WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Denise Huskins was held for ransom and repeatedly raped in a 2015 kidnapping in California – but police accused her of fabricating the entire ordeal before the real perpetrator was convicted
Emilia Randall GAU Writer
05:00, 17 Mar 2026
Denise was accused of lying(Image: Netflix)
A woman was abducted, held for ransom and repeatedly sexually assaulted in a case that has been compared to the “real-life Gone Girl”, where the victims were accused of fabricating the terror.
Denise Huskin and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn found themselves trapped in a nightmare in 2015. Intruders clad in masks and wetsuits invaded their home in Vallejo, California, forcing the couple to drink a drug cocktail that rendered them unconscious.
A masked man then kidnapped Denise, holding her for ransom at a property over 150 miles away in South Lake Tahoe.
Her boyfriend, Aaron, received threatening messages from the abductor, who claimed he was keeping Denise captive and demanded a ransom. He also insisted that Aaron should not inform the authorities.
Aaron said a pre-recorded message informed them Denise would be abducted, and released 48 hours later. He woke up to texts demanding two payments of $8,500 for her release, on the condition that he didn’t contact the police, reports the Mirror.
The ordeal was caught on camera(Image: Netflix)
The Vallejo police did become involved. However, when Aaron sought help from officers, he quickly became a suspect in his girlfriend’s disappearance and was questioned.
Just two days after her abduction, the masked captor transported Denise to Huntington Beach, nearly 500 miles away, and freed her near her family’s home.
When she reappeared following her highly-publicised abduction, authorities alleged she had staged her own kidnapping. She stated she had been warned by her captor that if she disclosed to authorities she had been sexually assaulted, he would murder her family, so she initially denied any attack.
The case started to echo events in Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel Gone Girl, which was later adapted into a 2014 film starring Rosamund Pike, just one year prior to Denise’s kidnapping.
Matthew Muller was caught by Sergeant Misty Carausu(Image: Netflix)
The film portrays Amy Dunne (Pike), concocting a kidnapping and murder plot to frame her unfaithful husband Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), though she ultimately returns home claiming she was kidnapped by an obsessed former lover.
Authorities became increasingly convinced Denise had staged her own kidnapping when, in another incident strikingly similar to the Gone Girl narrative, Aaron’s former fiancée informed police they had contemplated reconciling.
Denise told Netflix documentary American Nightmare she found herself questioned after two days of torment.
She said: “For the last 48 hours I have been living moment to moment, trying to survive. The last thing you’re thinking about is: ‘If I do survive, I’ve really got to make sure that all of this is believable’.”
On the day of Denise’s release Vallejo police spokesperson Lt Kenny Park told a crowded press conference the force believed the couple had fabricated the entire thing.
He said: “Mr Quinn and Ms Huskins have plundered valuable resources away from our community and taken the focus away from the true victims of our community whilst instilling fear among our community members. So, if anything, it is Mr Quinn and Ms Huskins that owe this community an apology.”
The horrifying ordeal left the couple traumatised – twice
Denise’s solicitor Doug Rappaport claims in the documentary the following day, after an FBI agent interviewed her, the agent raised doubts to Rappaport about whether his client was being truthful. He allegedly said: “‘Haven’t you seen the movie, Gone Girl?'”.
“How could this person who has been charged with investigating this crime think that it is like a Ben Affleck movie? That’s Hollywood. This is real life. He is so sure that he is right – it’s called confirmation bias.”
Eventually, the actual perpetrator Matthew Muller was apprehended by Sergeant Misty Carausu and he was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2017.
In 2018, the couple received a £2.5million settlement from the city of Vallejo, with the city admitting “no wrongdoing”.
The police ultimately apologised, but none of the police officers involved with the case were disciplined, and the lead detective on the case, Mat Mustard, was awarded officer of the year in 2015.
In 2021, Denise confided to People: “When I was kidnapped, I didn’t know if I was going to live to see another day. And then to have people attacking you on social media, the whole ‘Gone Girl’ label – a whole persona was placed on me that had nothing to do with who I am. I don’t know what needs to happen to me… to happen to any woman to be believed.”
Today, Aaron and Denise are married and share two children.