In March, a Vallejo woman was kidnapped, held for ransom, and then released in Huntington Beach. Her boyfriend, who was with her at the time of the kidnapping, had been drugged and tied up, unable to do anything. Police were sure that the couple had cooked up the kidnapping scheme themselves, but new evidence makes it clear that the attack was very, very real and that the police owe Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn an apology.
The L.A. Times reports that both Huskins’ and Quinn’s lawyers are outraged that the police never took the case seriously and even threatened both partners with criminal charges when they believed that the case was a hoax. It’s true that the kidnapping did seem farfetched—and not outside of the Amy Dunn wheelhouse—but just because something isn’t easy to explain doesn’t mean it’s not true.
From the Times:
On Monday, the case took a dramatic turn.
The FBI announced that a man had been arrested in connection with what officials would only call the kidnapping of a woman. Matthew Muller, 38, a Harvard-educated former attorney, was taken into custody June 8 after authorities identified him as a suspect in a home-invasion robbery in Dublin, Calif., federal officials said.
An unsealed federal affidavit outlining their case against Muller does not name Huskins, but the details of the kidnapping are nearly identical to the account given by Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn.
It appears that Muller’s M.O. was the same in both situations. Huskins, Quinn and the victims in Dublin stated that they were woken by a man shining a flashlight at the foot of their bed. They were told to lie on their stomachs and restrained by zip ties. Quinn told police that he had goggles placed over his eyes and was forced to listen to taped instructions while being drugged with muscle relaxers and Nyquil. He woke to find a ransom note demanding $8500 for Huskins’ safe return.