Twisted Tale

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Speaker 4 The details are so crazy, I couldn't make

Speaker 7 Where is she?

Speaker 4 I didn't have a clue what happened.

Speaker 5 But the real question, was their story even true?

Speaker 9 We were not able to substantiate any of the things that he was saying.

Speaker 10 They had branded the couple as liars.

Speaker 5 Could this be some kind of hoax? Who was really behind it all?

Speaker 11 Normal people don't do things like this.

Speaker 12 This whole story could take another crazy turn.

Speaker 13 He said, I know that I need to pay for what I did.

Speaker 5 I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline.

Speaker 5 Here's Josh Mankiewicz with Twisted Tale.

Speaker 14 I was asleep in bed. It was about five o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 2 Frightening. doesn't begin to describe what she went through.

Speaker 14 And the next thing I knew, there was someone laying laying on top of me.

Speaker 2 She was instantly the losing player in someone else's game of power and control.

Speaker 14 Their hand was over my mouth.

Speaker 2 If you're wondering, there was no way to fight back.

Speaker 14 I must have been screaming.

Speaker 2 This woman doesn't want us to use her real name. We're calling her Samantha, and she's sharing with us things she's told to very few people.
This was a man. Man.
Bigger than you?

Speaker 14 Felt very big and strong. strong.

Speaker 14 I couldn't move.

Speaker 2 September 29th, 2009. The sun wasn't up yet, and in Samantha's bedroom, a masked intruder was holding her down.
She had no idea who the man was or what he was planning.

Speaker 14 He said, well, this is going to take a couple hours. I was, you know, I was, I think, just in shock.

Speaker 2 The details of what happened to Samantha are not only frightening, but also deeply strange.

Speaker 2 She's come forward because she believes her long night of terror may shed light on a different case in a different town with victims she's never met.

Speaker 2 It's a bizarre mystery that riveted California's Bay Area, then rippled across the country and around the world. March 24th, 2015, a young woman was missing.

Speaker 9 Ms. Huskin stands at 5'7 ⁇ , 150 pounds.
She's got blonde hair and blue eyes.

Speaker 2 Her abductors wanted money in exchange for her return.

Speaker 9 We are treating this as a kidnap for ransom, and we're requesting the public's help in locating her.

Speaker 2 It happened 30 miles north of San Francisco in the city of Vallejo. Henry Lee was then a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Speaker 10 I immediately was struck with the fact that you don't see these kinds of cases too often and this crime victim did not strike me as someone who would usually be targeted.

Speaker 2 The kidnapped victim Denise Huskins had been staying with her boyfriend Aaron Quinn at his house in Vallejo. At the time, both were physical therapists at a nearby hospital.

Speaker 2 Aaron was the one who reported Denise missing.

Speaker 9 We're doing everything that we can and then some to ensure her safe return.

Speaker 2 Police dogs and dive teams were soon part of a huge search for Denise Huskins. Across the country, Denise's good friend Ashley saw the news.

Speaker 4 There was an article posted online. Someone sent it to me and said, oh my god, this this is Denise.
But I started just texting everybody.

Speaker 2 Including Denise.

Speaker 4 I tried to text her. I figured better than not doing anything.

Speaker 2 There was no reply. She texted another friend, Danika.

Speaker 15 I couldn't even believe what I was reading. It didn't even seem real.

Speaker 2 That was pretty much the reaction the Vallejo cops had to the story Denise's boyfriend was telling them.

Speaker 9 We have a lot of information still to sift through. We don't have all of the facts in yet.

Speaker 2 The story Aaron told the cops that night, eventually spelled out in an FBI affidavit, would seem frankly preposterous, something invented by someone with too much imagination and too much free time.

Speaker 2 Aaron said he and Denise were asleep at his house when at about 3 a.m. he was awakened by a bright light.
and an electrical noise

Speaker 2 that sounded like a stun gun. Then a man's voice telling them to lie face down on the bed.
Aaron said the man told Denise to bind Aaron's hands and feet.

Speaker 2 Then he said his eyes were covered with swim goggles, which had been blacked out so he couldn't see.

Speaker 10 He's been blindfolded, zip-tied.

Speaker 2 Aaron said the intruder demanded his private banking and email information.

Speaker 2 and then put headphones on him that played calming music, along with instructions to use Denise's phone to text her work and say she'd be out for a couple of days, and to let his work know the same.

Speaker 2 Aaron also claimed he was given a mixture of Nyquil and Valium to knock him out and told to stay in one spot in his living room that was outlined in red duct tape and monitored by a webcam.

Speaker 2 Then he said the intruders left with Denise.

Speaker 2 His story sounded so implausible, Police wondered if he'd made it up to hide something even more sinister.

Speaker 5 At first blush, when

Speaker 2 a woman is missing and her husband or boyfriend says, oh, yeah, she was abducted.

Speaker 2 Well, certainly the first thing I think, maybe because of what I do for a living, is the guy had something to do with this.

Speaker 10 In these kinds of situations, we always look at the significant other. Is he a suspect? Is he making it up? What is going on here? What's the real story?

Speaker 2 Police treated Aaron less like a victim and more like a murder suspect. They confiscated his cell phone and read him his rights.
They were suspicious about why he waited 11 hours before calling 911.

Speaker 10 Aaron Quinn, it took him hours. It wasn't until that afternoon that the Bluejo Police were able to talk to him after he came forth.

Speaker 2 Aaron's mother later told us police polygraphed him five times. He was put in jail clothing.
given little food or water, and held in a small interrogation room for hours.

Speaker 2 Across the country, Denise's friends didn't know any of this, but they knew enough to be worried.

Speaker 4 I mean, someone being kidnapped, to be honest, a lot of those stories don't end well. And you don't want to think about those things, but you think maybe they're not going to be alive.

Speaker 2 Then, about 33 hours after Denise Huskins disappeared, reporter Henry Lee was standing outside Aaron's home. when his phone buzzed.
An email.

Speaker 10 And what was chilling was that this email came attached with an audio file. In this audio file, there was a woman's voice.

Speaker 2 The soft-spoken woman on the recording said she was Denise.

Speaker 2 This very strange tale was about to get much stranger.

Speaker 18 What had happened to Denise when we come back?

Speaker 12 We still don't know where Denise Huskins is.

Speaker 18 That cryptic recording, exactly what kind of message was it?

Speaker 10 She sounded absolutely absolutely calm, not terrified, not distressed at all.

Speaker 19 Not like someone in fear for their lives.

Speaker 10 Right, as if she was talking to a friend over coffee.

Speaker 18 When dateline continues.

Speaker 2 Denise Huskins' boyfriend said she'd been kidnapped, but his story seemed hard to believe. Police wondered if he'd murdered her and was now trying to cover it up.

Speaker 2 Then, a day and a half after Denise disappeared, reporter Henry Lee received a mysterious email with an audio file attached.

Speaker 17 Okay, I'm gonna just leave Huskins and get matched. Otherwise, I'm fine.

Speaker 2 She talked about the day's biggest news: a German airliner had gone down.

Speaker 17 Earlier today, there was a plane crash in the Alps.

Speaker 17 158 people died.

Speaker 2 She shared obscure biographical details.

Speaker 17 My first concert with Bethany and her mom

Speaker 17 took link leave to

Speaker 17 that religion.

Speaker 10 It's a proof of life audio trying to prove that A, she's Denise and B, yes, she is the kidnapped victim.

Speaker 2 And she's aware of events that have happened that day.

Speaker 10 And she's aware of events that had happened to prove that she was in fact alive.

Speaker 2 So clearly this wasn't a murder case. But was it a kidnapping, as Aaron claimed? Lee found it odd that Denise didn't sound at all frightened.

Speaker 10 She sounded absolutely calm, not terrified, not distressed at all.

Speaker 5 Not like someone in fear for their lives.

Speaker 10 Right, as if she was talking to a friend over coffee. I shared it with my editors and colleagues working the story, and I think the subject line was like, WTF, what is this?

Speaker 2 The recording soon hit the web, where Denise's friend, Ashley, heard it.

Speaker 4 It was sort of reassuring that

Speaker 20 she was making an audio that clearly dated that day,

Speaker 4 but also still scary because you still have no idea if the person is safe, how they're being treated, you know,

Speaker 4 people are putting her through.

Speaker 2 And if Denise didn't sound panicked, her friends say that made perfect sense.

Speaker 2 After all, the three of them had already lived through what should have been the most traumatic event of their lives. Ashley, Danika, and Denise went to watch the Boston Marathon in 2013.

Speaker 2 They say it was Denise who remained calm that day.

Speaker 4 We were all scared and we were all sort of rocked by it, but I think of all of us, she was probably the best equipped to keep her cool.

Speaker 15 She was the one who kind of was my rock. She grabbed my hand and she's like, let's go.

Speaker 2 But where was Denise now?

Speaker 9 This is a bizarre case with a lot of twists.

Speaker 12 Very bizarre rise.

Speaker 2 Cheryl Hurd covered the story for NBC station KNTV.

Speaker 12 So day two, we still don't know where Denise Huskins is. We're really not sure what her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, is telling police.
All we know is they can't find her.

Speaker 2 But then the story took another whiplash turn. About 45 hours after Denise was reported missing, police made a dramatic announcement.

Speaker 9 Approximately 10.30 this morning, Ms. Denise Huskins was located safely.

Speaker 2 It seemed over. Denise's cousin told KNBC how thrilled everyone was.

Speaker 21 You hear these stories all the time and you watch TV about them and you never know. And it just was happy to hear that she was alive and safe and home.

Speaker 2 But to police and reporters, all professional skeptics, this story hadn't smelled right from the start.

Speaker 2 And Denise's sudden reappearance did nothing to change that.

Speaker 12 She was alive, she's well, and they found her. That was great.
But there was still something funny going on because no one had all the answers.

Speaker 2 For one thing, Denise turned up in Huntington Beach, which was 400 miles south of Vallejo, and which was also her hometown. She was dropped off right by her mom's house.

Speaker 10 She wasn't released out of state. She was not released in the desert.
She was not released in the middle of California. Where did she show up? Right near her parents' house.

Speaker 10 That seemed too convenient.

Speaker 2 Another thing, the ransom the kidnappers supposedly demanded had never been paid.

Speaker 2 Denise told police in her hometown the same story her boyfriend had told up north about the swim goggles, the Nyquil, the threat of electric shock.

Speaker 10 But then, when Vallejo police wanted to question her, Denise Huskins disappeared and wouldn't cooperate, would not fly up in a plane offered by the FBI to talk to the police.

Speaker 2 After she was released.

Speaker 10 After she was released.

Speaker 2 Suspicion was building. Neither Denise nor Aaron made any public statement, but they did hire separate attorneys.

Speaker 12 Everyone's thinking, why are they doing that?

Speaker 2 Lots of questions and not many answers. But then, less than 12 hours after Denise reappeared.

Speaker 12 Then we get a tip that police are holding a news conference.

Speaker 4 So

Speaker 12 I jump in the car, photographer and I, and we haul ass back to Vallejo to be a part of this news conference. Let me know when you guys are ready.
And that's when the bombshell came down.

Speaker 18 Coming up.

Speaker 9 We were not able to substantiate any of the things that he was saying.

Speaker 5 Was this all some kind of prank?

Speaker 2 Was there some chance that Denise and her boyfriend were going to be prosecuted?

Speaker 10 It was a very strong possibility.

Speaker 5 Emails, photos, some strange new clues are about to emerge from the shadows. When Dateline continues.

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Speaker 4 I didn't have a clue what happened.

Speaker 2 Even Denise Huskins' friends had to admit her sudden disappearance and reappearance seemed almost unbelievable.

Speaker 4 The details of the story are so crazy, I just, you know, I really couldn't

Speaker 4 make sense of it.

Speaker 2 Neither could the Vallejo Police Department. A day after Denise came home, spokesman Kenny Park held a remarkable news conference.
First, he spoke about Denise's boyfriend, Aaron Quinn.

Speaker 9 The statement that Mr. Quinn provided was such an incredible story, we initially had a hard time believing it.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 9 upon further investigation, we were not able to substantiate any of the things that he was saying.

Speaker 2 Then, about Denise herself.

Speaker 9 Ms. Huskins indicated that she would be happy to meet with our police detectives and provide us a full detailed statement on what had occurred.

Speaker 2 As of right now, we have not heard from Ms.

Speaker 9 Huskins.

Speaker 9 and then finally this mr quinn and miss huskins has plundered valuable resources away from our community while instilling fear amongst our community members so if anything it is mr quinn and miss huskins that owes this community an apology

Speaker 2 after a search and about 54 hours of investigation Vallejo police had concluded that the whole kidnapping story was phony, that all of this was one of those made-for-California dramas, not so much Shakespearean as Kardashian.

Speaker 2 Police seemed to think Denise and Aaron were, for some reason known only to them, seeking publicity and telling an elaborate lie.

Speaker 2 Left unanswered was why anyone would want to become famous for fooling the police.

Speaker 7 The stranger-than-fiction kidnapping story involving a young California couple Remember, no ransom was ever paid.

Speaker 2 Aaron told police the kidnappers took his bank information, but no one tried to access his accounts.

Speaker 2 Someone did try to call Aaron's cell phone a couple of times while Denise was missing from a blocked number.

Speaker 2 According to Aaron's mother, police suspected Aaron had somehow programmed another phone to call his own cell while he was with investigators.

Speaker 2 Was there some chance that Denise and her boyfriend were going to be prosecuted?

Speaker 10 It was a very strong possibility based on those public pronouncements.

Speaker 2 Denise's friends didn't know Aaron, but they had every confidence Denise was telling the truth.

Speaker 4 Everyone that knew or that knows her personally and actually cares about her believed her.

Speaker 2 The day after police branded the kidnapping a hoax, Denise finally did show up at Vallejo PD to tell the cops they were wrong. She said that not only had she been kidnapped, she had also been raped.

Speaker 2 That same day, reporter Henry Lee received another email, a long message, soon followed by more, supporting Denise's claim that this was no hoax, from a person claiming to have been one of the kidnappers.

Speaker 10 They were very articulate, clearly written by someone who's extremely intelligent.

Speaker 2 Ms. Huskins was absolutely kidnapped.
We did it. We will provide incontrovertible proof.
The writer claimed to be part of a group. more than two and fewer than eight in number.

Speaker 10 They go into extreme length about a series of crimes that they say they pulled, including car thefts, break-ins, home invasions, you name it.

Speaker 2 Some of us have a tech background and are very good at overcoming electronic anti-theft measures, stealing late model cars.

Speaker 2 According to the email, the group decided to try kidnapping because we wanted something with a high payout that we only had to do once or a few times.

Speaker 10 What is going on? Why are you apparently confessing?

Speaker 2 The writer admitted that the reality of the kidnapping was much more upsetting than expected.

Speaker 2 We fancied ourselves a sort of Ocean's 11 gentleman criminals who only took stuff that was insured from people who could afford it.

Speaker 2 The horrifying reality of what we had become and what we were doing did not set in until being confronted directly with Denise's suffering and humanity.

Speaker 10 At least one of the abductors seemed to, you know, sympathize with Denise.

Speaker 2 And now the email said they were angry that Denise was being accused of making the whole thing up. We will not stand by and see the life of a really good person ruined.

Speaker 2 Attached to the emails were photos. One showed a water gun spray-painted to look more threatening, at least in the dark, with a laser pointer and flashlight duct taped to it.

Speaker 2 Another showed a room with cardboard partially covering a window where Denise was supposedly held. Was this visual proof of Denise and Aaron's story or an elaborate deception?

Speaker 2 You thought legit or more hoax?

Speaker 10 I thought it was certainly part of a prank.

Speaker 2 In fact, the emails were so cleverly written, Henry Lee wondered if they might have been sent by an attorney hired by Denise or Aaron.

Speaker 7 That so-called gone girl mystery out there.

Speaker 2 Reporters started referring to the case as the gone girl kidnapping, after the book and movie about a young blonde who fakes her own disappearance. That reference infuriated Denise's friends.

Speaker 4 But when you know it's not accurate, it makes you mad. It was sort of like a fictional character created out of a good person.

Speaker 4 So then suddenly you stop being Denise Huskins and you start being labeled as Gone Girl.

Speaker 2 The Gone Girl.

Speaker 2 That wasn't Denise at all, they said. But to the rest of the world, Denise and Aaron were portrayed as liars, schemers, maybe even criminals themselves.

Speaker 2 That is,

Speaker 2 until the next big twist.

Speaker 11 Coming up, he said, We have your daughter.

Speaker 5 Another story as strange and eerie as Denise and Aaron's.

Speaker 2 Terrifying.

Speaker 11 Yes, they were terrified.

Speaker 5 Had the mysterious kidnapper struck again?

Speaker 18 When Dateline continues

Speaker 2 This began as a high-tech kidnapping that sounded like a TV movie. We were not able to substantiate any of the then police announced it was really an elaborate hoax.

Speaker 2 Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, branded as liars or attention addicts, retreated from sight.

Speaker 10 Thank you.

Speaker 2 And that might have been the end of it. Until a little over two months later, this story took another unbelievable turn.

Speaker 2 June 5th, 2015, 3.34 a.m.

Speaker 25 She thinks that they possibly have her daughter.

Speaker 2 Police were called to a house in Dublin, California.

Speaker 25 Locked herself in the bedroom.

Speaker 2 An intruder was inside.

Speaker 25 Husband possibly has a head injury.

Speaker 17 We're having medical stars.

Speaker 2 By the time police arrived, the man was gone. leaving behind a shaken family with a frightening story.

Speaker 2 The woman told police that she and her husband woke up in the early morning hours to find a man standing at the foot of their bed, a flashlight shining in their faces.

Speaker 11 He told them that,

Speaker 11 face down, get face down in your bed and don't look at me.

Speaker 2 Terrifying.

Speaker 11 Yes, they were terrified.

Speaker 2 Dublin police detectives Miguel Campos and Rafael Alvarez led the investigation.

Speaker 11 He said, we have your daughter and she's okay.

Speaker 2 The couple's 22-year-old daughter had been sleeping in the next room.

Speaker 11 He tells the parents that, I'm going to tie you up. Father jumps on him, says, you know, I'm not going to let you tie me up.
You know, something's going on with my daughter.

Speaker 11 A struggle ensues on the ground.

Speaker 2 His wife grabbed her cell phone and locked herself in the bathroom to call 911.

Speaker 11 The husband yells out at her, honey, go get the gun, go get the gun. Now, this was very smart on the father's part because they have no gun, but he had to say anything to try to scare this guy away.

Speaker 2 The father continued to fight until finally the intruder fled.

Speaker 2 But in the struggle, he left some things behind, zip ties for one, and what turned out to be the key to the case, a cell phone, which led the Dublin detectives to a home near Sacramento.

Speaker 2 They called the family there and the woman who answered said the phone belonged to her adult son, a man named Matthew Mueller.

Speaker 11 And they said, he told me he lost it this morning. And then we said, okay, where is he? We'd like to give it to him.
They told us, well, he's on his way to South Lake Tahoe to our cabin.

Speaker 2 The Dublin cops knew their next stop was South Lake Tahoe. First, they put in a call to the local sheriff to ask if there'd ever been trouble at the cabin.

Speaker 2 There hadn't, but a stolen car had just been found right near it. And in the car was a driver's license for 38-year-old Matthew Mueller.

Speaker 26 I said, okay, you just kind of made my... My day now.
Now we have some more information to go on.

Speaker 2 With a search warrant and an arrest warrant, the Dublin cops went to find Matthew Mueller. The neighbors watched it happen.

Speaker 22 You know, I'm just peeking out my window, trying to get an idea what's happening. More cars are coming.
My whole front area is filled with dark sedans, like something out of the movies.

Speaker 2 The neighbors were surprised, but maybe Matthew Muller was not.

Speaker 11 When we broke down the front door, it didn't open all the the way because it was barricaded with chairs and just various household items.

Speaker 26 And upon entry, I could hear my detectives, you know, screaming, you know, get on the ground, get on the ground. And, you know, your heart rate kind of jumps up.
Okay, he's there.

Speaker 2 This is Mueller. Just after he was arrested, he did not put up a fight.
In the house, detectives found a room with cardboard on the windows, blocking out the light.

Speaker 2 They searched that stolen car and found a few more items of interest.

Speaker 26 One was a BB gun, one was a super soaker that was painted black with a flashlight duct tape to it with a laser pointer.

Speaker 2 So these have been made to look like real guns.

Speaker 11 If you were in the dark and all you saw was the shape and the bulkness of it, then absolutely.

Speaker 2 There were also swim goggles with tape covering the lenses. A long blonde hair stuck to the tape.

Speaker 2 And when they traced the stolen car.

Speaker 26 That vehicle

Speaker 26 comes back stolen out of Vallejo.

Speaker 2 So the Dublin cops called Vallejo PD and started comparing notes.

Speaker 26 We're showing pictures of everything we've recovered at the search warrant, and they're showing us pictures that had been sent to them.

Speaker 2 Those would be the photos emailed to reporter Henry Lee from that anonymous address. Shots of spray-painted water pistols and a room with cardboard on the windows.

Speaker 26 That's kind of when the light really clicked on.

Speaker 26 And we all kind of went, uh-oh,

Speaker 2 here we go. Orangevale.

Speaker 2 Coming up, Ivy League, former Marine, respected attorney.

Speaker 19 I would much more have suspected Matt to be sitting behind the desk in some elected capacity.

Speaker 5 Who was this guy?

Speaker 18 When Dateline continues.

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Speaker 2 When the strange tale of Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn first made headlines.

Speaker 29 Another bizarre twist in a kidnapping case we've been following out of California.

Speaker 2 Dublin police detectives Miguel Campos and Rafael Alvarez found it just as puzzling as everyone else did.

Speaker 2 There were a lot of reasons to sort of think that the Vallejo story at first blush was a very strange story.

Speaker 6 It was.

Speaker 11 It does sound like it could be fabricated.

Speaker 2 But now they found themselves working a home invasion that seemed to link the man they'd arrested, Matthew Mueller, to the alleged kidnapping of Denise Huskins.

Speaker 2 Not just the photos of toy guns painted to look real or the room in the suspect's home they saw during the arrest that matched the photo sent to Henry Lee.

Speaker 2 There was more, significant clues pointing to a real kidnapping that Vallejo cops seemed to have overlooked or ignored from the start.

Speaker 2 Window screens at Aaron's house had been slit and the window locks drilled. And the missed calls made to Aaron Quinn's cell phone while he was being interrogated that first night.

Speaker 2 Calls of the Vallejo cops suspected Aaron had somehow faked. Turns out they were placed from this intersection right near Mueller's cabin in Tahoe, where Dublin police later found that stolen car.

Speaker 2 When law enforcement hacked into the car's navigation history, they found this address in Huntington Beach, the exact spot where Denise said she'd been left. by her kidnapper.

Speaker 2 As they continued to investigate, detectives learned their suspect was just as unusual as the crimes he was implicated in. Maybe more so.

Speaker 11 Haven't dealt with somebody like him.

Speaker 11 You know, this is kind of stuff that you typically see in movies.

Speaker 2 A California native, Mueller served in the U.S. Marine Corps where he was a trumpet player.
He then attended Pomona College. Alex Volberting was a classmate.

Speaker 19 I would much more have suspected Matt to be sitting behind the desk in some elected capacity as opposed to be sitting in a jail cell right now.

Speaker 2 Mueller married in 2002 and graduated from Pomona, summa cum laude, a year later. His next stop was another place you might have heard of, Harvard Law School.

Speaker 2 He graduated in 2006, then stayed on as a teaching fellow. Andrea Sines was a student of Mueller's at Harvard's Immigration and Refugee Clinic.

Speaker 20 Matt, as I remembered him at Harvard, was incredibly intelligent, hardworking, hardworking, and someone who was really dedicated to the work that we were doing.

Speaker 2 After Harvard, Mueller moved back to California and practiced immigration law in San Francisco. But soon, Mueller's life seemed to go off the rails.

Speaker 2 In 2013, he lost his privileges to practice law and was eventually disbarred. He got divorced, stopped paying rent.
In 2014, he filed for bankruptcy. It's not clear what went wrong.

Speaker 2 His defense lawyer says Mueller suffers from bipolar disorder. He's unimposing, nearly forgettable, certainly not someone to fear.

Speaker 2 It doesn't really fit the profile of your typical guy who's doing home invasions.

Speaker 11 If you're looking at typical home invasions, it doesn't. But when you're looking at the type of crimes that he's committing, it does more fit the profile.

Speaker 27 It seems to be done for the thrill of the crime, the thrill of the game.

Speaker 2 Glenn Lipson is a forensic psychologist. He has not met Matthew Mueller, but he has read those emails that were sent to reporter Henry Lee.

Speaker 2 Emails that Lee suspected at the time were written by a lawyer. A lawyer police now believe was Matthew Mueller.

Speaker 27 What emerges from the emails is a complex picture of someone who needs attention.

Speaker 27 who needs to be perceived a certain way.

Speaker 2 For example, the way the writer of the emails was outraged when Denise was accused of a hoax. So when he says, how dare you not believe, Ms.

Speaker 2 Huskins, that she was kidnapped, what he's really saying is, how dare you not believe that I committed this crime and pulled it off?

Speaker 27 You can't see my handiwork because you lack talent, because the police here are

Speaker 2 failing miserably.

Speaker 27 And they need to recognize how flawed they are and how wonderful I am.

Speaker 2 He's a master criminal.

Speaker 27 He is a master criminal, and he is running circles around everyone else.

Speaker 2 Maybe he was. Remember, from the beginning, Vallejo police apparently just couldn't believe the elaborate details of the kidnapping.

Speaker 2 When Aaron told them he took so long to call 911 because he was drugged and confined to a square of red tape and monitored by a webcam, they didn't buy it.

Speaker 2 And when Denise wouldn't get on that plane to talk to Vallejo PD, they thought it was because she had something to hide.

Speaker 2 She says it was because she was afraid the cops would treat her as they'd treated her boyfriend Aaron, like a suspect. Now,

Speaker 2 everything was about to change.

Speaker 2 Three months after Vallejo police accused Denise and Aaron of concocting a hoax, the FBI announced that Matthew Mueller was the prime suspect in Denise's very real kidnapping.

Speaker 15 I was glad, you know, and

Speaker 15 I never doubted that there was someone who kidnapped her

Speaker 2 neither did the woman we're calling samantha to her denise's story was very real

Speaker 18 coming up my hands were handcuffed behind my back my feet were zip-tied could matthew mueller be behind this crime too we're about to ask him he kind of opened his eyes really wide he couldn't believe that i was bringing this up when dateline continues

Speaker 2 Mountain View, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, the headquarters of Google. And in September 2009, the scene of a strange and terrifying crime.

Speaker 14 I was... asleep in bed and the next thing I knew I there was someone laying on top of me.

Speaker 14 Their hand was over my mouth.

Speaker 2 The woman we're calling Samantha hadn't heard the names Denise Huskins or Matthew Mueller until we contacted her. But as you'll see, the details of what happened to her seem frighteningly familiar.

Speaker 14 My hands were handcuffed behind my back. My feet were zip-tied.
Then he put swim goggles on that were blacked out. I couldn't see.

Speaker 2 Zip-ties, blacked out swim goggles. Her captor claimed he was part of a group.
And the point of it all, he said, was money. You give him the information that we're all taught not to give to anyone.

Speaker 14 Right, exactly. My social security number, mother's maiden name,

Speaker 14 account numbers, my bank account number, my PIN.

Speaker 2 As with Denise and Aaron, the intruder made sure no help would be coming anytime soon.

Speaker 14 He figured out who my boss was from my emails and he emailed my boss that I was sick and I couldn't come into work that day.

Speaker 2 She says, just as Denise and Aaron did, that she was sedated. In her case, it was just NyQuil.

Speaker 2 She became drowsy, but never passed out. She was completely helpless, completely in his control.

Speaker 14 When it got even worse, the intruder told her, I have some bad news for you, and now I'm going to have to rape you.

Speaker 2 Tied up, blindfolded, she pleaded with her captor not to do it. His response?

Speaker 14 He got very quiet

Speaker 14 and he kind of muttered,

Speaker 14 I can't do this.

Speaker 2 And then the man who had terrorized her for hours suddenly seemed remorseful.

Speaker 14 He said, you know,

Speaker 14 I'm sorry about this.

Speaker 14 You know, I've been through this too.

Speaker 2 He even offered some helpful home security advice.

Speaker 14 He recommended that I get a dog so that I could have protection in the future.

Speaker 2 So he's advising you how to keep this from happening again.

Speaker 14 Yeah, I know it's incredible.

Speaker 2 The man soon left without letting Samantha see his face. And when she called the police, the response she received might sound familiar to Denise Huskins.
Did police believe you?

Speaker 14 I don't think so. What they told me was they thought maybe I just had a bad dream and that I had called 911 after my bad dream.

Speaker 2 Then, less than a month later, a similar case in nearby Palo Alto. A man broke into this house and restrained the woman living there with zip ties and swim goggles.
Then, he threatened to rape her.

Speaker 2 Was it the same man? Was it Mueller? Police investigating Samantha's assault weren't sure.

Speaker 2 But Lieutenant Zach Perrin with the Palo Alto Police believed the same person was responsible for both crimes.

Speaker 30 We were able to identify one suspect in the case, and he's our prime suspect, Matthew Mueller.

Speaker 2 We wanted to hear from Mueller himself. His attorney did not want Mueller to do an interview.
However, Mueller agreed to see a visitor.

Speaker 2 Dateline associate producer Kayla Ward spent 30 minutes talking with Mueller in jail, through glass, on the phone. No camera, no recording, no note-taking allowed.

Speaker 2 What's your initial impression of him?

Speaker 13 Extremely talkative. It was like he was in his element.

Speaker 21 He was laughing.

Speaker 20 We were joking about the books that he was reading.

Speaker 2 What's his answer to whether or not he is guilty of the crimes that he's accused of?

Speaker 13 He wouldn't say, he wouldn't deny anything, but he wouldn't say that he was guilty of anything.

Speaker 2 She asked him about Samantha.

Speaker 13 And I said, well, we recently interviewed a woman and her case matches Denise Huskins in Aaron Quinn's case. And he kind of opened his eyes really wide.

Speaker 13 And it's like in a way he couldn't believe that I was bringing this up.

Speaker 2 But he denied knowing anything about Samantha's case or the one in Palo Alto. Then, Kayla asked about Denise Huskins.

Speaker 13 He looked at me intensely and said, Can you imagine being woken up in the middle of the night, taken from your home, sexually assaulted, and then you're brave, and then it's used against you by the police?

Speaker 13 And there was, I mean, you know, tears in his eyes. He was very emotional about it.

Speaker 2 Putting on a show?

Speaker 13 He might have been putting on a show.

Speaker 13 He's very smart. Very, very smart.

Speaker 2 And very eager to talk about his own troubles.

Speaker 13 He wanted to be very clear that the last six years of his life have been spent in depression. He's had a few suicide attempts.

Speaker 13 He said, you know, he's in jail now and he's happy to be there because it's a safe place for him, a safe place for the community.

Speaker 2 Mueller did say that in his professional life, He'd always wanted to do good for others.

Speaker 13 He told me my, you know, my hope for my life was that my primary identifier would be helping people. I wanted to be the guy that helped people.

Speaker 2 So what went wrong?

Speaker 13 I asked him, you know, how do you feel now sitting here because you've now done the opposite. You've hurt people.
And he kind of just stared at me for a minute

Speaker 13 and then he said, I don't even know where to begin with that.

Speaker 13 And then he kind of like put his head down and he started to cry and he said, I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 Exactly what he was sorry for, he didn't say. But Mueller did say he thought he was exactly where he belonged.

Speaker 13 He had said, the facts are pretty clear. You know, I think I'll spend a few decades in jail, and I'm fine with that.

Speaker 2 About a year after he spoke with Dateline, Mueller pleaded guilty in federal court to kidnapping Denise Huskins. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison,

Speaker 2 and he also pleaded no contest in the home invasion. In 2018, Mueller faced new state charges of kidnapping for ransom, rape, robbery, burglary, and false imprisonment.
He pleaded no contest.

Speaker 2 Then, in January 2025, Mueller confessed to attacking Samantha and the woman in Palo Alto.

Speaker 2 He pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault during a home invasion and received two consecutive life sentences.

Speaker 2 There is plenty we still don't know. For example, Denise and Aaron are convinced there was more than one kidnapper.

Speaker 11 He used we. I believe it was to instill more fear in the victims.

Speaker 2 Another unknown, how the victims were chosen. Denise may not have been the target of the kidnapping.

Speaker 2 The emails sent to Henry Lee claimed the kidnappers were after Aaron's ex-fiancé, who had previously lived with him, but then grabbed up Denise instead.

Speaker 2 Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn will live forever with the emotional scars of their ordeal, home invasion, kidnapping, and then public humiliation. Their attorney was Jim Wagstaff.

Speaker 18 They were innocent of their alleged crimes, yet they were painted to the world as having been involved in a terrible hoax.

Speaker 2 Vallejo PD, so eager to talk in those first few days, soon clammed up.

Speaker 2 The department did send Denise and Aaron each a letter of apology, but made no public statement to correct the impression of these two as liars and publicity hounds.

Speaker 2 Denise and Aaron sued the city of Vallejo, and in March of 2018, they settled that case for $2.5 million.

Speaker 2 It took years and a new police chief for the city to publicly admit its mistake. In June 2021, Chief Shawnee Williams issued a statement acknowledging the case wasn't handled with sensitivity.

Speaker 2 He also extended his deepest apology to Denise and Aaron for how they were treated. He said to you right at the end, I'm really sorry about this.
This is going to mess you up. Yeah.

Speaker 2 He was right about that, wasn't he? Yeah.

Speaker 14 Yeah, it definitely messed me up for quite a while.

Speaker 2 Sometimes the truest story is the one that sounds like a lie. Why'd you want to talk to us?

Speaker 14 If I can contribute in any way to making sure that this is taken seriously and just basically say this is not a hoax. I lived firsthand through this and I know for a fact that it's true.

Speaker 5 That's all for now.

Speaker 18 I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 5 Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 28 Mike Keppel here, Patriot Software's founder. My first business startup was in the basement of a factory.
We had no heat, no air conditioning. Only office visitors were rats, birds, flies, and snakes.

Speaker 2 We used blankets as our office walls.

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