Bombshell twist in notorious case of ‘Gone Girl’ kidnap that shocked America

The man who kidnapped and sexually assaulted a Northern California woman in a gruesome crime that police initially dismissed as a Gone Girl-style hoax has now been charged with two 15-year-old home invasions and sexual assaults.

Matthew Muller, 47, pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping charges and was sentenced to 40 years behind bars in 2017 after Vallejo police ultimately accused him of kidnapping Denise Huskins and taking her to a remote cabin.

The former Marine told prosecutors he suffered from bipolar disorder and was on medication when he kidnapped Huskins two years earlier.

A month after the arrest, the FBI said Muller may have committed other crimes similar to Huskins’ nightmare kidnapping, providing new details about the crime and asking for the public’s help. Mercury News reports.

Now that Muller is serving his prison sentence for the 2015 kidnapping that shocked America, he faces two new charges of assault with intent to commit rape during a burglary. according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The first incident occurred in September 2009 when Muller allegedly broke into a woman’s home in Mountain View, California.

The victim told police she woke up to see a man wearing a mask pushing her face down in her bed and telling her he was committing identity theft, prosecutors allege.

The intruder reportedly handcuffed the woman and tied her ankles with “some kind of Velcro.”

Over the next two hours, the intruder allegedly made several phone calls and at one point carried the victim downstairs before returning her to the bedroom.

He also allegedly made the victim drink Nyquil and used her phone to send text messages to her employer stating that she had called in sick.

The intruder allegedly told the woman, in her 30s, that he was going to rape her, but she convinced him not to.

Muller then left after advising the woman to get a dog, prosecutors said.

The following month, prosecutors allege, Muller allegedly broke into a Palo Alto home and ambushed a sleeping woman while wearing a mask over his head.

According to a police report, the man spoke in a “low growl,” as if he was “knowingly trying to hide his voice,” as he held her down with cloth restraints on her ankles and arms, placed plugs in her ears and covered her eyes with surgical tape.

The victim was also reportedly forced to drink Nyquil, and at one point the suspect allegedly stated his intention to rape her before she begged him by describing a previous sexual assault, which police say caused him to admit .

Muller is then accused of warning the woman not to call the police as he left.

Years later, Muller kidnapped Huskins from the home she shared with boyfriend Aaron Quinn in Vallejo, California.

She claimed she saw a man in her room brandishing a fake gun, and said she and Quinn were drugged and blindfolded with blacked-out glasses before being thrown into the trunk of a car and driven nearly 500 miles away.

When police arrived on the scene, they found blood splatter throughout the house, zip ties, toy guns and even an inflatable doll.

Suspicion first fell on Quinn, who was picked up for questioning over an argument with his girlfriend over messages she found on his phone shortly before her disappearance.

The perpetrator had demanded $15,000 in ransom for Huskins’ safe return during the two-day ordeal.

But days later, her kidnapper inexplicably dropped her off in an alley outside her parents’ home – much to everyone’s surprise.

The unusual circumstances led police to suspect the episode was a hoax.

‘We couldn’t substantiate any of the things he said. If anything, it is Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins who owe this community an apology,” Vallejo Police Lt. Kenny Park said at a news conference.

Muller was eventually linked to the crime after being arrested by police in Dublin, California for a similar home invasion.

Authorities said they found a cellphone that they traced to Muller and a subsequent search of his car and home turned up evidence including a computer that Muller had stolen from Quinn and linked him to the invasion.

Muller was subsequently sentenced to 31 years in prison in 2022 after pleading no contest to two counts of forcible rape while Huskins and Quinn were getting married.

They welcomed their first child in 2020 and their second in 2022.

Amid renewed attention on the case following a Netflix documentary series called American Nightmare, Palo Alto police revived the investigation into the two home invasions after being contacted by Coastal Police Chief Nick Borges.

Borges had been corresponding with Muller at his Arizona prison and said he received letters from Muller in April and May from the suspect volunteering information implicating him in the 2009 home invasions and attacks.

The police chief said he provided details that closely matched police reports and the victim’s stories, which were not publicly available.

In one letter, Muller reportedly described coming forward as the attacker as the art of a “common goal: (protecting) victims and strengthening laws for future potential victims.”

As part of the renewed investigation, Palo Alto police reexamined DNA traces from the cloth fasteners used in the home burglaries and linked Muller to the crime scene.

“The details of this individual’s violent crime may seem written for Hollywood, but they are tragically real,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement.

“Our goal is to ensure that this defendant is held accountable and never hurts or terrorizes anyone again.”

“Our hope is that this nightmare is over.”

Muller now faces a possible life sentence and is due back in court on January 17.