Although Denise appears to be pretty calm to the officers that are talking to her, she does express fear.

She does talk about how she's scared.

At one point, she actually says she thinks she needs to talk to a lawyer.

Our detectives are going to have to talk to you.

Oh yeah, I wanted to see about talking with a lawyer first.

I continue asking for my parents.

That's all I want to do is talk to them.

You know, I'm asking where are they?

Can they,

I just really want to speak to them.

And then finally

my cousin comes in.

Hi.

Hi.

Oh god.

Seeing someone that I know and love come in finally,

I could finally take a deep breath.

Can you give us a couple minutes?

Thank you.

He just took control of the situation, my cousin, and I finally felt safe.

She's left the building with a family member, and at this time, all information is being turned over to Vallejo PD.

We're confident that we're going to be able to piece together this puzzle and have a better picture of what really occurred once we speak to Ms.

Huskins.

The Vallejo police want to interview her as well as the FBI.

Nick, her cousin, who's the attorney, starts talking to Detective Mustard.

And the first thing Mustard tells them is, we'll give immunity to whoever confesses first to like making this whole thing up, basically.

And Teddy's like, what?

Detective Mustard has denied making this offer.

And it becomes very clear to her very quickly that she is actually in a legally precarious situation.

It was obvious that I needed to get a defense attorney.

And the FBI wanted to give her a courtesy flight on their plane.

I said, absolutely not.

You make sure she gets on a commercial flight and I want her to go directly from the airport to my office.

Meanwhile, what's being portrayed to the media is Denise isn't cooperating.

We have a plane ready to get her.

She turned it down.

We have not heard from Ms.

Huskins.

And they say we've lost contact with her.

And we are no longer in contact with any of the family members.

And so the nature of the press conference turns very quickly.

From this point forward, I would not refer to them as a victim or a witness.

It was very clear that the only people being investigated were Aaron and Denise.

Police say the kidnapping was a hoax.

I was mentally preparing myself for a fight, and it would have to be a fight to the death.

Every moment, every ounce of energy is about how do I live to see another second.

The story's so incredible, Vallejo police didn't believe it.

This morning, a shocking twist.

Denise Huskins found safe in Huntington Beach.

The whole premise of it is that the two of them were lying and that this kidnapping never happened.

He said, oh, she just wants to be another gone girl.

She read the book, saw the movie.

The last thing that you're thinking about is if I do survive, I need to make sure that I'm believable.

I had gone from a murderer to committing a hoax.

It was very clear that the only people being investigated were Aaron and Denise, picking up the pieces of our life one by one by one, all the while being in a constant state of terror, knowing that the kidnappers are out there, and knowing that people think that you're liars.

My name is Misty Caruso.

I am am a sergeant at the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.

Before I became a detective, I was obsessed with watching 2020.

Tonight, on 2020.

I like watching how the detectives work and how they solve the crimes.

It was always so intriguing to me.

In March of 2015, I remember hearing about this gone girl case.

Kidnapped for Renzo.

Found safe this morning.

And still, the same questions remain.

And then I had seen the Vallejo Pete press conference.

The same day that Denise is released, Lieutenant Kenny Park with the Vallejo Police Department had an extraordinary press conference.

Lieutenant Kenny Park comes out and he starts by thanking reporters for being there.

I really appreciate your time coming in.

The Vallejo Police issued a press release even before that press conference, basically saying this it was an orchestrated event.

So the reporters were already geared up for this to be a lot of drama at this press conference.

The statement that Mr.

Quinn provided was such an incredible story, we initially had a hard time believing it.

And upon further investigation, we were not able to substantiate any of the things that he was saying.

As soon as Kane Park started talking, I knew that they were going to go after us.

From this point forward, I would not refer to them as a victim or a witness.

I just remember thinking, this is insane.

He was angry.

I had gone from a murderer to now committing a hoax.

Lieutenant Park never outright called Aaron Quinn or Denise Huskins liars.

He never used the word hoax.

But if you listen to the entire press conference, the whole premise of it is that the two of them were lying and that this kidnapping never happened.

The fact that we've essentially wasted all of these resources for really nothing is upsetting.

And I was thinking to myself, how could you say that?

You have no idea.

No one's investigating.

This is before they've even spoken to her.

This is the same day that she's released by the kidnapper.

Mr.

Quinn and Ms.

Huskins has plundered valuable resources away from our community.

It is Mr.

Quinn and Ms.

Huskins that owes this community an apology.

I'm sitting watching the newscast, knowing that she's alive.

And then they insult her by saying that her and Aaron owe

everyone an apology.

I was aghast.

Police officers don't go on camera and give press conferences unless they're certain about what they're saying.

To hear the reporters just go with his version of the story without even pressing them.

One of the reporters asked if Denise and I were facing charges.

There are still some loose ends that we need to tie up and at the conclusion of the investigation if you feel that there is sufficient evidence to move forward, we will be requesting criminal charges.

So Denise has no idea that this has happened because while the press conference is going on, she's making her way from Huntington Beach, where she was released, up to the San Francisco area to meet her attorney.

The plane lands in San Francisco at 9.30 at night.

And I walk into my defense attorney, Doug Rappaport, his office.

And one of the first things he says when I sit down, he's like, look, Flejo, please, they just held a press conference and completely threw you under the bus.

What do you have to say about it?

I'm not somebody who just automatically believes my clients.

I would be a fool if I did.

And that's why I met with her and I went through the story repeatedly with her.

When she was going through the story, the emotion was so real.

Not only were the facts consistent, but I remember the most telling

fact

was when she was taken to the house

and she was bound.

She had been in the trunk for hours.

He was awkwardly trying to get me out of the trunk.

When he grabbed me, he stumbled, he fell.

He pulled you into a garage.

He just drugged me.

And it was a cold, a really cold concrete floor.

And he put a blanket over me and said he had to go inside and clean.

She heard him cleaning inside and thought he's a mass murderer and he's cleaning up from the last victim and that I'm going to die.

In your book, Victim F, you write about a promise that you made made yourself in that moment.

I told myself, no matter what they do, no matter what they put me through, I'm not going to beg and scream.

If it is

the last moment that I'm going to be living,

I'm just going to stay calm and be grateful for the life I had.

I was absolutely convinced that she was telling the truth.

By the time she meets with her lawyer and she's in a safe space, she's able to actually give the complete details of what happened.

She told me that she did not tell the officers two things because he told her, do not mention these two things.

And she was petrified of this person.

One, that he was in the Marines and two, that she had been raped.

So that first day in captivity, he says, we have a problem.

Because this wasn't intended for you, we don't have anything on you to make sure that you comply.

So one of us is going to have to have sex with you, and it'll be recorded to make sure that you don't go to the police.

And if we think that you are going to go to the police, we will air it on the internet.

He acted remorseful and hesitant like he didn't want to do this.

I shared with him about being molested as a child and thinking

some bit of him will just go, okay, I won't do this to her.

But that didn't happen.

No.

During the course of those two days, he did rape her and videotape it.

And not just once?

No.

Her kidnapper tells her that the group has decided the recording doesn't look believable enough.

They have to do it again.

He had told me it doesn't look consensual.

So this time we'll have to kiss and we'll have to make it look like you're enjoying it.

It's an unthinkable thing to go through to be raped, but then to have to act like you're enjoying it.

You know, I had to

do and say things that I would with Erin.

It's cruel.

It's cruel.

It's beyond cruel.

It's a certain level of torture.

After two days of Denise feeling like her life is being held in the balance every moment, her kidnapper comes to her and says, I'm going to release you.

That was always the plan, but as the clock was ticking, I realized that if that 48 hours came and went and it didn't happen, I was mentally preparing myself

for a fight and it would have to be a fight to the death.

And he woke me up, he said it was around 2 a.m.

and that he was gonna drive me down to Huntington Beach where my family lives and then I just was in and out of consciousness.

He stops the car and before he pulls me out he says that my strength is admirable and he really wishes that we would have met under different circumstances.

But the police seem to have already decided that Denise's harrowing story isn't true.

Nothing but a hoax.

It is possible she could face criminal charges, and that's about to draw the ire of someone unexpected, the kidnapper.

The San Francisco Chronicle receives another email.

Here was a guy trying to defend his victims.

It just got more and more surreal.

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Is there any evidence that makes you know conclusively that this calls?

Our investigation has concluded that none of the claims have been substantiated.

And I can go I could go one step further to say this, that this was not a random act and that the members of our community are safe

and that they have nothing to fear.

Police say the kidnapping was a hoax.

An orchestrated hoax, according to officials.

Denise Huskins, purported orchestrator of this possible kidnapping hoax.

You can't fathom that a police would be this aggressive with nothing to back it up.

For a minute, I thought maybe Denise made it up.

Maybe because of how I hurt Denise in the past, maybe she was trying to get back on me.

The fact that I even thought for a moment that Denise made this up was

something I will carry with me

until the day I die.

I was at my criminal defense attorneys at,

you know, 10 o'clock at night until 5 the next morning.

During the course of that evening I'd been talking with the Vallejo Police Department and trying to get a sexual assault exam.

They said you know we need to speak to her first.

We'll talk to her tomorrow and then we'll determine whether or not we'll set up that exam.

And according to court filings when Denise's attorney asked for that exam Vallejo police initially disregarded that request.

They said we have evidence that's going to dissipate.

You're going to lose your DNA.

You're going to lose fibers.

And they said, well, the most callous thing I think I've ever heard somebody say from law enforcement, they said, well, just have her sleep in her clothes and don't take a shower and we'll talk about it in the morning.

Vallejo has denied this account.

And my attorney told me, you know, you don't have to speak with the police, but the only way that we're going to catch this guy and the people who are involved is if you speak to them.

Denise does go in to speak with law enforcement.

She has two days where she endures questioning after having experienced such a traumatic event.

The first day I I was questioned by the Valleo police and then the second day the lead FBI agent took over and with his questioning it was very different.

They spoke to her just like any other suspect.

There wasn't one time I think where they showed any real compassion or understanding and that's because they believed that she was a criminal.

It seemed like that FBI agent's main goal was only to trip me up.

And he made me go through the assaults again, what position I was put in, what his body felt like.

And at the end of it, he basically says, you know, are you sure, is there anything else you want to say?

Because it's a crime to lie to an FBI agent.

They basically threatened her.

They said, you can be prosecutive.

The FBI agent told me after we concluded Denise's interview that he was 99% certain that she was lying.

And he told my attorney, we should watch the movie Gone Girl.

It would explain a lot.

When they started calling her Gone Girl, I was shocked.

He said, oh, she just wants to be another gone girl.

She read the book, saw the movie.

And I thought, well, what does that mean?

I had heard of the book and the movie.

I hadn't seen it, and I had no clue.

The new twist in what some call the real-life gone girl.

The story is being compared to the movie Gone Girl, where a beautiful woman figs her own kidnapping.

She is not the gone girl.

She's a responsible person.

Once you've been through the trauma you've been through, no one would expect

to be be disbelieved.

You've been able to write 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.

The last thing that you're thinking about is if I do survive, I need to make sure that I'm believable.

On Thursday, March 26th, the San Francisco Chronicle receives another email, and it is filled with details about the kidnapping.

The author of the email writes, it isn't a hoax.

They're not lying.

They'd seen the headlines apparently where Denise and Aaron are being blamed and saying that they made the whole thing up and they're basically like, no, telling the truth because we did it.

The kidnapper, the guy who invaded their home and raped her, was offended that the Vilejo Police Department would say it was all a hoax.

Just got more and more surreal.

The kidnapper wanted credit.

Yes, I do believe they wanted to clear our names, but they also wanted credit for their work.

There was also a level of arrogance of like, look how clever we are.

Not only are there explicit details about the kidnapping, but they attach photos of evidence showing even the room that Denise Huskins was held in.

Pictures of a squirt gun with a laser thing duct taped on it to make it look like that's what the red dots were.

It describes crimes that they had committed on Mare Island leading up to the kidnapping.

They started out as car thieves, but they weren't making enough money.

And then they started getting into this kidnapping for ransom.

They call themselves Ocean's 11 gentleman criminals.

Why do this?

Why not do it?

They probably thought they're right, George Klein, Brad Pitt.

Moreover, the emails came to the Chronicle while Denise was being interviewed.

You would think that was a fact that would vindicate her, or at least let law enforcement think, aha, there may be something else going on here.

While all of this is going on, you two haven't seen each other yet.

We're talking and I tell him that I'm still in the Bay Area.

We made a plan to have him come

and so we could see each other.

I was just sick with anticipation wondering what he thinks of me.

Is there any bit of him that thinks that I'm this horrible liar who would do something like this to him?

I just just wanted to see her.

I just wanted to hold her.

I just wanted to tell her I was sorry.

And

I was really afraid that

she wouldn't want to see me.

That she would just want to

wipe her hands clean.

When in captivity, I kept

picturing him.

I kept just visualizing what that feeling must be like to finally feel safe in his arms again.

And so, when he knocked on that door and I opened it,

I mean, we just embraced and like you're just crying and holding each other.

I knew our lives had changed forever and that we're gonna

go through a lot more struggles, but like we're together and we can

say each other now.

Yeah,

a little little more than two months after this, there was a home invasion in Dublin, California.

County emergency.

Finally, Erin and Denise's story is about to get a big shot of believability.

They are out there right now.

My husband is fighting with them.

When the Dublin incident happened, I said, oh, that's a rat.

As the weeks pass, with no breaks in their case, Denise and Erin find themselves the prime suspects in their own home invasion and abduction.

The nightmare, in many ways, is just getting started for Denise and for Erin.

They believe that they're not safe, that whoever is responsible for the burglary and Denise's abduction is still out there, and police certainly are no longer looking for those people.

We were picking up the pieces of our life one by one by one, all the while being in a constant state of terror.

As I was about to get fired from my job, they were looking for, I believe, brain reason to fire me because they didn't want my bad reputation tainting them.

It plants a seed in people's minds to doubt us.

Everything we worked hard for, it just got wiped away and

I became this vision of everything that people want to hate.

I was an object to throw stones at.

It was devastating to see both of them.

They could not function.

Were you concerned that you were going to be arrested and charged?

Yeah, I mean that, yeah,

that was the plan.

We were preparing for a defense.

But there's about to be a very big break in the case, which will change everything.

On June 5th, 2015, I received a call about a home invasion robbery that just occurred here in the city of Dublin.

Dublin is a small California town that's about an hour south of Vallejo.

An older couple wakes up during the middle of the night to a bright flashlight shining in their faces.

The wife had reported seeing a laser also being pointed at her.

It's this exact same thing that happened to Aaron and Denise, only this time things go awry pretty quickly.

When he attempts to tie up the wife, the husband jumps across the bed and tackles the suspect.

The wife is able to slip away and go to the bathroom and call 911.

County emergency.

We had a break-in.

They are out there by mountain.

My husband's fighting with them.

I just broke loose.

I'm going to hide in the bathroom right now.

17314 detail.

Husband fighting with a subject.

Stand by.

Is that subject that's fighting still in the house?

The suspect tries to get away.

He, in turn, hits the husband upside the head with a mag light-style flashlight and exits the house.

He joined the room, baby!

He ran away!

Okay, my husband's bleeding.

He had a pretty good head injury, but he fought this man and essentially chased him out.

Well, in the struggle, the kidnapper wound up leaving a cell phone.

Law enforcement was able to quickly find out who the owner of this cell phone was.

And it comes back to a woman in Orangevale, California.

So when we reached out to her, she had told us that her son, Matthew Mueller, lost his phone the day before.

They learned some pretty astonishing things about Matthew Mueller.

He joined the Marine Corps for five years and he actually was discharged honorably as a sergeant.

He graduated summa cum laude from Pomona College out here in California.

He had a number of years of military experience, so that set him apart from most of our classmates.

Certainly prioritized his studies over his social life.

And then went to, of all places, Harvard Law School.

You don't get into Harvard law without being some combination of smart and hardworking, and he was very clearly both.

He went into immigration law.

He got married.

He had this very successful life that was just getting started.

Mueller claims that in 2008 he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and by 2015 his life was kind of falling apart.

He'd been disbarred by the California State Bar for failing to return $1,200 to a client.

He'd been separated from his wife.

When we reached out to his mother, she just told us where he was at.

That was in their family cabin in South Lake Ohio.

They had located the suspect of the home invasion.

They They were going to serve a search warrant.

Misty Kirasu was still a day away from officially being a detective.

But when her boss called and asked her if she'd like to go to South Lake Tahoe for one of their cases for a search, she said, sure, I'm there.

The house was your typical cabin in the woods.

The house looked quiet.

It didn't look like there was anybody home.

We all lined up tactically and walked up to the front door.

We kicked down the door, the place was cluttered.

As we make our way across all the debris, we see Matthew Mueller coming out from one of the bedrooms.

And then we asked him, do you know why we're here?

He said, yes.

When I went to take pictures of him, he was just shut down, didn't want to talk, just like a blank stare.

They start doing a search of the house and Misty, from the minute she walked in, she was just getting a very creepy feeling about the place.

There were a lot of ski masks.

There were a few stun guns.

We did recover a number of laptops, cell phones.

There was one specific laptop that was stuffed in between the mattress and the box ring of his bed.

He was driving a stolen Ford Mustang.

We opened the trunk and there was a large green bag that had a blow-up doll in it.

It was kind of stuffed in there, but it had very rigid wires that allowed it to be erect on its own.

It had zip ties, duct tape.

There were a number of replica squirt guns.

One of them had specifically just your typical pen-style laser pointer that was duct taped to it.

There were several swim goggles that were duct tape black.

One in particular had a blonde hair strand attached to the duct tape.

The Dublin home invasion, none of them had blonde hair.

She knows something isn't right.

She knows that something bad happened to someone, but she doesn't know who.

This can't be the first time this person's done this, and she's going to find out what else Matthew Mueller has done.

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After the break-in in Dublin, Detective Misty Caruso doggedly pursues this.

At that point, there was enough evidence tying him to their crime, She could have stopped right there and nobody would have faulted her for it because they had this case closed.

But she just couldn't get it out of her head that this had happened to someone else.

And looking back at all the evidence, there was just no denying that this wasn't his first time committing a crime.

I just had to figure out where these other crimes occurred.

She puts Matthew Mueller's name into the police database and he comes back as having been a person of interest in a string of unsolved crimes in nearby cities.

There were two incidents from 2009 in the neighboring cities of Palo Alto and Mountain View, where Mueller was listed as a person of interest.

In both cases, a man broke in in the middle of the night, bound the female victims, covered their eyes, and threatened to rape them.

We believed at the time that those two cases may be linked and may have been committed by the same suspect.

They just hadn't been able to charge him.

There was also the recovered stolen Mustang.

And Misty tracks down the owner of the white Mustang.

And it turns out he's a college student who lived on Mare Island.

He mentioned that there was a kidnapping that had occurred at the same time that his vehicle was stolen.

A kidnapping case that was labeled a hoax by Vallejo PD.

And it caught my interest.

I googled the Vallejo kidnapping case and all of the gong girl stuff came up.

Police are investigating whether those kidnappers were well imaginary.

And I saw the Vallejo PD lieutenant in his press conference.

It is Mr.

Quinn and Ms.

Huskins that owes this community an apology.

It all came back to me and I thought, this is

beyond crazy.

She wants to talk to Vallejo.

She can't get a call back.

She finally reaches them and like, well, you got to talk to the FBI.

And she calls the FBI.

I said, I have this suspect in custody who may be a person of interest to you in the Vallejo kidnapping case that you guys deemed a hoax.

And he told me that it wasn't the FBI saying that it was a hoax and that it was Vallejo PD that said it was a hoax.

And they came pretty quickly after that.

There was one representative from Vallejo PD and then there was two FBI agents that came to our station as well.

And when we showed them the pictures of the evidence we had, they were shocked.

They were shocked.

Lo and behold, all of these details that Aaron and Denise had told them had happened are now being corroborated.

And it turns out it's not so bizarre that, you know, this is in fact what happened.

So three months later, you get a call from your attorney that investigators want to talk to you again?

Yes.

And then they tell me that they think they caught the guy.

Did they tell you his name?

No.

They told me very little detail.

They said they had found my computer at the place.

They had found a goggle with long blonde hair.

I just realized like our whole lives

can change.

When they found the Mustang and the laptop

it was like you know the sun breaking.

I mean that's a cliched but that's what it really felt like.

They had executed a search warrant on the residence that we found out was in Lake Tahoe, which made sense because Denise said she was in the car, you know, held in the trunk for a couple hours while they were driving there.

Everything looked exactly as Denise had described it.

She said, Daddy, the kidnapper has been found and they found evidence that connects them to the kidnapping.

And I said, what, like, what did they find?

They found his car that had

GPS on it.

We had to identify where the car had been.

And later, we find, after we're doing research into the Vallejo case, one address in particular was

East Utica Avenue in Huntington, the exact area where Denise was dropped off.

The news breaks immediately and it's headlines all over the world.

Major break in a strange kidnapping case in California.

Well, this case may have finally come together.

How did this case take yet another surprising turn?

Good afternoon, everyone.

Today is a fabulous day.

We held a press conference.

And I said, you know, we're expecting full apologies.

We're hoping that Vallejo PD steps up to the plate.

It was really joyful to go out there and trumpet his innocence.

I remember they were squeezing each other's hands so tightly throughout the entire press conference.

Dan Russo and Doug Rappaport are taking turns back and forth just pummeling the Vallejo Police Department.

Had you asked some very important basic questions which Vallejo Police Department it just completely went over their head.

I mean there were just so many factors that they could have looked to to determine that geez maybe that Denise and Aaron are telling the truth but no they were so stuck in supporting their snap judgment.

At that press conference I knew that I was not going to look down.

I was going to try to look every reporter in the eye so they could see me too.

You know, I'm not just a picture, I'm not just a name.

She wanted them to know without words that she wasn't a liar.

Here I am.

This really happened to me.

They are absolutely 100%

positively, unequivocally, not just not guilty, but innocent.

That moment was

vindication, to a certain degree, bittersweet.

They were now coming out the other side.

There are so many questions for the Vallejo Police Department about how they got this so very wrong.

They catch the perpetrator, but they say he acted alone, even though Aaron and Denise know that there were other people there that night.

It just would have been impossible to have been done with just one guy.

Matthew Mueller was charged in federal court in Sacramento, California with the kidnapping for ransom of Denise Huskins.

What he wasn't charged with were the sexual assaults.

The reason being is that there was no jurisdiction in federal court for those crimes.

There's still part of me that wants him to tell us what really happened.

I think there's more to it.

Erin and Denise know there were other people there that night.

There was things that happened that we saw, that we heard.

It just would have been impossible to have been done with just one guy.

There's other people out there.

It's something that we've had to live with

and somehow

make peace with that.

When the indictment is unsealed, We never see Lieutenant Kenny Park on camera again.

He's still working as a PIO for the Vallejo Police Department.

They serve up Captain John Whitney to answer reporters' questions.

My ABC News colleague Cecilia Vega was there among the reporters grilling Captain Whitney.

So does the department still stand by the statements that it made so publicly four months ago that this was a hoax that wasted valuable city resources?

Yes, but we're also continuing to investigate it.

Does the Vallejo Police Department owe this couple an apology?

We're going to evaluate that when the investigation is complete and then go from there.

There are so many questions for the Vallejo Police Department.

If they had been investigating what Aaron was telling them, if they had looked at his phone and made sure that it wasn't on airplane mode, maybe they could have gotten to Denise sooner.

The kidnappers did call Aaron's phone three times around 8.30 that Monday night, right before Mustard was going to interrogate Aaron.

He voluntarily gave him his phone and they put it on airplane mode, even though he told them the kidnapper is going to call me on this phone.

You never cut off lines of communication to a perpetrator, ever.

Every communication that came in and out of that phone should have been tracked.

They actually did have the evidence that could have led them, if not to rescue me, at least afterwards, to go to his exact location.

Maybe they could have prevented what happened to the couple in Dublin, California.

The Vallejo Police Department publicly threw you under the bus.

So when the truth comes out, you were telling the truth the whole time.

Did they ever say, I'm sorry?

The city attorneys wrote a letter of apology that the chief of police signed.

The letter in part says it is now clear that there was a kidnapping on March 23rd, 2015, that it was not a hoax or orchestrated event.

It also admits that the words that Lieutenant Kenny Park spoke during that press conference were harsh and offensive.

A private apology though, not a public one.

Yes.

I run you over with my car, right?

And you know, I send you a new pair of shoelaces.

You know, it just doesn't work.

You know, it's totally absurd.

So I was happy they sued the city.

Aaron and Denise filed a civil rights lawsuit, alleging a number of claims, including defamation.

When Lieutenant Park falsely accused Aaron and Denise of faking the kidnapping, the police department did not have all of the information they needed.

You can have a theory, but your theory should not survive contact with the first contrary facts.

You have to adjust.

And it's fine for people to make mistakes.

To not accept it and acknowledge it, I cannot understand why that's not something that they don't seem willing to do.

When we asked about that apology, the city of Olejo sent back a statement.

It says in part the case was not publicly handled with the type of sensitivity a case of this nature should have been handled with.

And now, six years later, the current police chief, Shawnee Williams, writing, I would like to extend my deepest apology to Ms.

Huskins and Mr.

Quinn for how they were treated during this ordeal.

But at the time, the department had a very different response.

Unbelievably, the lead detective on this case, Detective Matt Mustard, is named Officer of the Year for 2015, the year of this case.

I thought, boy, he blew it big time in this case, so he must have done a fabulous job in some other case to make up for it.

Your new book is called Victim F.

Why'd you pick that name?

When the FBI agents were writing the affidavit for the arrest of Matthew Mueller, they asked us specifically, do you want your names in it?

And typically in affidavits like that, victims remain anonymous because of the sensitive and violent nature of the crime.

But we weren't anonymous.

And we said, of course, yes, we can't rebuild our lives until people can see the truth.

I was victim F for female victim.

Aaron was victim M for male victim.

And when the affidavit was made public, we were still victim F and victim M.

We requested interviews with the Vallejo Police Department, Detective Matt Mustard, and Lieutenant Kenny Park, as well as the FBI, but we did not hear back.

Ultimately, Aaron and Denise settled their civil suit against Vallejo, Detective Mussard, and Lieutenant Park for $2.5 million with no party admitting any wrongdoing.

There will be a sentencing hearing, and then Aaron and Denise get their chance to read their victim impact statements.

You actually

were staring him down face to face.

What was that moment like?

On March 16th, 2017, almost exactly two years after their harrowing experience, Denise and Aaron come face to face with Matthew Mueller at his sentencing hearing.

Matthew Mueller entered a plea of guilty.

He received a 40-year sentence.

Denise got up to give her victim impact statements.

Denise Huskins was so brave.

She said to the judge, Your Honor, for healing purposes, I'm going to address Matthew Mueller directly.

You actually were staring him down face to face.

Yeah, I mean, for those days in captivity, I was blindfolded.

I never saw his face, never looked me in the eye, and I was going to make sure that he was going to.

Now we meet face to face, eye to eye.

I am Denise Huskins, the woman behind the blindfold.

I'm not Victim F., the real-life gone girl, a hoaxer, just a body to take, a random life.

No, I am none of those things.

I am Denise Huskins.

After this all happened, many people, my friends and family members, said, well, are they going to stick together?

Have they broken up?

I go, they're never going to break up.

No one's going to understand what they went through except each other.

Tell me what your wedding day was like.

Our wedding was just a perfect day.

Everyone who had supported us over the last few years were there.

All our attorneys were there.

Including the detective who linked him to our case, Misty Crusoe.

It was beautiful.

The impact that I had made to these people I didn't even know

is a very

overwhelming emotional feeling.

You just never know how you're going to impact people based off of the things that you do.

I was the officient at their wedding.

It was a tremendous honor to be asked.

The sun was shining, glistening off the ocean.

Everybody was happy.

I'm not a big wedding guy.

I don't like to show emotion other than anger.

And I'm very good at showing anger.

But it was a very emotional thing.

So, a lot of laughters and a lot of tears.

Dirk Spentley Riser was our first song.

It's very much about overcoming tragedy and rising, like a Phoenix rising from ashes.

Get out of my head.

It's kind of become an anthem for you.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I can't talk about it.

Look at you now.

You got married, you have a little girl.

She was born five years to the day of my release from the kidnapping.

It just was an incredible, just like rebirth, you know, life just coming full circle.

Have you thought about what you will tell your daughter one day about any of this?

I'll tell her everything.

Although a lot of what we wrote about in the book is tragic and sad, it is actually, really, our love story and there is a happy ending and it's her.

One thing especially that I'd want her to know, Erin and I went through a lot of therapy afterwards.

But it's still, you know, I still felt like there was a little something missing, like I just wasn't quite the same and wondering maybe, will I ever really feel whole and complete again

I just feel like she just completed me that little piece that was still broken and missing and

so she's given me more than she could ever know and I do want her to know that

You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault.

Friday nights at 9 on ABC, you can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020.

Thanks for listening.

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