SERIALously - 110: American Nightmare: Netflix’s New Doc about “Real Life Gone Girl” Denise Huskins

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

Aaron Quinn and his girlfriend, Denise Huskins, were woken up by armed intruders and a voice saying, “Wake up, this is a robbery.” The intruders were wearing wetsuits, and placed blacked out goggles on Aaron and Denise’s eyes and headphones on their ears playing recorded messages. They were bound with zip ties and dragged into the closet before being drugged, all before the intruders kidnapped Denise for ransom. The next day when Aaron finally called 911 and he was taken into the police station, he quickly realized something was not right, as police were now trying to frame him for the murder of his girlfriend, Denise Huskins. The story of Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn is highlighted in an upcoming Netflix Documentary called ‘American Nightmare’, set to air on 1/17/24. Sponsors: Go to https://www.Seed.com/ae and use code 25AE to get 25% off your first month. Download the DraftKings Casino app NOW and use code AE. New players get an instant deposit match up to ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS in casino credits when you deposit five dollars or more. Go to https://www.EARTH BREEZE.com/ae for 40% off!  Go to https://www.HelloFresh.com/aefree and use code aefree for FREE breakfast for life!  Shop the Merch: www.shop10tolife.com     Follow the podcast on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@serialouslypodcast        Follow the podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serialouslypod/       Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise      All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_      SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/      About Me: https://annieelise.com/      For Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Sources: USA Today ABC 20/20 Inside Edition ABC Nightline KCRA ABC7 San Francisco San Francisco Chronicle KTVU FOX 2 CBS Rolling Stone Audio Credits: ABC 20/20 Inside Edition KCRA USA Today KTVU FOX 2

You want me to go tell her family that she's dead? Because that's what I'm prepared to do. I'm going to go tell them that I'm not looking for alive Denise. I'm looking for dead Denise. Alright, Aaron, there's no question in my mind that you failed this test. And you failed it miserably. It's not even close. Denise Huskins was last seen at her boyfriend's home early Monday morning.

If you can imagine devoting all of our resources 24 hours a day on what I will classify as a wild goose chase. Hey, true crime besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serously with me, Annie Elise. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Okay, hold on. How do I want to start this episode? So, okay, let me talk about what we're talking about today. Speak English, Annie.

Come on, let's figure it out. Let's get it together. Okay, so the other day, maybe about a week ago, I saw something on my Instagram feed, and it was a Netflix promo for a new documentary that's coming out, and it was interesting because not only did I see this on my feed, but then a bunch of people started DMing it to me, and they're like, holy shit, have you heard about this case? What's going on? All this stuff, and it looked really, really interesting. I mean, if you know if you've seen it you know what I'm talking about but if you haven't seen it go to Netflix's Instagram account and look at it I mean it looks really really interesting and it comes out I believe on

the 17th of this month I think that's right um so I was like you know what I need to do an episode on this case I need to dissect it I want to like jump on it I want to talk an episode on this case. I need to dissect it. I want to like jump on it. I want to talk about it because I remember hearing about it when it was in the news and it was referred to as the Gone Girl case and let's be honest so many cases have been dubbed the Gone Girl case right like Sherry Papini was dubbed that, Jennifer Dulos, I mean so many different ones. This one it's interesting because it wasn't just the media who was dubbing it as the gone girl case but the police often were also calling it that and it is one that is so unbelievably wild to where when you hear it as you're hearing all the twists and turns just when you think you

have it figured out another thing throws you a hard left I mean it makes you wonder is this a lifetime movie is this real life like did this really happen it is that crazy guys so we are going to dive right in welcome welcome sorry for that long-winded intro guys so let me set the stage and kind of take you back to when this first went down because this is actually a pretty recent case, 2015 to be exact. So on Monday, March 23rd, 2015, a very, very odd 911 call came in to the police dispatch in Vallejo, California. The caller was a 30-year-old man named Aaron Quinn, and he told the operator that his 29-year-old girlfriend had been kidnapped. kidnapped. So shortly after the 911 call, two officers from the Vallejo Police Department arrived at Aaron's house so that they could look into this, start investigating, figure out what happened to his girlfriend. And Aaron told the police officers what had happened. He said that he had been drugged and that his girlfriend had been kidnapped. So the police noticed that Aaron

seemed a little drowsy and also a little bit out of it, but Aaron continued telling police the story and telling them a very, very lengthy story at that, and it was one of the most wild stories that these police officers had ever heard, which we'll get into that a little bit later on. So the officers then asked Aaron various questions about the home. They asked why there were so many beer cans in the recycling bin. They asked him if he had a party the night before. He said no to this, and he said he typically just kind of let these beer cans pile up in his house, and then he would take them all out together at the same time, which, okay, fine. Easy enough, right?

But they also saw two whiskey glasses on the kitchen counter and then one on the coffee table. So Aaron said that the ones in the kitchen were actually he and his girlfriend's whiskey glasses from the night before, but the one on the coffee table had apparently been used as a water glass. And it was almost like they didn't believe Aaron when he was saying that it was just him and his girlfriend the night before. They were insistent that he must have had either a party or other guests, especially because of the various glasses, which there were only three, but I get it. I get it. There was, you know, some curiosity that was piqued there. So then the officers told Aaron that they were going to search the home, and then they asked him to step outside while they did so. So Aaron sat on his doorstep while one officer guarded him, while the other one was searching the inside of the home. Inside,

the officer who was searching found that the comforter was gone from the bedroom, and there was also a drop of blood on the bedsheets. He also noticed that the house smelled very, very clean, almost too clean. Like, the carpets had just been vacuumed, things smelled very clean, they looked squeaky clean. Was something cleaned up, perhaps? It just didn't sit right with this officer. So he asked Aaron, hey, have you done any vacuuming lately? I see these, you know, fresh marks in the carpet. But Aaron said no. So because Aaron was saying that his adult girlfriend, his 29-year-old girlfriend, was kidnapped overnight, saying that he was drugged, he had this kind of off demeanor, he had this off-the-wall story about he was drugged, she was kidnapped, then he didn't clean, there were three whiskey glasses, and the

way that everything also looked in the house, this kind of was the perfect combination for officers to be suspicious. So the officers actually told Aaron that they needed to take him back to the station so that they could do some further questioning and also so they could do some forensic testing. When he arrived at the station, he was told to completely strip out of all of his clothes, including his underwear, and he was then given a set of jail clothing to change into. Then he was given a blood test, because they wanted to see if he was in fact given drugs as he claimed. And then after that, the officers brought him into a room where he could be further questioned.

Detective Matthew Mustard, which I just gotta say, every time I say this name, it will never ever get old to me, because automatically I think of Colonel Mustard from Clue, but that's just me being, I guess, a child, so I'll shut up now. But Detective Matthew Mustard came into the room to question Aaron. He asked Aaron what happened, and Aaron again told him everything, literally everything, the long lengthy story. He also told him about his relationship with his 29-year-old girlfriend Denise, how they met, their history, and what happened the night before. So let's talk a little bit about their relationship and who Denise is. Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn had been seeing each other for about seven months.

Denise recently moved to the Vallejo area for a very prestigious medical residency at Kaiser Hospital, the same hospital where Aaron also happened to work. They both had received their doctorates in physical therapy, and then once they met at the hospital, things just kind of fell together for them. They both had same interests, same career. They just really felt like they were a perfect match, right? However, before they started dating in a more official capacity, Aaron really wanted to ask Denise out on a date,

but he was struggling a little bit with this. There was something that was holding him back. See, Aaron had recently broken up with his fiance, who, for the purpose of this story, we are just going to call Jennifer to keep her kind of anonymity. So Jennifer, who also happened to work in the same department as Aaron and Denise, had been cheating on Aaron for two years, apparently. And this obviously left Aaron heartbroken because they were engaged to be married. She had been cheating on him for two years. I mean, he was devastated and he was also confused. So he felt like he couldn't really trust himself, his judgment, anything like that anymore.

And he wasn't sure also if he was entirely over Jennifer yet, if he was ready to move on, if he was ready to date somebody else. So he didn't want to go into a new relationship if he wasn't sure that he could handle it. But he still had decided that he was really hitting it off with Denise, so he asked her out. And Aaron was pretty upfront with Denise as well regarding his dating history and his hesitation, kind of his worry about getting back into the dating world. And Denise was really understanding about this, and it actually kind of made her feel a little bit better that Aaron was being so honest with her and so forthcoming with how he felt. It wasn't something that many people are used to seeing, just such clear transparency from the get-go. Now, of course, she knew that there were

obviously a lot of feelings there from the past with his ex-fiancé, Jennifer, and that that was going to take time for him to heal, but Denise still decided that she wanted to give Aaron a try. Fast forward about seven months, and Denise felt decided that she wanted to give Aaron a try. Fast forward about seven months, and Denise felt like something was really off with Aaron. Something didn't feel entirely right. He was feeling distant. He was feeling kind of isolated over by himself, and it seemed almost like he had other things on his mind. Now, call it a woman's intuition, or call it creeping, call it whatever you want to call it but Denise took these feelings and she decided that she was going to look through Aaron's phone and when she did she

discovered that he had been texting his ex-fiancee Jennifer he was telling her that he missed her that he would be willing to work things out and also that he wanted to get back together so Denise was very very hurt by this and also very angry. I mean, she was feeling all of the things because he was one who said he was having a hard time trusting people because he was cheated on, yet here he was having these secret conversations with his ex-fiance behind Denise's back. So Denise decided that she was going to confront Aaron about these messages. Aaron told Denise that he didn't really mean what he had said in those messages, though. He said he was still struggling emotionally with the betrayal

and hadn't fully worked through his emotions quite yet. Denise was still angry that this had happened, but she also understood where Aaron was coming from. She understood that he was still a little confused and trying to grieve this old relationship and move forward. However, Denise needed just to take a beat. She needed to think about their relationship, think if this is something that she still wanted to pursue. So she told him she just wants to take

some time to think, and Aaron agreed and said, that's totally fine, I understand. Now, because of this incident, Aaron went and visited his therapist to talk about it, and his therapist is the one who helped him end things with Jennifer once and for all. He called her and told her that they didn't have a future together and to come and get the last few of her belongings that were left at the house since they did previously live together. So on Sunday, March 22, 2015, the day before that 911 call was made, after not talking for a week,

Aaron and Denise had decided that they were going to meet at his house so that they could talk things over. Denise was still very upset, and she knew that she did not deserve to be treated this way by somebody at all, but she still wanted to give Aaron a second chance or at least see what he had to say. She cared about him. She thought that maybe there was something there, so she didn't want to just close the book on him. She wanted to see what he would come to the table with and what he would have to say. Aaron also was a really good man, and she felt like they could have a good relationship together. She didn't want to just give up, so she packed an

overnight bag, picked up a pizza, and then went over to Aaron's house. And once she got there, they spent the entire night talking. They ate pizza, they drank, and they kind of felt as though they were having this fresh new start to their relationship. Like, they went through some junk in the past, but now they were pressing the reset button. He was finally done with Jennifer and had cut off all communication, so it was a clean slate and they were going to start fresh. They agreed that now there were not going to be any secrets, that they were going to be honest, but they also still were being rational about this, and they admitted to each other that things would be hard and that they would have to rebuild a lot of trust, but both of them were willing to put in the work and try again. Then,

around midnight that night, they went to bed, and they were feeling very positive about the future of their relationship. And that's when Aaron said that something very strange happened. He told the officers that at around 3 a.m., Aaron and Denise woke up because they were hearing very strange noises. Initially, Aaron thought that maybe this was just a raccoon outside, some little animal maybe rustling around. But that thought quickly changed when he started to see bright flashing lights in the room. And he said they also could hear a voice talking. And what was about to unfold kicked off a series of events that nobody could have seen coming. So Aaron and Denise had gone to bed, right?

And then around 3 a.m., they hear all of these noises. They hear some rustling noises, thinking maybe it's an animal, but then these big bright lights start flashing in the room, and they start hearing somebody else's voice, realizing that they're not alone. As the voice continued talking, both of their eyes just shot open, and it dawned on them that somebody was in the house. The walls were illuminated with the lights, and they could see red dots also moving around the room, like there were guns being pointed at them. Then a voice spoke much more clearly, and this voice said, wake up, this is a robbery. Now the voice itself was very strange.

It was apparently enunciating every single word very slowly, almost like a robot. Kind of like they were doing it deliberately, or even using a voice changer to disguise their voice. They were told to lay down on their stomachs, and the intruder told Denise that they were going to put zip ties on the bed, and that Denise had to zip tie Aaron's feet and Aaron's hands. And then the intruder told them, we are not here to hurt you. This is financial. After Denise bound Aaron on the bed,

she was told to walk to the closet, keeping her head completely down and she was told not to look up. In the closet, her arms and legs were then zip tied as well. And then Aaron was put into the closet with her. Once the two of them were bound and in the closet there were swimming goggles that had been blacked out the kind of goggles you wear when you go underwater. These were put on both Aaron and Denise. Then the intruder put headphones on them so that they couldn't hear anything. Now at first these headphones were

playing this like soothing music to them. They couldn't see anything, they couldn't hear anything, and they were bound. But then the headphones started playing pre-recorded messages. It sounds like it is straight out of a movie, right? But no, this is real life. Or is it? So the message was saying, stay calm. We're not here to hurt you. This is not your fault. We are here purely for financial reasons and this is all going to be over soon. And the message repeated several, several times. But then it switched to another message, saying that a medical professional would be coming to see them, and that the medical professional was going to check their vitals and then give them a sedative. The message also said that if they refused to take this sedative orally,

they would be forced to give it to them intravenously, meaning through the arm, through a needle, through an IV. And someone did come in, guys, and that person took their blood pressure like the intruder said was going to happen, and they also asked if they were taking any medications that might negatively interact with NyQuil or diazepam. So they both answered no to this question. They didn't have any medical conditions that would negatively impact them taking this, and they were then given the sedative. As this was happening, more messages kept repeating through the headphones to them,

saying that somebody else was going to come in, and now this person was going to ask for personal information, like their social security number, their emails, their passwords, and even their banking information. The pre-recorded messages also called Aaron by name, and they said that this was a very well-researched, very well-planned, premeditated, planned, targeted attack. They knew the names of his parents, of his siblings. They knew what street he grew up on.

I mean, they knew it all. It's almost as though they were trying to let him know that if he tried to fight back, they knew where his loved ones lived and that they would hurt them if he tried to do anything. So Aaron continued telling this very lengthy story to the officers, and he also said that even though they had headphones inside this closet the entire time, they could hear people whispering, talking to each other, and they figured that there were maybe three to four different men inside the house at that point. The intruders then came back into the room, and they said that there were maybe three to four different men inside the house at that point. The intruders then came back into the room, and they said that they were going to take Denise to the router room.

Now, the guest bedroom is where the Wi-Fi router had been kept. So when they said this, this once again proved that they had done a lot of research, and they had a lot of knowledge about the layout of the house, and they knew exactly what they were doing and where they were going. So Denise was taken to this other bedroom, and then another recording started playing in the headphones. This one was telling Aaron that they would be asking about his banking information. Both Denise and Aaron were told that if they didn't give them the proper information, the other person would be cut in the face or shocked.

Like, electrical shocked. Like, a dog collar shock. Next, one of the intruders came in and took the headphones off of Aaron's head. He had Aaron's computer open and he started asking about his email and about various passwords, about social security numbers, and again banking information. And Aaron didn't hesitate to answer immediately and give all of the information and comply to the fullest degree, hoping that it would really help him and Denise escape this situation completely physically unharmed if he just cooperated. So after that, the intruders left the room again. But then one of the intruders walked back into the room that Aaron was in, and they said, we have a problem. And this intruder then asked Aaron, do Denise and Jennifer, the ex-fiancee, look alike? So in that moment, Aaron

began to realize that this attack, it wasn't random, but it was targeted, and it was targeted to be Aaron and Jennifer, not Denise. So he sighed, and he said, yes, they do look alike. Both Denise and Jennifer have long blonde hair. So the intruders left again, and then a little while later, Aaron heard two pairs of footsteps approaching him, one of them whispering, are we doing contingency one or contingency two? Aaron couldn't hear the other intruder reply, but he did then hear one of them say that they have decided to move forward with the plan, even though Denise is not Jennifer, and they said they were moving forward with the plan because there was enough financial gain to make the entire thing worth it. The intruders eventually left Aaron alone yet again, and then another pre-recorded message played. This time, it said that they are going to

take Jennifer, who we now know is Denise, but this is what the pre-recorded message said, that they were going to take Jennifer for 48 hours, and then Aaron will have to pay them to get her back. So this was going to be a ransom kind of thing. Kidnap for ransom for money. The recording said that this group is actually an organization from the dark web, and that they collect financial debts. They also said that they have been doing this for years all across the nation to various people. They say that the group will follow Aaron and Denise for years to come after this too, and they will know if they ever tell anyone about what happened, or they also will know if they ever call the police to report what had happened.

And to prove this, the recording actually claimed that they did the same thing to a woman many years ago, and then years after the incident, the woman actually moved, and they left her a pie with a note on it at her doorstep just to let her know that they were still watching her and to let her know that they knew where she lived, even though she had moved. Next, Aaron was brought downstairs, and he was placed on the couch. He was told that scissors were going to be left behind on the counter so that he could cut himself free in the morning.

They asked Aaron if he had any bills that needed to be paid soon or any appointments or plans coming up, to which he said no. They told him that when he woke up in the morning, he would need to call his boss to report that he wasn't going to be coming into work that day. He also needed to use Denise's phone to text her supervisor to tell them that a family emergency came up and that she would be gone the rest of the week. Then, after he did those things, and apparently after they verified it, he would eventually receive a series of text messages and emails with further instructions. They also told him that he needed to go to the bank tomorrow, so they left him with a portable charger so that his phone wouldn't die on the way to the bank.

The intruders also told him that they were going to take his car, and that they would drop it off later at a different location, and would eventually send those directions to Aaron so that he could come and retrieve it. They said that they put cameras all throughout the house so that they could watch him, so they would know if he ended up contacting the police. I mean, this was like literally something you see out of a movie. A very well thought out, very calculated job. Cameras, pre-recorded messages, swimming goggles that are blocked out, headphones that are playing these messages, zip ties, I mean, you name it, it seems like these intruders thought of it. Or did somebody think up this story in

their mind? Now, as if it couldn't even get any crazier or any like, I don't know, detective movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, assassination, hitman, whatever you want to call it, whatever movie comes to mind. There was another detail. In addition to all of the other things I just mentioned, they marked up the living room with red tape, and they told Aaron not to leave the confinement, the bounds of that red tape, and that they would be able to see him on the camera in the house to know if he did so, and if he moved out of this boundary outside of this red tape and that they would be able to see him on the camera in the house to know if he did so and if he moved out of this boundary outside of this red tape then Denise was going to be hurt and I guess that's actually not even the craziest detail or like okay here's one final crazy detail

because it still gets crazier by every single detail that Aaron shares with the officers. Before leaving one intruder asked Aaron if he was okay, to which he said, no, I'm actually pretty cold, and he wanted a blanket. And the intruder said that they didn't realize how cold it was because they were all wearing wetsuits. Yeah, wetsuits. And Aaron realized that this was likely to prevent them from leaving any DNA behind or any evidence. If they were in a full, like, scuba gear, neoprene, wetsuit, hair maybe wouldn't fall out of the thing that goes over their head. They wouldn't leave any arm hair behind.

Like, I mean, it's crazy. Can you imagine three or four men coming into your house in the middle of the night, wearing wetsuits, putting the goggles on you, putting the headphones on you? I mean, it sounds crazy, doesn't it? It sounds unbelievable so because aaron was cold they gave aaron a blanket and then they left the house with denise aaron said that he could actually hear the trunk of his car shut so he thought that they put denise in the trunk before the sedatives they were both given kicked in aaron used the corner of the couch to get the goggles

off and then looked at the clock and he saw that it was now 5 a.m. So then he fell asleep, but he woke up just two hours later to the sound of his alarm at 7 a.m. And when he woke up, he did exactly what the intruders told him to do. He called into work sick. Then he texted Denise's supervisor from her phone and said that she had a family emergency and that she would be gone for a week. After this, Aaron said he was still so drowsy from whatever he had been drugged with that he quickly fell back asleep. So Aaron said that he then woke up again sometime around 11 30 a.m. and he was able to slip the zip ties off of his wrists and then cut his ankles free. He also noticed that he now had several messages from this kidnapping group. They were using one of his own personal email addresses to email his other email address,

making it look like he was sending himself emails back and forth, sending himself messages. The messages that were in these emails instructed him to get a cash advance of $17,000 and to split between two different credit cards. Now this amount and the reason they were instructing him to split the amount was to avoid the $10,000 federal reporting limit. So this now meant that he would need to get a cash advance on

each of the cards for $8,500 to total to the $17,000. And they said to tell the bank that it was to buy a ski boat. I mean, to be honest, a lot of water sporting references here. You've got the ski boat story, the wetsuits, the goggles. It's very aquatic, right? I don't know if that's the right word, but it is very aquatic in the details. So Aaron once again was more than willing to comply, figuring that he could just give them the money, get Denise back, and then they would be able to report this to the police and the money would be returned. However, when Aaron called his bank, he was told that they could only give him a cash advance of a little over $3,500, $3,520 to be exact. Now, while all of this was happening, Aaron noticed that the camera that was in the corner of the room,

the one that was supposedly watching every single move that Aaron made, was making some very, very weird noises. So Aaron began to wonder if maybe the camera wasn't working properly. Maybe they weren't catching his every movement. And at that point, he decided to call his brother Ethan. And Ethan just so happened to be an FBI agent. Aaron explained the entire crazy story to his brother Ethan. And Ethan told him that he needed to call the police immediately. So that's exactly what he did. Around 1.50 p.m., he dialed 911 and Ethan told him that he needed to call the police immediately. So that's exactly what he did. Around 1 50 p.m., he dialed 911, and he told the operator that his girlfriend had been kidnapped. So after listening and hearing this story, Detective Mustard, Colonel Mustard, he

didn't seem too interested in Aaron's story of what happened the night before. He actually was more interested in he and Denise's relationship. That's what Detective Mustard wanted to know more about. So he started pressing him on the part where Denise found the text messages between him and his ex-fiancee Jennifer. And Detective Mustard also took it a step further and he said he didn't think that Denise had been kidnapped and that Aaron's entire story was made up. Tell telling Aaron that he believed that he killed Denise and was making this story up to try to hide the fact that Aaron murdered her. They told me, Aaron, I need to stay at my house.

I said that there was going to be a video recording to monitor to make sure that I don't contact anyone. I had been talking to my ex at that time when I was still dating Denise. Was there tension in the relationship? Was she mad? I mean, she's upset. Concerned? Was she cheating?

No, well, she felt that emotionally that I was cheating in some sense. I mean, did she, like, discover something? I mean, was she, like, going through your phone and, like, you know, what the hell is this? She went through my phone. What'd she find? She found text messages. What'd it say? I mean, saying I still care. I want to work things through. The story you're telling here, I ain't buying it all.

You gotta think about how this is all gonna play out. I don't have anything to think about. I'm telling you what. Listen to me. There ain't no frogmen came into your house. Nobody dressed in wetsuits or... It didn't happen. I don't think this happened intentionally. I think something happened, accidental, and you got to the point where you reacted the way that you did

and you had to come up with this story. Detective Mustard said maybe Aaron didn't do it on purpose. Maybe they were experimenting with drugs. Maybe they were into rough sex. And maybe that just went too far. Maybe he had been angry at Denise and something happened that made him snap. And then he killed her in the heat of the moment. Trying to give him an out almost.

Saying it could have been accidental. I don't think you intended this. I don't think you meant to murder her. Trying to see if Aaron would bite at any of these and then, you know, kind of cough up the real version of events. And the truth was, but Aaron could not believe it because his story had not changed at all. He was telling the truth. And he even had these messages on his phone from the alleged kidnappers.

But the police who had Aaron's phone in their possession and saw these messages from the alleged kidnappers but the police who had aaron's phone in their possession and saw these messages from the kidnappers said that aaron was the one who sent these messages to himself remember it was his email address it was him emailing each himself back and forth back and forth so they weren't believing any of his story detective mustard told aaron that his story was way way way too elaborate way too elaborate to be real, and that it sounded more like he was forcing details to make it appear more real. The goggles being blacked out, the recordings, the laser pointers on the guns, the intruders wearing

these wetsuits, it was all just too much. It was too much to even be real. Almost like when someone is lying and they try to overcompensate in their lie and give away more details than are actually needed to try to sell the lie. That's what Detective Mustard thought was happening here too. The investigators told Aaron that they had cameras all over the area where he lived and that they would be able to see him driving around, potentially even dumping Denise's body in the water. They also told Aaron that the public would know that he killed Denise and that they would treat him like Scott Peterson. Now, Scott Peterson was the man who murdered his eight-month pregnant wife, Lacey, back in 2002 in Modesto, California, which happened to also be

about an hour and a half away from Vallejo, where this is all going down. Like this situation, Scott also told the police that he thought his wife Lacey had been kidnapped, but it was later determined that Scott had murdered her and that he had dumped her body in the San Francisco Bay. Detective Mustard told Aaron that he knew Aaron killed Denise and probably also dumped her body in the San Francisco Bay. And he told him, I think you did that, just like Scott did, and you need to come clean now so that you won't be painted as a monster in the media just like Scott was. need to come clean now so that he won't be painted as a monster in the media just like Scott was. You watch the Lacey Peterson, Scott, whatever the hell his name was. Did you watch that story in the public out of Modesto? Today is the third day of an all-out search for Lacey Peterson. I came home and called mom and Lacey wasn't there and no one had seen her. Investigators say they

plan to bring Lacey's husband, Scott, in for more questioning. You look at that and you go, that dude's a lying son of a bitch. That's the way people look at you. The frogmen obviously didn't do it, so who did it now? Well, it's the guy that I've been sitting here talking to tonight. So now I get out my puzzle pieces and I start figuring out,

okay, how do I make it so you look like a monster? I don't want to do that. Ultimately, I'm looking for the truth. Aaron's parents and brother then arrived at the station and they were also questioned, which they emphasized that Aaron has always been a very easy, very good person, never got into any sort of trouble, and also said he would never, ever hurt Denise. But his parents felt like the investigators had their minds and their eyes set on the theory that Aaron killed Denise. You want me to go tell her family that she's dead? Because that's what I'm

prepared to do. I'm going to go tell them that I'm not looking for alive Denise. I'm looking for dead Denise. Denise's parents, who lived in Huntingtonton Beach which is about four hours away from Vallejo then were also notified about the situation and they were basically told to expect the worst outcome possible and that Aaron was just this awful person so they both hopped on a plane immediately and flew to Vallejo because that was going to be quicker than making the over four hour drive the detectives then went back into the room with Aaron and that's when they started throwing around even more theories. Maybe they were arguing, maybe he got angry, maybe he pushed her down the stairs, he just lost his temper, he killed her, he threw her into the ocean after to dump her body to hide it all. Then an FBI agent walked into the room. The agent

asked Aaron if he would take a polygraph test. All right, Aaron, there's no question in my mind that you failed this test, and you failed it miserably. It's not even close. He said that the whole story was fake and that Aaron was the reason that Denise was missing. But still, despite failing the polygraph test, despite this grandiose story, these details, these outlandish details, This grandiose story, these details, these outlandish details. Aaron kept insisting that he was telling the truth. Investigators then brought in Aaron's brother, the FBI agent Ethan, and they hoped that Aaron would confess to him, being that it's his brother.

And Aaron, very grateful to just see a familiar face, broke down when he saw his brother Ethan. And Ethan then agreed to find Aaron a lawyer. On Tuesday, March 24th, after Aaron had slept the entire night before in the interrogation room after being questioned on and off for 18 hours, the lawyer that Ethan had called to set up for him, Dan Russo, arrived at the station. He asked officers if Aaron was charged with anything, and when they said no, he immediately took Aaron away from the station and took him to his office. Meanwhile, the news of Denise's disappearance had spread like wildfire, guys, and it was news all across the nation. Police are searching for a missing California woman who may have been kidnapped. 29-year-old Denise Huskins was apparently abducted

from her boyfriend's home on Monday. The alleged kidnappers demanded a ransom. Denise Huskins was last seen at her boyfriend's home early Monday morning. That's when intruders allegedly abducted her and demanded a ransom. More than 100 officials combed fields with search dogs and scoured water with sonar across Vallejo's Mare Island Tuesday evening.

Huskin's father calls his daughter's disappearance a nightmare. This is overwhelming to me. I mean, I don't understand it. She's my hero. I mean, she's my little girl. Huskin's boyfriend, 30-year-old Aaron Quinn, says he witnessed the intrusion but didn't contact police until about 12 hours later. Police would not say why Quinn waited so long to call for help. Denise's mom had met him and felt like he was a really nice kid from a good family. Officials found a white Toyota Camry believed to be Huskins at an undisclosed location in Vallejo. Details of the ransom are still unclear. And I mean, the fact that the police were using cadaver dogs so early in this investigation really suggested that they definitely did not believe that Denise was missing.

They believed that she was dead, and they believed that they were trying to recover a body. Now, as this is making media waves all throughout the nation, the public was also starting to form their own opinions. And they too thought that Aaron was the reason that Denise was quote unquote missing. I mean, how could they honestly think otherwise when the police and the news were actively spreading this theory about this case, that Aaron was the one responsible? It seemed pretty cut and dry, right? He killed Denise. He then made up this wild story to try to push the blame on somebody else,

some unknown stranger intruder, while they were wearing a wetsuit. All of these crazy things. It wasn't plausible, right? But just when you think things couldn't get any crazier, all hell was about to break loose. And this was going to send the media frenzy into absolute overdrive. And we are going to get into all of those details after we have a quick word from today's sponsor. During cases that we discuss, there's always one thing that we always say, right?

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The police, the public, everybody thinks he did something and then dumped Denise's body. And then that's when all hell broke loose. On Tuesday, March 24th, a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle received a very strange email from one of Aaron's accounts. The email was titled, Huskins and it read as follows. As stated, Miss Huskins will be returned safely tomorrow. We will send a link to her location after she has been dropped off. She will be in good health and safe while she waits. Any advance on us or our associates will create a dangerous situation for Denise. or our associates will create a dangerous situation for Denise. Wait until she is recovered and then proceed how you will. We will be ready. And then at the very bottom of the email was a

link and the link went directly to a recording and to everybody's shock and I mean truly shock that recording it was Denise. On Tuesday a break in the case when the San Francisco Chronicle reporting it received an email with what appeared to be a hostage reporting from Hoskins. My name is Denise Hoskins. I'm gay and marriage. Otherwise, crime. Meanwhile, remember, the police had been in contact with Denise's parents who were flying up to Vallejo. And they had been pushing this story, this narrative, this theory that Aaron was the one involved in all of this that he is the one who killed Denise but he made up this fictitious outlandish grandiose story to try to cover his tracks but now with this email and this recording which essentially was proof of life for Denise it seemed like maybe there was more to this story after all maybe Aaron was telling the truth. Maybe he wasn't lying, and maybe Denise

really is still alive. However, Colonel Mustard entered the scene again, and he knew that somebody was lying here, and if it wasn't Aaron lying, maybe it was Denise in all of this. He still did not believe that there were any strangers involved in this. Too outlandish of a story. So he asked Denise's mom if anything bad happened to her as a child, and she stated that Denise was unfortunately sexually assaulted as a child while she was on a camping trip. The detective then told Denise's mom that sometimes women who go through things like that, like mega big trauma as a child, will often fake that it happened to them as adults to get attention later on.

So he suggested that this was now Denise's doing, that she faked a kidnapping for attention since she had found those text messages of her boyfriend wanting to get back together with his ex, Jennifer. That this was all a ruse. This was all to win Aaron back, to create some huge drama so that she would look like a victim and people would fawn all over her. Which, let me just say, first of all, Mr. Mustard, you just tried to gaslight Aaron into thinking

that he was like Scott Peterson 2.0, right? And now that you think that he might be telling the truth because there is proof of life and recording evidence showing that she is still alive, you're now suggesting that a rape victim is making up a kidnapping for attention? Honestly, it's pretty unbelievable and pretty despicable if you ask me. That's why I don't even care that I'm calling him Colonel Mustard throughout this because to me he doesn't deserve like a shred of respect based on the way he handled this. Whether he was right or wrong, it still is just such an abrasive way to go, in my opinion. And Detective Mustard has since denied ever saying this, which, of course. So it's now March 25th, two days since Aaron called the police to report that Denise had been kidnapped.

And that's when a very unexpected call came in to Vallejo PD. Denise's father called, and he said that he just received a phone call from his neighbor and that his neighbor said Denise was knocking on his door. Remember, Denise's father lived in Huntington Beach, which is about 400 miles away from Vallejo, so police were immediately dispatched to go pick up Denise in Huntington Beach at this neighbor's house. And when they picked her up, she was there, alive and well, and she told them what happened. She said that around 3 a.m. she saw these flashing white lights in the room, and she thought that she heard a voice, but she wasn't sure if it was a dream or if it was reality. When she woke up fully, she realized that the voice was not a dream. She said that she was forced to zip tie Aaron, and then she was ordered

to walk into that closet. As she was walking, she knew not to look up, because she knew that if she saw her intruder's face, it would have given them a reason to kill her, because she would have been able to identify them. However, as she was walking, she did say that she could see the legs of the two people and someone who helped her get into the closet. Once she was in the closet, the swim goggles were then placed over her eyes,

and the goggles were, once again, like Erin said, completely blacked out, so she couldn't see anything. Then the headphones were placed on her, and she started hearing all of those recordings after that soft music that initially played on them. So Denise's story was literally like a carbon copy of Erin's story. Denise said that once she was taken into the other room, that router room, that guest room, she was then asked about her financial information. And at that point, the intruders told her that they were looking for the wrong person. That's when they made the connection that this was Denise. This was not Jennifer. So she hoped that this would make them let her go and also let Aaron go.

But deep down, she says that she knew that wasn't the case, that wasn't going to be how this ended. So the intruders were going in and out of the room, and they eventually told Denise that they were going to take her for 48 hours, and that Aaron was going to have to complete a series of tasks in order to get her back. So still with these blacked out swim goggles on, Denise was lifted up and taken to the garage, where she was then put in the trunk of Aaron's car, along with that overnight bag that she had brought to Aaron's house, and they also took the comforter from Aaron's bed with them. Now to Denise, this was a horrifying moment, and it felt for her like it was the beginning of the end, like this was not going to end well, and that she was not going to

come out of this alive. After they put her in the trunk of Aaron's car, they drove around for a while before the car stopped and then she was transported to another car. She says that she was in and out of consciousness during this, but it felt like they were driving for hours. She was eventually taken to a house, which she suspected was on a large piece of property because of the lack of noise. There wasn't a lot of outside noise around her, and she says that once she got there, she was kept inside of a room. The entire time, she was given liquid doses of sedatives, and she was in and out of consciousness. She said that she was not sexually assaulted in any way, and that the kidnappers were actually very polite, but she says that she still never saw any of their faces. So then, after two days of being held by them,

she was told that they were going to release her. They were going to release her on Utica Avenue in Huntington Beach, which happened to be the exact street that she grew up on. Now, what's crazy about this, and I'm going to share this information without doxing myself too hard here, I grew up on a street very close to Utica literally a stone's throw away so as researching this and as reporting on this I was like this just hits so close to home because to me I can literally visualize all of these places all of these landmarks it's weird but that's just a little fun fact and that's where I grew up guys that's not where I live anymore so please don't come a knocking um so after being told that she was going to be dropped off at this street and let go, she was once again put inside the car.

She was still bound, and she still had those blacked out goggles over her eyes. They then drove her there, and once she was dropped off, she was instructed to count to 10 and then take her goggles off, which Denise said she did. Once she took her goggles off and she saw the street signs, she realized that she was just a few minutes walk to her mom's house. Once she took her goggles off and she saw the street signs, she realized that she was just a few minutes walk to her mom's house. So she walked to her mom's house. She knocked on the door, but nobody answered because they were, of course, already in Vallejo. They were trying to find her and figure out what was going on. So Denise then walked a mile to her dad's house, and she knocked on that door, but again, no answer. However, the neighbor heard her

knocking, and this neighbor let her into their house, which is when they said she could call her dad. Now, the entire time that Denise was explaining this story and recounting the events to the investigators, she was asking for her parents, for her family, for anyone, and at one point, she also realized that she needed a lawyer. Finally, one of her cousins arrived, Nick, and nick had just passed the bar exam literally just days prior and he was able to really take control of the situation nick was put on the phone with detective mustard from vallejo who told him that they will offer denise immunity if she confesses she confesses to her role in all of this he also said that they were going to offer

erin immunity in five minutes and it would be granted to whichever one of them fesses up first. Colonel Mustard wanted them to flip on each other, and he said, whoever does it first, I don't care which one of you it is, will get the immunity deal, because I still think your story is bogus. I think either one of you concocted this, both of you concocted it for attention, but you better start talking, Otherwise, I'm throwing the book at both of you. But when Denise heard this, she was immediately confused by all of it. She was like, immunity? For what? Why on earth would I need immunity when I was kidnapped? What are you even talking about? So Denise was eventually connected with a lawyer named Doug Rappaport. She was told that the FBI wanted to fly her back to San Francisco. However, her lawyer, Doug, said that that was absolutely not going to happen,

and he bought her a commercial flight. And he said the reason for this is because going on the FBI's plane is basically like jumping into the mouth of a great white shark. And his advice was very, very simple. He told Denise to leave, not to talk to the police whatsoever, to get on the flight that he booked, and to come to his office as soon as she landed in San Francisco. So as she was doing this, she quickly got wind of what was going on in the media. The shitstorm. The shitstorm all over,

online, social media, the news, I mean, you name it, everything. It was everywhere, and it was completely out of control. Everyone was talking about her disappearance and her kidnapping, the whole situation, which Denise was not expecting at all. She didn't know that this had made national headlines, and that this was so polarizing, and that everybody was invested in this and coming to their own conclusions. Now, as all of this was happening, the police were now also telling the media that Denise was no longer cooperating with the investigation

and that they had absolutely no idea where she was even though she was boarding a flight to go to San Francisco to work this whole mess out. They were saying she's not cooperating we don't even know where she is further bolstering the public and the media's opinions that she was involved in this somehow. Two days after allegedly being kidnapped from her home in Vallejo, Denise Huskins turned up safe down in Huntington Beach. Now apparently she's gone into hiding. Vallejo police now saying that this kidnap for ransom, an $8,500 ransom, was all a hoax. But Denise Huskins' family tells a different story. They're calling the Vallejo police reckless and saying this is a character assassination of Huskins,

saying she's still very much shaken up by this kidnapping. Now, Huskins, according to Vallejo police, is nowhere to be found. They say she is MIA and has not been cooperating with police. They also say her family has not been cooperating with police. Again, investigators say that there were as many as 40 detectives and 100 support personnel searching for Huskins over the last couple of days. This coming at an enormous cost, especially in a city that only emerged from bankruptcy a few years ago. And police are calling this a very big waste of their time. If you can imagine

devoting all of our resources 24 hours a day on what I will classify as a wild goose chase. It's a tremendous loss. It's disappointing. It's disheartening. And the fact that we've essentially wasted all of these resources for really nothing is upsetting. Now, Lieutenant Park says it will be up to the district attorney to decide whether Denise Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, will face criminal charges. She was really taken aback by all of this and, quite frankly, pretty shocked. But she was even more shocked to find out what exactly was being said. She was now being compared to the book and the movie Gone Girl, a movie that she had never even seen. Gone Girl came out a year

earlier in 2014, and it was a huge blockbuster hit. I personally read the book before the movie came out, and it was such, such a good book, but the book's always better, right? But the story is about a woman who fakes her own kidnapping after she found out that her husband was cheating on her. Then she framed her husband to make it look like he's the one who murdered her. All while she's still alive. And then, spoiler alert, she suddenly reappears. This too felt like a carbon copy of what was going on with Denise and with Aaron. And that's what the police were suggesting. That she made this whole thing up, that she got the inspiration from Gone Girl, and it was all done as a means to get back at Aaron for texting with his ex-fiancee Jennifer and wanting to get back together with her.

Did this 29-year-old woman fake her own disappearance just like the ice princess in Gone Girl? If anyone out there has any information. Police are outraged. I can tell you that our investigation has concluded that none of the claims has been substantiated. It started Monday when Denise Huskin's live-in boyfriend told cops an intruder had broken into their home in Vallejo, California during the night and kidnapped his girlfriend. He said the kidnapper demanded $8,500 in ransom. The woman's father appealed for her safe return. I want her to know that the family is there. We're, we love her.

But there was skepticism from the beginning because the boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, didn't report the kidnapping for 12 hours. San Francisco Chronicle reporter, Henry Lee. I immediately thought, well, how can this be real? So there was a lot of concern over whether this was legitimate or not. The next day, Tuesday,

the Chronicle was sent a mysterious audio file of a woman identifying herself as Huskins. I'm a late-stage Huskins, and I'm getting out of the house, and I'm crying. To prove she was still alive, she made mention of Tuesday's plane disaster in the French Alps it's here at her father's apartment in Huntington Beach California that Denise Huskins turned up on Wednesday she says her kidnappers dropped her off nearby she also says she didn't know her

abductors and claims she was blindfolded and gagged for part of the ordeal. Huskins can be seen in this video hiding under a black hoodie. And now she's gone again, refusing to speak to police and hiding out at an undisclosed location. She's also hired a lawyer. Her family members are under siege. Police are saying this is a hoax.

The similarities to the movie Gone Girl, in which a beautiful wife disappears and then reappears with a phony story about having been kidnapped, are striking. Huskins, a physical therapist, even looks like Gone Girl star Rosamund Pike. Now she and her boyfriend could face criminal charges. So this wasn't coming from people's wild imaginations or the internet trolls or the media getting crazy and wanting, you know, a catchy headline or something to grab your attention. This wasn't just them sensationalizing it. It was coming from the Vallejo Police Department. Well, Robin, it's just the latest twist in this case. It started out as a kidnapping for ransom in Vallejo.

Then the discovery that Huskins was alive and well in Southern California. THE HUSKINS WERE IN THE HOODIE WHEN THEY WERE ESCORTED BY POLICE. THE FIRST VIDEO WE SAW OF HUSKINS WAS OF HER BEING ESCORTED BY POLICE. HER RELATIVES VISIBLY RELIEVED THAT SHE WAS OKAY TODAY.

AND THEN EARLIER TONIGHT, THE VALLEJO POLICE DEPARTMENT RELEASED A STATEMENT SAYING HUSKINS' DISAPPEARANCE WAS AN ORCHESTRATED EVENT AND NOT A KIDNAPPING. THE POLICE ALSO REVEALED THAT FBI AGENTS WERE PREPARING TO

FLY HUSKINS BACK TO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WHERE THEY COULD INTERVIEW THEM AND TELL THEM THAT THEY WERE IN THE HOODIE WHEN THEY WERE ESCORTED. THE HUSK THE POLICE ALSO REVEALED THAT FBI AGENTS WERE PREPARING TO FLY HUSKINS BACK TO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WHERE THEY COULD INTERVIEW HER ABOUT HER ORDEAL. ONLY PROBLEM, NOW THEY CANNOT LOCATE HUSKINS AND THEY SAY SHE HAS ALSO RETAINED A LAWYER. AND JUST MINUTES AGO, THE VALLEJO POLICE HELD A NEWS CONFERENCE ABOUT THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS AND HAD THIS TO SAY ABOUT THE COUPLE. THE COUPLE. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET

READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET

READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET

READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET READY FOR THE NEXT DAY. THE COUPLE WAS ABLE TO GET The fact that we've essentially wasted all of these resources for really nothing is upsetting. Police also say that Huskins and Quinn owe the community an apology. Now, police said when Quinn initially contacted them, he said that the kidnappers demanded $8,500 in ransom. They also say his story just didn't add up from the get-go.

And while they cannot locate Denise Huskins tonight, they also say they have not taken Quinn into custody as of now now get this at one point FBI agents and detective Mustard even told Denise's parents to watch the movie to watch Gone Girl so that they could understand what was going on in this situation it is so bananas later that night Denise arrived back in Vallejo. This was around 9 30 p.m. and she went straight to her lawyer's office as instructed and that's when she went into even more detail about what had happened to her. She said that she had been kept in a room, that she was zip tied to the bed, that the room had windows that were boarded up, and that she was drugged the majority of the time. And at one point, she said that the kidnappers came inside of the room. Every time that the kidnappers were in the

room, she was blindfolded and she never saw what they looked like. But they told her that since she was not Jennifer, they didn't have any, quote, dirt on her. So they decided that one of the kidnappers was actually going to have sex with Denise. They were going to record it, and then when she was released, if she ever went to the police, they. They were going to record it, and then when she was released, if she ever went to the police, they would post that video to the internet. The kidnapper said that he didn't want to do this, almost in a way of trying to kind of say that they aren't a rapist, they don't want to do this, but they're going to go ahead and do it anyway because they do need to have some sort of dirt on her, so this is what they came up with. Kind of in like a weird

way, almost like apologizing ahead of time in like a backpedaling way or a backdoor way. It was very, very odd. And Denise, of course, said that she did not want to do this and even told them that she was sexually assaulted as a child, hoping that if these were in fact, you know, good criminals with any sort of conscience whatsoever, they may not want her to go through that again. And they may not want to put her through that sort of trauma again, since she had already been through that. But unfortunately, that didn't work. One of the men decided to go through with it anyway. And in a very sickening detail and twist, Denise, after being raped, Denise was told that she needed to do it again, because on the video, it did not look real, and she didn't look like she was enjoying herself, and they said

she needed to kiss him. Can you even imagine? You are put through this, you are sexually assaulted, and then they tell you, we need to do it again, and not only that because it didn't look real, but you need to be affectionate with your rapist. I mean, it is so twisted, so deranged. Denise was instructed to shower after each incident. Now, at one point, the kidnapper mentioned to Denise that he was in the Marines, but he tells Denise that she can never tell anyone that he said that. She can't ever tell anyone that he said that he was in the Marines, and she also can't tell anybody about the sexual assault. Those were the only two details that he ever told Denise not to explicitly tell anybody else. Denise really thought that she was

going to end up dying there, but to her surprise, she was finally going to be returned to Huntington Beach. She was put in the trunk of the car and drugged the entire time for that drive to Huntington Beach. She said that before dropping her off, the kidnapper told her that her strength was admirable and that he wished that they met under different circumstances. I mean, what the fuck? So Denise finished her story with her lawyer, and she recognized that this whole thing sounded pretty crazy, but Denise's emotion through all of this really made her lawyer believe her. He then called the Vallejo Police Department because he wanted to arrange a sexual violation kit, an RA, a rape kit. You know what I'm

talking about, the kits you get after you've been sexually assaulted. But get this, the police said that they will determine if that's necessary after they talk to Denise tomorrow. I mean, no sense of urgency, no sense of anything. It's despicable. Evidence, clear evidence, could just be wasting away. they were not taking any opportunity to actually treat this investigation with any type of integrity it was really appalling so her lawyer pointed out that any evidence would be lost if they waited such as fluids fibers you know all of these things so then the vallejo police department suggested that she should just not shower just don't shower that night and i want you to sleep in the same clothing that you are wearing. What? Like, you're telling a potential sexual assault

victim. Hey, you know what? We're actually not even going to do the kit until we find out if you're credible. So in effort to save any evidence, if you are telling the truth that is, why don't you go ahead and sleep in the same clothing you're in don't shower so that your attacker's fluids stay all over you so that you could be even further traumatized don't clean yourself don't try to wash yourself of what happened to you stay in that then we'll deem if it's credible then we'll give you the test i would lose my mother effing mind if this happened to me or someone I know I would go fucking nuclear I mean that is so so revolting and that is why I keep calling him Colonel Mustard guys he doesn't even deserve that he deserves like Mrs. Peacock because he sounds like such a bitch I don't know like this is just crazy so upon her return to Vallejo after she talked with her lawyer, Denise was then questioned

by the police department. Then she was questioned by the FBI, and her experience was very, very similar to Aaron's. The investigators were not treating her like a victim, but rather a suspect. They were accusatory, and they lacked any true compassion. It seemed like their main goal in all of this was to try to make her trip up on her story, make her change up some of the details so that they could catch her in a lie. They thought that it was strange that Denise's bags had been dropped off with her,

and they also found it pretty hard to believe that a kidnapper would let someone take an overnight bag with them in the first place. And then, to just reappear conveniently near her mother's house and not tell the Huntington Beach Police Department of the sexual assault, they just felt like all of these things made her look very suspicious. And they made her repeat the details of this story over and over.

They asked her what positions she was in when she was sexually assaulted. They asked her how the kidnapper's body felt on hers. And at the end of the interrogation, the FBI agent asked her if she had anything else to say and that it was a crime to lie to an FBI agent, almost insinuating that they knew that she was lying and now was her time to fess up or else she was going to be in deep crap.

The agent even told Denise's attorney that he knew that she was lying and that her attorney should also watch the movie Gone Girl to figure out what was really happening here, what the truth was, as if they're doing like some ace cracking, you know, good old detective work. So it's too complex for you to understand. Why don't you just watch this blockbuster movie that I rented and it'll explain everything to you. I mean, come on. Denise could not understand why these FBI agents and trained professionals were not believing her. The entire time that she was in captivity, all she could think about was how she was going to stay alive. Never once was she thinking about, how am I going to make people believe what happened to me?

Nor should that have been something that had beyond her mind. I mean, she knew that this whole situation sounded really crazy and really unbelievable, but she never in a million years thought that she would be looked at as a suspect. Denise was eventually reunited with Aaron, and they were very, very relieved to be back together. Now, Aaron was obviously glad that Denise was okay, but initially he also started to wonder if it was possible that Denise did set this up. Was this something that Denise did to get his attention or to get back at him? However, he ultimately believed her. But that did not stop the police or the media from just continuing on saying that this was just an elaborate hoax. Then, the next day, the San

Francisco Chronicle received another email from the alleged kidnapper. Now, this wasn't so much an email as it was a 15-page manifesto. I mean, I am talking very detailed. In the email, the kidnapper revealed more details about the crime, and they were actually very upset that the Vallejo Police Department did not believe Aaron or Denise and their story. They wanted to be acknowledged for their crime. Kind of like the Zodiac, right? Kind of like getting Zodiac vibes here a little bit. In the email, they also included pictures of the room that Denise was kept in, and it matched exactly how she described this room to be to the investigators

and to her lawyer. They also claimed that they were a group of very highly skilled, college-educated individuals. They also said that they were Ocean's Eleven gentlemen criminals, and that they had been conducting petty crimes like car theft all in preparation for this elaborate kidnapping. However, they went on to say that this kidnapping was just a trial run for bigger and better crimes. They stated that they felt so bad about kidnapping the wrong woman, which is why they decided to drop Denise off in Huntington Beach. They also stated that they felt that they had to send the email to defend Denise and Aaron, and to further prove that their story was true. Now I'm not going to read to you the whole 15-page manifesto, but there are a few key

pieces that I do want to read to you. So part of this email says, We are a group of what I suppose you would call professional thieves. Although we haven't been doing it that long and don't identify ourselves as such, we are more than two and fewer than eight in number. All but one of us holds at least a bachelor's degree. Some of us have a tech background and are very good at overcoming electronic anti-theft measures, stealing late model cars, and reconfiguring systems as necessary to make the vehicles sellable in the foreign market. At some point, we decided that although auto theft payout was decent, we didn't want to do that for our whole lives. Instead, we wanted to do something with a high payout that we only had to do once or a few times. We did not want to stay

thieves or criminals forever. What we really wanted was to complete one or two big jobs and then do whatever we felt like for the rest of our lives. We settled on kidnapping and ransom. The operation was meant to be a test of methods that would be used later on a higher net worth target in an environment that was familiar to us and somewhat controlled. There was also a link to someone we thought was a residence there, but it turned out not to be. The bottom line, inconceivable as it sounds, given what we have done, is that we really didn't want to hurt anyone. We are young adults, fairly recent college graduates, and up until now, this was like a game or movie

adventure. We fancied ourselves a sort of Ocean's Eleven, gentlemen criminals, and only took stuff that was insured from people who could afford it. The operation went terribly wrong. After making the jump from property crime to this, we feel deep remorse and horribly regret our slide into criminality. In particular, we are mortified of the impact it has had on Denise. In what I suppose would be a case of reverse Stockholm syndrome, we, and particularly the one in charge of holding her during the operation, were very impressed with the strength that she showed and who she was as we passed the time talking to her. We are criminals, I suppose, but we have consciences,

and seeing the impact of our actions on someone deeply affected us, and it caused us to reconsider our lives. Ms. Huskins was absolutely kidnapped. We did it. We will provide proof of that, and the Chronicle will break it. We will not turn ourselves in nor reveal our identities. Even after we come out, we don't think there will be any link allowing the police to identify us. But it is still risky, and as things stand now, we could

apparently get away with anything. We would rather take the chance of revealing the truth than live in a world where someone like Denise is victimized again. And again, we have no prior link to Miss Huskins and did not know who she was until the night of the operation. We believed the woman there was Jennifer. The bottom line, inconceivable as it sounds given what we have done, is that we really didn't want to hurt anyone. The terrifying reality of what we had become and what we were doing did not set in until directly being confronted with Denise's suffering and humanity. We now feel like the pieces of shit we have become. And although we don't have the courage to turn ourselves in and spend the rest of our lives in prison, we will not stand by and see the life of a really good person ruined. We dropped Ms. Huskins off at

her home in Huntington Beach because it was more or less equidistant to the Bay Area and because we were horrified at what we had done and wanted her to have her family and close friends around to help her recover, rather than spending hours getting debriefed by the police. The only other thing we ask in return is that you pass a message to Ms. Huskins for us. We do not know how to reliably reach her. Tell her again that we are unspeakably sorry and ashamed for what happened, including the matter resulting from an argument within the team.

Tell her that all the threats against her and her family are lifted and she is safe. Tell her we will come forward and try our best to correct the situation. The attorney is maintaining that the woman was abducted and drugged and now saying that the kidnappers have even written a letter describing in detail how and why they did it. Police claimed her mysterious disappearance was nothing but a hoax, drawing comparisons to Gone Girl. My wife, Amy Elliott Dunn, disappeared three days ago. But this morning, Denise Huskins' attorney says he has proof his client isn't a liar, but a victim, and that her kidnappers are still on the

loose. I have come to receive a 15-page, single-spaced email from the kidnappers. Speaking with ABC News overnight, Douglas Rappaport characterized a stunning manifesto. He says the alleged kidnappers emailed to the San Francisco Chronicle after Huskins suddenly turned up safe Wednesday, two days after her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, reported she was abducted from his Vallejo, California home. They talked very extensively about how they prepared for it, what weapons to use. Rappaport wouldn't tell us how he got the email or show us its contents, but ABC News was able to see it from another source. In it, the group compares themselves to the crew from Ocean's Eleven. This town, your luck can change just that quickly. Calling themselves college-educated

career criminals who say they only nabbed Huskins as a dry run so they could kidnap higher profile victims in the future. In fact, they say Huskins wasn't even their intended target. They felt terribly when they discovered that it was her. But yet, since this was a training mission, they decided to carry it out regardless. According to the email, they eventually felt so badly, they simply let her go, dropping her off in her hometown of Huntington Beach, where they thought she'd be safe. The group won't ID itself, but says it feels the need to defend Denise and her boyfriend. But that wasn't the only email that they sent either.

And they sent another email to the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday, March 28th. Now, part of this email read, We are deeply ashamed and regretful of our unforgivable conduct. the San Francisco Chronicle, on Saturday, March 28th. Now, part of this email read, We are deeply ashamed and regretful of our unforgivable conduct. Nothing can ever make up for what was done. Mr. Quinn, and especially Ms. Huskins, suffered a life-threatening ordeal painful beyond what most people can imagine. We were therefore dismayed, further ashamed, and truly dumbfounded that when Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins sought help from the police,

the police turned against the victims, accused them of fabrication, and told Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins that they would be prosecuted and fined. It was also disturbing how many journalists cast the victims in a negative light. Reports never directly stated that Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins were attention-seeking wackos who made it all up, but they conveyed mostly the information that would lead readers and viewers to this conclusion. Like the police, certain journalists crucified the victims long before there was enough information to do so. They went on to talk about several details that were involved in the crime and more information

about how their little group was formed. Now, those were the only emails that were sent to reporters, as the group then started sending Kenny Park from the Vallejo Police Department several emails as well. Now, they were directly reaching out to the police department. And there's just one quick part of that email that I want to read to you, because it really just sets the tone for everything going on here. In that email, it says, It is inconceivable to us that the air has not been cleared concerning Ms. Hudson's victimization.

The Vallejo Police Department has 24 hours to issue a full and unequivocal apology, one that includes the words, We were wrong, or something very close to them. No mealy-mouthed, it appears we may have initially misassessed the available evidence due to the complex and bizarre nature of the crime and the unusual behavior of the victims in delaying their reports

and retaining attorneys instead of working directly with the police. This was all their quote, guys. They say, It will be a full apology, with zero insinuation, that the victims had any role whatsoever in creating their predicament. We understand that the police may decide not to disclose some information given to them, but on reflection, disclosure of it could cause a great deal of harm to Mare Island residents, to their well-being, not to mention their property values.

We certainly don't wish to harm them further and leave that to your judgment. However, at this point, the police have more than enough cooperative information to realize that they were wrong, and yet you still allow Ms. Huskins to be portrayed as an unstable hoaxster. the police have more than enough cooperative information to realize that they were wrong, and yet you still allow Ms. Huskins to be portrayed as an unstable hoaxster. That is all I can think of. We are deeply sorry for the pain that this has brought everybody, including the police and their families. It ends now.

For what it's worth, what could have ended up as a prolific and dangerous criminal group has disbanded, and you have Denise to thank for it, so stop persecuting her. I don't think that you will find us, but if you do, good work. You may already have done one of us in. Another has had a nervous breakdown, and for my part, you definitely have me looking over my shoulder and jumping at shadows.

I think I'll only have peace if I move to the middle of nowhere or go overseas and teach English or some such. If you do manage to pull me out of a hole someday, good job. Well played. I'm not going to hurt anybody. Now, you might think that all of these emails would cause the investigators to maybe look further into the case, because maybe they would now start to take Aaron and Denise a little bit more seriously. they would now start to take Aaron and Denise a little bit more seriously. But they didn't, which also to their defense, when has a kidnapper ever continuously emailed the police and the media to defend the people that they victimized? But in any event, weeks went by and Denise and Aaron

kept being the number one main suspects. Both felt scared. They suffered from PTSD and suffered from nightmares. And they were worried about the fact that the intruders were still out there and that they could potentially hurt them or somebody else again. They were facing so much public backlash as well because the police had convinced everybody that this kidnapping was in reality all a hoax. Aaron also felt like his job was looking for a reason to fire him because they just did not want to be involved in any of the drama and any of that media attention that was surrounding Aaron. They both were also getting very, very hateful messages. They were having their reputation just smeared in general.

I mean, it was really awful. And as the months went by, because it wasn't letting up at all and it was just getting worse, they started to prepare a defense because they assumed that they were going to be arrested and charged for this, so they wanted to be fully prepared if that happened. Both Aaron and Denise's lawyers claimed that the Vallejo Police Department was one of the most corrupt departments that they had ever dealt with, so they felt like they needed to prepare even more for even more backlash. However, then things took a dramatic turn just a few months later in June of 2015. In Dublin, California, about an hour south of Vallejo, the Dublin Police Department received a call from a very frantic and a very scared woman. But before we get into that, guys,

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they found something that ended up turning this entire case upside down. Because of the chaos and the husband fighting back, the intruder was caught off guard, and they accidentally left a cell phone behind. The next day, Dublin police were able to trace the phone back to a woman in Orangevale, California. She said that the phone belonged to her son, Matthew Moeller, and that he lost his phone the day prior. And she told them that Matthew was at their lake house in South Tahoe. So who the hell is Matthew Moeller? Living at home with mommy, right? Who the hell is this guy? Investigators found out that he served in the Marines for five years and that he was honorably discharged as a sergeant. He attended college at Pomona College where he graduated with distinguished honors. After graduating, he attended Harvard Law and

later went into immigration law. He was married but later divorced. He was practicing law up until 2012 but then ended up being disbarred in California after not giving a client all of their money, something around $1,200, which seems like a pretty small amount to be disbarred over, but who knows? Just my opinion. So the police in Dublin went to this house in South Lake Tahoe. They kicked down the door and they entered the house, which was just in shambles. This house was a complete trash mess, guys. Matthew was coming out of the bedroom, and when police asked him if he knew why they were there, he said yes. He was arrested, and then he was taken into custody.

The police then searched the home, and they found a slew of damning evidence. They found ski masks, stun guns, numerous laptops and cell phones, a laptop hidden under a mattress and a white ford mustang that had been reported as stolen in the mustang they found a blow-up doll with wires attached to it to make it stand up kind of like in home alone you know when he's like dancing in the shower with this thing they also found zip ties they found duct tape and get this, they found squirt guns with laser pointers attached to them. Squirt guns! Super soakers! Squirt guns! Like, wow! Wow! There were also several swim goggles with the eyes blacked out, and one of the detectives who was conducting this search named Misty noticed that one of the pairs of the goggles had strands of blonde hair on it.

Misty noticed that one of the pairs of the goggles had strands of blonde hair on it. However, nobody in the Dublin investigation had blonde hair, so this detail really stuck out to Detective Misty. The entire house felt very creepy to her, and she felt like there was way more going on that they didn't even know about. With Matthew now in custody, the Dublin Police Department eventually found out that he was a person of interest in two cases from 2009. On September 29, 2009, in Mountain View, California, a woman reported that her house had been broken into and that she had been drugged. She said that earlier that morning someone had broken into her home and told her that they were there for identity theft. They demanded her date of birth, her mother's maiden name, her social security number, all things that you would need if you were committing a financial crime. They then asked her numerous questions about her computer. They placed blackout goggles over her eyes,

and they sedated her with NyQuil. The intruder then threatened to sexually assault her if she did not comply. A few weeks after that, on October 18th, a nearly identical home invasion happened to a 32-year-old woman in her apartment in Palo Alto, California. In this case, there was a struggle, and the man ended up running off. He left behind a bump key, which is a key that can unlock most common residential locks. While investigating this case, Palo Alto detectives reviewed recent police reports from the area and found that four days before the attack, a strange man was seen exiting one apartment and then entering another. And that man was none other than Matthew Muller. He claimed that he was at the apartments because he was visiting an old classmate who was now teaching at Stanford.

However, investigators were suspicious of Matthew, and they asked him to come in for an interview, and he agreed. However, he quickly lawyered up and refused to speak to the police. He eventually disappeared, and then he left a note to his wife which read, I'm going completely off the grid. No phone, emails, credit cards, etc. So please do not try to track me, as that will only draw attention. Any commotion at the apartment is also not likely to go unnoticed. I have problems beyond my mental health. I live in terror most of the time and can't keep up appearances any longer, and this is perhaps the least extreme thing I can do to resolve it

that does not also expose everybody to criminal liability. Can you imagine, for those of you who have a partner, a spouse, or married, can you imagine coming home and finding a note like that? Well, I don't even know how I would react in that moment. However, Matthew's wife received a call from him just a few days later from a payphone in Utah, where she eventually drove to and then picked him up. Unfortunately, the police couldn't find enough evidence against Matthew, and he was never charged. So back in Dublin, Detective Misty still had a feeling that there was something more going on in this case. So she contacted the owner of that stolen white Mustang,

who told her that his car was stolen on the exact same night that this couple said that their house was broken into, and a woman said that she was kidnapped. But he said that ended up all being a hoax, so he didn't know if it was related or not. So Misty started digging deeper into this case, and then she began to realize that there were a lot of similarities between what happened to the couple in Vallejo, this hoax, and what happened to this couple in Dublin. She tried calling the Vallejo Police Department numerous times, but they would never answer. Finally, they returned her call, and she was told to get in contact with the FBI. When Misty contacted the FBI, she said that she had information regarding a kidnapping case that they had said was a hoax. Investigators at the FBI, however,

said, oh no, no, no, we didn't say that it was a hoax. The Vallejo Police Department said that it was a hoax. However, this phone call had them start looking into what Misty was saying. They found a lot of evidence at Matthew's home and also a storage unit that he had in Vallejo, and much of that evidence matched the story that Denise and Aaron had told. The goggles, the zip ties, the guns with laser pointers, the boarded up room, etc. They were even able to look at the GPS on the car that Matthew stole, and they found that on the day that Denise had reappeared at the neighbor's house next to her dad's house, he had typed in directions into his GPS for Utica Avenue in Huntington Beach. They also found Aaron's computer, which was the one that had been stuffed underneath the bed

mattress in Matthew's house. On the other computers that they had seized, they found several audio files with the recordings that Denise and Aaron had described hearing. They even found the videos of Matthew raping Denise. They were able to get video surveillance footage of him buying a track phone, a burner phone, at a local Target, and this was on March 2, 2015. And this was later identified as the phone that was a local Target, and this was on March 2nd, 2015, and this was later identified as the phone that was used to communicate back and forth with Aaron after this whole crime went down. Matthew also ended up fessing up to the police and telling the FBI that he used drones to

watch the couple in the months that were leading up to the attack, and the FBI found these drones that matched his description inside of a storage unit. So Matthew was then arrested and federally charged with kidnapping Denise. Through their investigation, the FBI also learned that Matthew suffered from severe bipolar disorder, and that he would sway back and forth from being this very high-achieving and organized person to then suffering from extreme psychosis. For the past few years, he refused to take medication, and according to him, his life had fallen apart ever since. Upon hearing the news, Aaron, Denise, and their lawyer held a press conference.

Big break in that case. It appeared to be a real-life gone girl. When a California woman was abducted from her home, her boyfriend tied up and drugged, police accused them of faking the kidnapping, but now another man is behind bars, and authorities say it was not a hoax. George, good morning to you. This story is so incredible. Police here didn't even believe it,

but the FBI now says what happened inside this home here behind me is indeed very real, a reality stranger than fiction. This morning, vindication. Today is a fabulous day for Denise Huskins, for Aaron Quinn. They are absolutely 100% not just not guilty, but innocent. It was a real-life gone girl. The Northern California couple accused of staging a kidnapping just like the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Meticulously stage your crime scene. Police accusing them of making up an elaborate story of being tied up, drugged, and held for ransom. Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins has plundered valuable resources away from our community. But now, four months after the mystery began, the FBI announcing an arrest in the case. 38-year-old Matthew Muller, a former Marine, a Harvard Law grad, a disbarred immigration lawyer. This changes nothing about the humiliation, the violence that was perpetrated on them nearly four months ago by a psychopath. Court documents

revealing new details in the bizarre ordeal. Intruders allegedly holding guns with red lasers woke up the couple as they slept. Huskins and Quinn telling authorities they were forced to wear swimming goggles with tape-covered lenses and headsets that gave a pre-recorded message with instructions. The kidnapper allegedly demanding two ransom payments of $8,500. We firmly believe there are other people involved. We want to see these people off the street. Denise and Aaron stood in the back of this press conference, gripping each other's hands. Their lips were quivering and they were holding back tears. This nightmare was finally over. The lawyers did all of the talking and they claimed

that because of the lack of police work, the Vallejo Police Department essentially allowed the kidnapper to go on and terrorize another couple. They also felt like the Vallejo Police Department was encouraging the idea that this was all a hoax, which truly ruined Aaron and Denise's reputation. And because of this, Aaron and Denise actually ended up suing the city for their mishandling of the case and sued them for defamation. In 2018, they reached a settlement and the city agreed to pay Denise and Aaron 2.5 million dollars. However, the police department never issued a public apology to Denise or to Aaron. Now, in a detail that makes my head spin and it makes me like see a red mist just everywhere and want to just like become enraged the police never issued a public apology to denise or aaron they did write them a private

letter of sorts that i guess kind of contained an apology but not really not what they should have done and get this detective matt mustard didn't even receive any sort of punishment for his involvement or his role in this, and he was actually named Officer of the Year in 2015. The, uh, like, come the fuck on. Sorry, I'm just getting pissed. So Matthew pled guilty to his charges, and on March 16, 2017, he was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for the home invasion and the kidnapping of Denise. Denise and Aaron read victim impact statements during his sentencing hearing and said that Matthew had absolutely ruined their lives and ruined them forever,

and they said that they cannot and will not ever be the same. Matthew also read a statement, saying, 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 that the court imposes. Matthew was not charged with Denise's sexual assault in this federal case, but in 2018, a case in state court was brought against him. He ended up pleading guilty to robbery, burglary,

and false imprisonment. However, he originally pled not guilty and even planned on representing himself in court for the charges. A journalist who worked at the San Francisco Chronicle back when Matthew sent those emails to them with that recording and all those things ended up actually interviewing Matthew while he was in custody. And get this, while in custody, apparently Matthew had been attacked and sexually assaulted. And listen to what he had to say about it. We did try to let them know what the background was and that Joseph suffered a rape and a beating

and near suicide. So let me ask you this, in that regard, I did hear about the attack on you in Tucson and let me ask you this, you say you were assaulted, sexually assaulted. You're undergoing PTSD. What would you say to Denise, who says that you forcibly raped her and that she, too, is suffering PTSD?

What would you say to those rape allegations? Well, at this point, I mean, you know, that is a pending legal matter. And because of the posture of the case, I can't really speak to the facts of what did or did not happen, so I'm going to probably have to defer to that. I have to be both my own lawyer and a defendant right now, which is sort of a tricky situation, so I don't mean to be speaking out of both sides of my mouth. Certainly, I will have a response for that at some point. Post-traumatic stress injury is truly a terrible affliction. I thought that I understood it because I worked with a lot of clients who had it, and I knew how to help them when they would, for example, dissociate or have flashbacks. But there are a lot of things, no matter how much of

the clinical literature that you read, that I don't think you can really understand until you actually experience it yourself. And I will say, for whoever has it, it's a horrible thing that I don't think you can really understand until you actually experience it yourself and I will say for whoever has it is the horrible thing I don't even know that I did my case is particularly serious and it's bad enough now how would you speak to Denise's feelings that she's been horrifically traumatized by you she says what's your view yeah I know you've been traumatized how about her trauma as she describes it? Well, again, I'm really sorry, sir. I'm going to have to defer until trial. You know, I will certainly be taking the stand in my own defense and we'll talk about what did or did not

happen. But it's something that does have to be saved for a later date. He was claiming not guilty by reason of insanity, which didn't make sense when he was representing himself, because how could someone claim that they were insane yet still be competent enough to represent themselves? It wasn't really making sense. Matthew later apologized for this, claiming that he was suffering from a relapse in mental health, and that's when he ended up pleading guilty. He was sentenced to 31 years in state prison, running concurrently with the original 40 years that he was sentenced to. Interestingly, throughout both trials, Matthew insisted that he worked alone. However,

both Aaron and Denise were not convinced of this, and to this day, they believe that there were more people involved in this. And remember, he had been bragging about this Ocean's Eleven type group. Was he making it all up? Did he have audio recordings of different voices to stage this? And was this a one-man show? I mean, pretty elaborate for one person to pull off, right? Denise and Aaron also say that they could distinctly tell that there were multiple people in the room. One of them would be upstairs. One would be talking to them while they could hear noises still going on downstairs. They could hear multiple footsteps throughout the house. They could hear the whispering back and forth. Yet Yet nobody has ever been charged or found to be working with Matthew in any sort of way.

Matthew has since claimed that he feels safer in prison. He likes the simplicity of it, the routine, and the knowledge that if he were to have a psychotic break again, he would be contained so nobody could get hurt. As for Aaron and Denise, they slowly rebuilt their lives. They struggled immensely, and many family members said that for a while they were just a shell of who they used to be. But with therapy and with each other's support, they were able to put back together the life that they wanted, the life that they had, and put the pieces back together. They ended up getting engaged, and they eventually got married. Denise's lawyer, Doug Rappaport, is the one who officiated their wedding.

And Aaron's lawyer, Dan Russo, was also in attendance, along with Detective Misty, the one from Dublin. They were deeply thankful for Detective Misty and felt that her work was the reason that Matthew was eventually caught and their story was finally believed. was eventually caught, and their story was finally believed. In 2020, Denise gave birth to a baby girl, Olivia, who ended up being born on the exact date that Denise was released from her captor. The couple felt that this was a sign that she was going to help them feel whole again. This case is crazy, because as the details were unfolding in real time, it seemed like maybe Aaron and Denise were lying. Maybe this was all just an elaborate hoax. As much as I hate to say that now, I mean, it did seem like that, right? It seemed too detailed, too grandiose, too unbelievably crazy. And even to the outsiders who

were watching the media and the police speak on this case as it was happening in real time, they all thought that way. But this was all because from the get-go, the couple was treated by police as suspects, not victims. The disappearance of 29-year-old Denise Huskins seemed like a case of real-life gone girl. My wife, Amy Elliot Dunn, disappeared three days ago. The Hollywood blockbuster about a woman who staged her own kidnapping and magically returned. Police had written it off as a hoax. Our investigation has concluded that none of the claims has been substantiated. Even Nancy Grace at the time

questioning her story. Everything about this kidnap screams out hoax. There were so many opportunities for Vallejo Police Department to look at the evidence and to realize what was truly going on here, but they ignored it at every single turn. It's especially frustrating to know that the police even tried sweeping this under the rug and that the detective leading the interrogations was never punished for what he did. Additionally, when that recording of Denise was emailed to the San Francisco Chronicle, the police called Aaron, they played him the recording, he confirmed that it was Denise, and he was called back to the station, given his phone, and told to send a message back to the kidnapper. Can you believe it? At the time, Aaron was with his lawyer

Dan and also Dan's paralegal. And when Aaron's phone was handed back to him, the paralegal noticed that the phone was on airplane mode. Aaron never put his phone on airplane mode, and especially now because he was waiting for messages from the kidnapper to come in. So when he turned airplane mode off, messages and missed calls came flooding in. Calls that he could have received. The police had purposefully put the phone in airplane mode and missed crucial evidence. Despite Aaron telling them that he was waiting for this kidnapper to call with further instructions, they still put it in airplane mode.

So this meant that the entire time that the phone was in police custody, they were missing calls from Matthew. And these calls from Matthew could have easily proved that Aaron's story was true and possibly even saved Denise earlier by tracking his phone and his location, making it so that maybe Denise hadn't been sexually assaulted had they caught him sooner and also prevented the couple in Dublin from being burglarized. I mean, it was just such an epic fail. So as I mentioned at the top of this episode,

this case has a Netflix docuseries coming out later this week. And you know, I will definitely be watching a lot of the times in these documentaries. They don't catch every detail because it has to be, you know, compacted and concise into a smaller episode. So it'll be interesting to see how they portray it. If there's any details I missed, if there's any exclusives they have, but I'm really interested to watch that. So let me know what you guys think about this case I'm interested also are you watching the documentary have you watched the documentary

did it include all the details we included today sound off in the comment section sound off in the review section I love hearing your feedback guys all right so thank you for tuning in to another episode of serialistly with me today I know it was a long one until the next one please stay safe and lock your doors and just stay safe all right i'm gonna go i am so thirsty i need to drink like a huge gallon of water all right my mouth is dry i just feel gross i'm signing off bye Bye.