Sex Offender Featured in ‘American Nightmare’ Sentenced Again
Last year, Netflix came out with a three-part docuseries, entitled American Nightmare. The documentary followed Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins, who survived a home invasion in their Vallejo, California home in 2015. The kidnapper (or possibly “several kidnappers”) made the couple turn over financial information and Wi-Fi passwords, then kidnapped Denise and held her for two days. She reappeared in Orange County, California, near her father‘s home, and Vallejo police dismissed the couple’s story.
American Nightmare Highlights the Crime and Police Response
The nightmare was beginning for Aaron and Denise the night of the home invasion. After the horrific crime and Denise’s return, Aaron Quinn was considered a suspect. The Vallejo police department questioned Aaron for 18+ hours. They accused Aaron of making the whole thing up. Police used the logic that he took hours to report the kidnapping. In reality, he couldn’t get to a phone because he had been drugged and bound.
Vallejo police discounted Aaron’s story and instead, interrogated him for hours. Because his account of the incident seemed incredulous, police didn’t believe him. Quinn was subjected to a polygraph while they could have been investigating the highly crucial first 24 hours of Huskin’s disappearance (kidnapping).
The Suspect in American Nightmare
Fast forward to a few months after the Huskins kidnapping, late June 2015. Investigators discovered clues at the South Lake Tahoe home of Matthew Muller in another investigation. This led them to believe he was responsible for the kidnapping of Denise Huskins.
Matthew Muller had been suspected in a string of break-ins, and he was likely suffering from mental illness. He was a former immigration lawyer, a marine, and a Harvard grad. It was likely that Muller was suffering from PTSD, among other things.
Other crimes Muller was convicted of were a 2015 Dublin, CA home invasion, a 1993 Folsom Lake kidnapping and rape, and two other home invasions in Palo Alto and Mountain View, California. Both of the latter two in Santa Clara County happened in 2009.
Muller also had some issues with his employer, a law firm. He was let go after they discovered him sleeping at the law office and accessing private files. He also had an obsession with Batman. While living on Mare Island, he was suspected of being the Mare Island Peeping Tom. Muller developed a paranoid theory that rich people in his community were “scienced-up version of demons.”
Muller’s Recent Confession
Shortly after the Quinn assault and the Huskins kidnapping, Muller allegedly went to San Ramon, CA, and kidnapped three people. He held two men and one woman hostage in exchange for ransom. In the past, the victims didn’t come forward out of fear.
The police charged Muller with these crimes in Contra Costa County. He was also recently sentenced to 11 years for his 1993 crime in Folsom Lake of kidnapping and rape. The 11 years will be served consecutively after his 40-year sentence.
The Nightmare of Vallejo Police
Because of the treatment from Vallejo investigators, Quinn and Huskins sued the police and won a $2.5 million judgment. When Huskins was returned to Orange County, the couple was accused of making up the story about the crime.
The lead investigator on the case, Mat Mustard, outright declared that Aaron Quinn was lying and said the kidnapping was a hoax, similar to the movie Gone Girl. At one point in American Nightmare, Mustard can be heard asking Quinn, “…how do I make it so you look like a monster?”
The hope for American Nightmare is that it will shine a light not only on Muller’s crimes and mental illness, but on the way Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn were treated by the investigators. If crimes are to be effectively solved, all aspects must be considered. However, to completely disregard the survivors’ account of what occurred does way more harm than good.
