West
'Gone Girl' kidnapper charged in California home invasion cases from 2009
Prosecutors announced new charges against a man who kidnapped and sexually assaulted a Northern California woman, which was originally thought to be a hoax, and has become known as the “Gone Girl” kidnapping.
Matthew Muller, 47, the man who abducted Denise Huskins in Vallejo in 2015, is now being charged in two home invasion cases from 15 years ago.
Muller broke into women’s homes in Palo Alto and Mountain View in 2009, with the intent to rape them, according to the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office.
Thanks to a new lead and advances in forensic DNA testing, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, along with Palo Alto and Mountain View Police, were able to ID Muller in the cases.
CALIFORNIA COUPLE IN ‘GONE GIRL’ CASE VINDICATED AFTER ACCUSATIONS OF STAGED KIDNAPPING
Matthew Muller, a disbarred, Harvard-educated immigration attorney, was finally arrested for Huskins’ kidnapping after he was implicated in a similar home invasion by his forgotten cell phone. (Solane County Sheriff’s Department)
Muller’s DNA was found on straps he used to bind one of the victims in one of the 2009 cases, the DA’s office said.
Muller now faces two felony counts of committing sexual assault during a home invasion for the 2009 crimes. If convicted, he faces life in prison, officials said.
“The details of this person’s violent crime spree seem scripted for Hollywood, but they are tragically real,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. “Our goal is to make sure this defendant is held accountable and will never hurt or terrorize anyone ever again. Our hope is that this nightmare is over.”
In the early hours of Sept. 29, 2009, officials said Muller broke into a woman’s Mountain View home, attacked her, tied her up, made her drink a concoction of medications, and said he was going to rape her. After the victim, who officials said was in her 30s, persuaded him against it, he suggested the victim get a dog, then fled.
Less than a month later, on Oct. 18, officials said Muller broke into a Palo Alto home, where he performed the same routine and bound and gagged a woman in her 30s. He then made her drink Nyquil and began to assault her, before being persuaded to stop. Muller gave the victim crime prevention advice, then fled.
DR. PHIL CALLS OUT ‘GONE GIRL’ FAKE ABDUCTEE FOR ‘GIGGLING’ AS SHE LIED ABOUT IMPRISONMENT
Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn appear at a news conference with attorney Doug Rappaport (left) in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016. Huskins and Quinn were victims in the bizarre Vallejo kidnapping case in March 2015. Matthew Muller has pleaded guilty to kidnapping Huskins. (Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Both cases were investigated at the time and went unsolved.
Muller gained national attention six years later as the subject of “American Nightmare,” a Netflix documentary series that chronicles his 2015 “Gone Girl Hoax” kidnapping of Denise Huskins from Vallejo and her harrowing 48 hours in captivity.
On March 23, 2015, Muller broke into a Vallejo home, where he drugged, and tied up Huskins and her boyfriend. He kidnapped Huskins, brought her to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, and sexually assaulted her. Two days later, Muller drove his victim to Southern California and released her.
The Vallejo Police initially believed the invasion and kidnapping were a hoax orchestrated by her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, a twist that the media deemed a “real-life ‘Gone Girl’,” referring to the hit Ben Affleck thriller and novel “Gone Girl,” in which a small-town wife stages her own murder to get back at her cheating husband.
TEXAS COUPLE CHARGED AFTER ALLEGEDLY ATTEMPTING TO KIDNAP, KILL MAN WIFE WAS HAVING AFFAIR WITH
Vallejo’s police department headquarters is seen in Vallejo, Calif. on Tuesday, July 14, 2015. (Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Although they said in a press conference that they were treating the case as a kidnapping, KRON4 reported, the Vallejo Police Department suspected Quinn of murdering his girlfriend and fabricating his account. He endured 18 hours of questioning, according to the docuseries.
The couple sued the Vallejo Police Department for $2.5 million, but not before enduring months of public scrutiny.
Huskins and Quinn told filmmakers Misty Carausu, a rookie detective who solved the case, was their hero. On June 5, 2015, a couple woke in the middle of the night to a near-identical home invasion.
After reaching out to police departments in the Bay Area, NBC Bay Area reported, Carausu learned that Muller had been a suspect in a 2009 Palo Alto home invasion. Also at the scene were a pair of swimming goggles blacked out with duct tape that had a blonde hair attached.
While the wife hid in a bathroom and called police, her husband managed to fight off the attacker. But he left crucial evidence behind: zip-ties, duct tape, a glove and a cellphone.
Carausu traced the phone to the stepfather of a man named Matthew Muller, a Harvard-educated immigration attorney and Marine veteran.
At that point, Carausu contacted the FBI, and Muller was arrested for the Dublin, California, home invasion on June 8.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CHARLEY ROSS, THE FIRST KNOWN VICTIM OF KIDNAPPING FOR RANSOM IN US
Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn are pictured at a press conference. They both hired defense attorneys after they were publicly accused of faking the home invasion, and feared losing their jobs as physical therapists. (MIKE JORY/THE TIMES-HERALD via AP)
Evidence in his home, including Quinn’s laptop, finally linked him to Huskins’ kidnapping. Muller’s confession matched Quinn and Huskins’ stories perfectly, down to the audio recordings, blacked-out goggles and liquid sedatives.
Muller pleaded guilty to one count of federal kidnapping in September 2016 and was sentenced to 40 years behind bars. Muller also faced state charges for burglary, robbery, kidnapping and two counts of rape by force.
FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X
The Vallejo Police Department publicly accused Denise and Aaron of staging their ordeal, welcoming a barrage of negative press before their attacker was arrested for a similar home intrusion. (Associated Press)
But he was deemed incompetent to stand trial for those charges in November 2020, according to the documentary. Muller allegedly suffered from “Gulf War illness” after his military service, and his attorney claimed he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, NBC News reported.
Muller was then sentenced in 2022 to 31 years in state prison after pleading no contest to two counts of forcible rape of Huskins.
He is currently incarcerated in federal prison in Tucson, Arizona.
Huskins and Quinn previously told People magazine they have no idea why Muller targeted them.
“Like many victims, or many people who have gone through tragedy, you don’t get all the answers,” Quinn told the magazine. “And that can be a sticking point to recovery. So, for us, we don’t rely on finding those answers, but what we have to do is move forward in the unknown and focus on things that matter the most to us, like our family, our kids, our work. Those are sustainable things. And having the answers of why they targeted us doesn’t change what we do as far as moving forward.”
The pair married in 2018, released a book on their ordeal in 2021 and welcomed daughters in 2020 and 2022.
Fox News Digital’s Christina Coulter and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
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MEDFORD, Ore. — Fire crews quickly knocked down a trailer fire Monday night that threatened a nearby home in the 3000 block of Table Rock Road, displacing one resident.
Firefighters responded around 9:20 p.m. Monday, May 4. Engine 14 arrived to find a trailer on fire and the flames threatening a nearby residence. Crews knocked the fire down within eight minutes of arrival.
No injuries to civilians or firefighters were reported. One resident was displaced as a result of the fire.
The cause is believed to be related to the use of an outdoor fire pit, where embers likely ignited nearby combustible materials. Officials said the fire spread from pallets and other items to the RV, causing extensive damage to the RV and minor damage to the exterior of the home.
With warmer, drier weather approaching, officials warned fire risk increases and urged people to follow outdoor fire safety tips. They recommend using a screen on outdoor fires when burning wood, choosing approved propane free-standing fire pits rather than wood-fueled options, keeping combustible materials at least 15 feet away, and discarding cigarettes, ash, embers and other smoldering materials in a non-combustible container filled with water.
Medford Police, Mercy Flights Inc. and Jackson County Fire District 3 assisted on the incident.
Many Americans don’t like the AI data centers popping up in their communities, though Kevin O’Leary thinks that’s because they don’t fully understand them.
O’Leary, the venture capitalist and “Shark Tank” investor who recently starred as a villainous businessman in “Marty Supreme,” said Americans have misconceptions about data centers and their environmental impact.
“It’s understanding the concerns of people, but at the same time, think about the number of jobs,” O’Leary said in a post on X on Friday.
Addressing environmental worries, O’Leary noted that he graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in environmental studies.
“When a group comes to me and says, ‘Look, I have concerns about water, I have concerns about air, I have concerns about wildlife,’ I totally get it,” O’Leary said.
O’Leary has clashed with residents in Box Elder County, Utah, over a new AI data center he’s backing on a 40,000-acre campus.
County commissioners approved the project, which is also backed by Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority, on Monday despite the community opposition. O’Leary said, without providing evidence, that the criticism mainly came from “professional protesters” who were “paid by somebody.”
One major concern for residents about the data center — dubbed the Stratos Project — is that it could strain the water supply. Data centers can use millions of gallons of water each day. Increased utility bills, noise, and a drop in quality of life are also points of contention.
O’Leary said the public misunderstands the impact of data centers because they were “poorly represented” in the past, and that the technology powering them has “advanced dramatically.” He said data centers don’t use as much water as they once did and can use a closed-loop system to avoid evaporation. Data centers can also rely on air-cooled turbines as an alternative to managing the temperature of the computer arrays, he said.
A fact sheet published by Box Elder County said the project won’t divert water from the nearby Great Salt Lake, agriculture, or homes. It also says that Stratos won’t increase electricity prices or taxes.
Many residents, however, are not so sure. The Salt Lake Tribune reported on Thursday that an application to divert water from the Salt Wells Spring stream, near the Great Salt Lake and long used by a local ranch for irrigation, was rescinded after nearly thousands of Utah residents lodged complaints.
“At some point, understanding the value of sustainability, water and air rights, indigenous rights, and making sure the constituencies understand what you’re doing is going to be more valuable than the equity you raise,” O’Leary said on X.
Anjney Midha, a Stanford University adjunct lecturer who appeared on the “Access” podcast this week, would agree with that sentiment. He said that listening to local communities and being transparent about the intentions and impacts of data centers are essential to making them work.
“My view is that if it’s not legible to the public that these data centers and the infrastructure required to unblock this kind of frontier technology progress are serving their benefit, then it’s not going to work out,” Midha said.
In a subsequent post on X on Friday, O’Leary said his project would be “totally transparent.”
“We want it to be the shining example of how you do this,” he said.
A man charged with attacking the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is seeking to disqualify top justice department officials from direct involvement in prosecuting him because they could be considered victims or witnesses in the case, creating a potential conflict of interest.
The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, and US attorney Jeanine Pirro were attending the 25 April event at the Washington Hilton hotel when Cole Tomas Allen allegedly ran through a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer.
In a court filing late on Thursday, Allen’s attorneys argued that it created at least the appearance of a conflict of interest for Blanche and Pirro to be making any prosecutorial decisions in the case.
“As this case proceeds closer to trial, the country and the world will continue to wonder – how can the American justice system permit a victim to prosecute a criminal defendant in a case involving them?” defense attorneys Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe wrote.
Ohm and Abe, who are assistant federal public defenders, suggested that the appointment of a special prosecutor might be warranted. They urged US district judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee assigned to Allen’s case, to disqualify Pirro, Blanche and possibly other justice department officials from direct involvement in the investigation and prosecution.
“Both heard gunshots, which presumably forced them to duck below the tables with the rest of the occupants. They were quickly evacuated. Shortly thereafter, they learned that law enforcement believed the target was certain administration officials,” Ohm and Abe wrote.
Pirro said her office would respond to the defense lawyers’ arguments in its own court filing.
“We will not tolerate people who come to the District of Columbia to engage in antidemocratic acts of political violence; and we will prosecute all such acts to the fullest extent of the law,” Pirro said in a statement.
Allen is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday on further charges in an indictment handed up Tuesday by a grand jury in Washington.
The charges include attempting to assassinate Donald Trump, who is a longtime friend of Pirro. Blanche served as a personal attorney for Trump before joining the justice department last year. Blanche, through a spokesperson, referred a request for comment to Pirro’s office. Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, is also charged with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms counts.
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