A notorious kidnapper whose 2015 crimes (and subsequent flawed police investigation) were turned into a Netflix documentary has been charged in two new cases committed years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Matthew Muller, 47, appeared in Santa Clara County court on Monday to face charges for a pair of home invasions and attempted rapes that allegedly occurred in 2009. Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon ordered Muller to return to court on January 17 to plead guilty.
The first incident allegedly took place on September 29, 2009, when a Mountain View woman in her 30s told police she woke up to find a man on top of her. According to a description of the case from the Santa Clara County district attorney's office, the man, who authorities said was Muller, demanded she drink a medicinal drink, then tied her up and told her he was going to rape her.
The woman managed to persuade him to stop attacking him, according to the prosecution. Before leaving, Müller allegedly told him that he should get a dog for protection.
About three weeks later, on Oct. 18, 2009, a woman in nearby Palo Alto woke up to find a man on top of her, according to the district attorney's office. The woman was tied up and forced to drink Nyquil by her attacker, who authorities said was Muller.
Once again, the woman managed to persuade him to stop, according to prosecutors. And again, before leaving, he gave the woman “advice to prevent crime,” according to the prosecution.
“The details of this person's violent crime spree seem written in a Hollywood script, but they are tragically real,” said the Santa Clara County District Court. Lawyer. Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “Our goal is to make sure this defendant is held accountable and never hurt or terrorized anyone again.”
Muller was previously charged and convicted in an infamous case that is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, “American Nightmare.”
In that case, Muller broke into a Vallejo home in March 2015 and drugged and tied up a couple, Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins. Muller blindfolded them with swimming goggles and gave them medication to make them sleepy. He put headphones on Quinn and played recordings designed to make Quinn think she was dealing with more than one kidnapper.
Muller then bundled Huskins into Quinn's car and drove off with her, eventually taking her to her family's cabin in South Lake Tahoe. He held her there for two days and sexually assaulted her, before driving her through California and releasing her in Huntington Beach.
Vallejo police initially dismissed Quinn's account that his girlfriend was kidnapped by a kidnapper (or kidnappers) who put headphones on her and made her drink a substance that made her sleepy. Officers questioned Quinn for hours, ignoring his story and theorizing that he was behind her disappearance.
When Huskins showed up, police became more suspicious and wondered how a kidnapping victim could reappear hundreds of miles away with sunglasses and an overnight bag.
Huskins “did not act like a kidnapping victim,” retired Vallejo police Capt. James O'Connell later said. said in a sworn statement.
Police tried to get Huskins and Quinn to face each other and admit that no crime had occurred, offering immunity to whoever made the mistake first, according to statements from their relatives.
The police then made that sentiment public. “There is no evidence to support claims that this was a stranger abduction or an abduction at all,” police Lt. Kenny Park said in a statement at the time. “Given the facts that have been presented so far, this event appears to be an orchestrated event and not a crime.”
However, less than three months later, evidence gathered from a June 5, 2015, burglary in the Dublin Bay Area community helped authorities link Muller to the kidnapping. That case led authorities, including Alameda County Det. Misty Caruso, back at the Muller family cabin in South Lake Tahoe, where they foundamong other things, Quinn's computer, glasses, and duct tape with a lock of long blonde hair.
Huskins and Quinn, who later married, sued the Vallejo Police Department for defamation and reached a $2.5 million settlement in 2018.
Muller, a Harvard-educated lawyer and former Marine, pleaded guilty in 2016 to kidnapping Huskins. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to additional charges of sexually assaulting her. Until he was transported to Santa Clara County to face the new charges, he was serving his 40-year sentence in a federal prison in Tucson.
Many involved in the Vallejo case had long feared there would be additional victims.
Among them was the El Dorado County district. Lawyer. Vern Pierson, who had followed the case because Huskins was initially detained in South Lake Tahoe. Pierson has become an outspoken critic of police interrogation methods in which detectives form a theory of the case and aggressively pursue a confession from their prime suspect. He said he was shocked because Quinn said he had been treated as a suspect and not a victim when Huskins was kidnapped.
Pierson invited Quinn and Huskins to speak at a symposium he held this year to teach a science-based interview technique that focuses on gathering information rather than ferreting out suspects. He said a friend of the couple contacted him and urged him to investigate other crimes Muller may have committed.
Pierson agreed to get involved and said he worked with several law enforcement agencies, including the FBI. He added that the investigation is “still ongoing” and he expected additional revelations in the coming weeks.
Santa Clara County prosecutors said they began investigating the 2009 cold cases after “following a new lead” and coordinated with the Palo Alto and Mountain View police departments to send all evidence from the two cases to the lab. county forensics department to conduct further testing. Muller's DNA was found on straps used to restrain one of the victims, according to county authorities.
