On the night of 22nd March 2015, Matthew Muller broke into Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn’s home.
If you’re a true crime fan, you’re probably getting stuck into – or have already completed – Netflix‘s latest documentary, American Nightmare, about the kidnap of Denise Huskins.
Back in 2015, Huskins’s boyfriend Aaron Quinn contacted the police to report her kidnapping.
Given that the incident was said to have happened the night before, the police began to suspect Quinn, and later believed the story to be a hoax that Huskins and Quinn had created, leading some to dub the case as the “real life Gone Girl”.
It turned out that they had been telling the truth all along, and a man named Matthew Muller was in fact responsible for the kidnapping and the events that took place.
So, who exactly is Matthew Muller? What did he do? And where is Muller today?
Read on for everything you need to know.
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Who is Matthew Muller?
Matthew Muller is a former Marine and attorney, who was convicted of kidnapping and raping Denise Huskins in 2015.
He had been working as an immigration lawyer, but he was disbarred in 2013 for failing to pay annual dues.
Later that year, the state bar filed charges against him for failing to sort a green card application for a client’s son, after already taking $1,250 from the client.
What did Matthew Muller do?
On the night of 22nd March 2015, Matthew Muller broke into Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn’s home in Vallejo, California.
He tied the couple up, covered their eyes with blacked out swimming goggles and drugged them, before taking Huskins with him.
Muller took Huskins and drove her to his mother’s cabin in South Lake Tahoe. He kept Huskins in a room and sexually assaulted her – recording the activity and threatening to release it if Huskins talked to the police.
Muller later released Huskins after showing her a video of her dad speaking to the media.
Where is Matthew Muller now?
Matthew Muller is currently serving time at FCI Tucson in Tucson, Arizona, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons database.
FCI Tucson is a medium-security federal correctional institution with a detention centre.
Police were able to connect Muller to Huskins’s case after he was arrested for another crime.
In June 2015, Muller broke into a home in Dublin, California, 40 miles from Vallejo.
During the incident, the owner of the house managed to deter Muller and he fled from the scene, leaving his phone behind.
Police tracked the phone to Muller’s mum and she revealed that the phone belonged to her son, who was staying at her cabin in South Lake Tahoe.
Police arrested Muller at the lake home in connection to the burglary.
There, Sergeant Misty Carausu, who was on the scene for the Dublin PD, found a piece of evidence – a pair of blacked out swim goggles with a single strand of blonde hair – and linked Muller to Huskins’s case.
In 2016, Muller pleaded guilty to the kidnapping. “I’m sick with shame that my actions have brought such devastation. I hope my imprisonment can bring closure to Aaron and Denise, and I’m prepared for any sentence the court imposes,” he said in court, as reported by SFGATE.
Muller wasn’t sentenced until 2022. He pleaded no contest to two counts of forcible rape and guilty to robbery of an inhabited dwelling, residential burglary and false imprisonment, receiving a 40-year sentence for federal crimes.
Matthew was sentenced to an additional 31 years in state prison and the Federal Bureau of Prisons lists his estimated release date as 2049, with Muller serving both sentences concurrently.
American Nightmare is available to stream on Netflix now.
Looking for something else to watch? Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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