Man jailed for 'Gone Girl' case hit with additional charges
Matthew Muller, who is already serving a 40-year sentence in the notorious 2015 Gone Girl kidnapping of Northern California woman, Denise Huskins, is now facing additional charges. The new charges stem from a series of home invasion sexual assaults that occurred in Mountain View and Palo Alto from September to October 2009. Forensic DNA testing has connected Muller to these unsolved cases, the Santa Clara County district attorney's office reported.
Muller accused of medicated assaults in 2009 cases
Prosecutors claim that Muller (47) broke into a woman's home in Mountain View, California, in 2009, where he attacked her, restrained her, and forced her to ingest medications. He allegedly told the woman, who was in her 30s, that he intended to rape her, but she managed to persuade him otherwise. Although Muller was identified as a suspect in the Palo Alto case earlier, investigators lacked sufficient evidence to charge him at that time.
Muller's previous conviction and 'Gone Girl' connection
To note, Muller, a Sacramento native, was convicted in 2022 for the kidnapping and rape of Huskins in Vallejo, California. The case first drew skepticism from police who believed it was a hoax inspired by the novel Gone Girl. Huskins's boyfriend was first accused of staging her disappearance before Muller's arrest for her kidnapping and a separate home invasion in Dublin.
The timeline of events
Huskins was abducted into her boyfriend Aaron Quinn's home, who told detectives the intruders had drugged, blindfolded, and tied them both up before kidnapping Huskins. Quinn also reported that the kidnappers demanded an $8,500 ransom. Huskins, 29 at the time, was found unharmed two days later. Vallejo police held a news conference stating they found no evidence of kidnapping and accused Huskins and Quinn of staging the abduction. After Huskins's release, Vallejo police wrongly compared her case to Gone Girl.
Netflix documentary revived interest in Huskins's case
Interest in Huskins's case was reignited earlier this year after the release of the documentary American Nightmare. The documentary detailed the events surrounding her kidnapping and brought renewed criticism to Vallejo police for their handling of the case. The department had previously faced legal action over its response to Huskins's disappearance. American Nightmare was released on Netflix on January 17.
