ET on ABC. He has a brother and a sister, Johnson said. Detectives in Palo Alto and Mountain View say theyre also looking into Mullers possible involvement in home invasions in 2009 that had similarities to the Vallejo and Dublin cases. Denise Huskins, who was kidnapped from her Vallejo home in 2015, contended no shamefaced to two charges of forcible rape. In interviews with NBC Bay Area, Johnson and his former college roommate,Alex Volberding,who is working at a law firm in San Francisco this summer, described Muller, of Orangeville, California, as someone who stood out in college because of his drive and wit. Quinns struggle eventually came to a head when, in February 2015, Huskins found out that Quinn had been messaging his ex-fiance about getting back together. The last thing that youre thinking about is, If I do survive, I need to make sure that Im believable.. The episode airs at 9 p.m. Eastern time June 4, 2021. Later, he was disbarred after he collected a $1,250 payment for a client but failed to file a green card application, according to the AP. By this point, Huskins says it was clear to her that she needed to hire a criminal defense attorney. According to court filings, when Rappaport pushed for Vallejo police to conduct a rape exam, they delayed. This story was originally published July 14, 2015, 11:49 AM. Furthermore, a search of his family home yielded not only several squirt guns with laser pointers taped to them and blacked-out swimming goggles but also video evidence that confirmed he was Denise and Aarons offender. Matthew Mueller. During a jailhouse interview with a reporter in July, Matthew Muller, 38, allegedly said he acted alone in the March 23 kidnapping, which police initially claimed was a hoax. Here are five things to know about the case. When he attempts to tie up the wife, the husband jumps across the bed and tackles the suspect. Marianna Quinn is the mother of Aaron Quinn. Matthew Muller is accused in a bizarre California kidnapping plot, and the contents of his "off the record" jailhouse conversation are now public in an FBI affidavit . No ones going to understand what they went through except each other., The two married near the water in Monterey, California. How much rain and snow fell in Northern California storm? He is also survived by his aunts, uncles and cousins, as well as a large extended church family and friends in Christ. He allegedly restrained the woman's arms, tied her ankles using Velcro, used surgical tape to cover her eyes, and forced her to drink Nyquil, the document states. Mountain View police didn't immediately return a call for comment from 48 Hours' Crimesider. At some point, they are going to have to say it if they screwed up, he said. As new details of Huskins ordeal emerged this week with the unsealing of the FBI documents, Vallejo city police came under fire for their handling of the original kidnapping report in March. This a robbery." Those are the words Denise Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, heard in the early morning of March 23, 2015. Matthew Muller. Investigators brought Aaron Quinn back to the station that same day and asked him to send a message back to the kidnapper. FBI spokeswoman Gina Swankie said anyone who has undergone a similar incident should call 1-800-call-FBI. The city of Vallejo and the Vallejo Police Department have not yet responded to the claims alleged in Whitney's lawsuit. Although I was not chief in 2015 when this incident occurred, I would like to extend my deepest apology to Ms. Huskins and Mr. Quinn for how they were treated during this ordeal.. Dublin Police/Marine Corps September 3, 2015 / 6:08 PM But on June 5, 2015, there was a major break in the case when police in Dublin, California, a city about an hour south of Vallejo, responded to a report of a home robbery. In video recordings of the interview, detective Mathew Mustard could be heard asking if there was tension in the relationship and if Quinn was cheating. Quinn said he realized the interview was taking a turn when, about 45 minutes into it, Mustard leaned back in the chair and told him, I dont think youre being truthful, and I dont think anybody came into your house., Mustard could be heard telling Quinn in the videotaped interrogation he the story youre telling here, I aint buying at all.. Muller, a former U.S. Marine, attended Harvard University where he also taught, according to court documents. The intruder says, We have a problem and he says to Aaron, Do Denise and your ex-fiance look-alike?, At that moment, Quinn said he released a guttural sigh., I was like, Yes, they both have long, blonde hair, Quinn said. Matthew Muller, who was formerly serving a 40- time judgment for civil offences, was doomed to Solano county superior court, according to the county quarter attorney's office. Where is the public apology? asked Jim Marshall of San Francisco. Rappaport blamed the department for rushing to judgment and ignoring key facts and clues. I told him, Look, this is going to be a nightmare and theres no way youre going to be able to pinch yourself and wake up.. accused kidnapper since his arrest was announced by the FBI on Monday. Misty Carausu had a nagging feeling that Muller had attempted this kind of crime before. He has had only one interaction with him, he said, but it was memorable. In April 2014 an order was filed in federal court in San Francisco, changing his status as a lawyer to inactive. The order was mailed to Muller twice, and both times was returned as undeliverable, according to court records. Augusta, GAMatthew V. Muller entered into rest on Saturday December 18th. Matthew Mueller. Among the attendees at their wedding were the attorneys who helped defend them, and Misty Carausu, a detective from Dublin, California, who helped link Muller to their case. Laying zip ties on the bed, the intruder told Huskins to tie Quinns feet together and his hands behind his back, Quinn said. Matthew Mullers upbringing and background seemed like a prescription for success. What would follow was a series of terrifying events . The suspect asked the victim for information including PIN numbers, email addresses and passwords, and her family members' addresses and social security numbers, according to the affidavit. There were these pre-recorded messages, Huskins said, referring to what they heard through the headphones. William Vizzard, professor emeritus of criminal justice at California State University, Sacramento, said law enforcement sometimes ends up with egg on your face when calling out hoaxes. When Huskins arrived in San Francisco to meet with her new attorney she finally felt safe enough to reveal all of the details of her harrowing captivity that she had been afraid to tell the police. In the July KPIX interview recorded by the jail and outlined in an FBI affidavit in support of a search warrant, Muller allegedly "ascribed his conduct to mental illness, a belief in some kind of conspiracy, and some kind of supposed side effect from a vaccine." Matthew Daniel Muller who was sentenced in 2017 in a Sacramento federal courtroom to 40 years in prison for kidnapping a Vallejo couple and raping the female victim before releasing her near. What he wasnt charged with were the sexual assaults, the robbery, the burglary against Aaron, Rappaport said. Muller was scheduled to appear in court on March 24, 2021, for a mental health placement review in Vallejo, The Mercury News reported. Each individual was in charge of a different part of the operation. They could not function.. Matthew Muller was implicated in a separate but similar crime in Dublin, California. When they turned airplane mode off, the phone flooded with messages. Johnson said that Muller grew up with his parents, who divorced sometime after high school. Little did I know, a quarter-sized bloodstain was going to mean that I was a murderer.. See Photos. On March 24, one day after the incident, the San Francisco Chronicle received whats known as a proof-of-life message from Huskins, Murphy said. Johnson said that Muller grew up with his parents, who divorced sometime after high school. Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn had a daughter, Olivia, who was born five years to the day that Huskins was released by her kidnapper, she said. She said that she had been raped twice by her kidnapper, which he videotaped. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Muller was later interviewed in the case by a detective, the affidavit states. When they responded, she says they told her to call the FBI. In a previous deposition related to Huskins and Aaron Quinn's civil litigation, but prior to Whitneys December 2020 lawsuit, Bidou was asked if he recalled anyone using this phrase with respect to Huskins, and he replied that he had "never heard anybody say that.". In this March 26, 2015, file photo, Amy Morton and Daniel Russo, attorneys for Aaron Quinn, state that their client was bound and drugged at the scene of the abduction and the $8,500 ransom was directed at him. The couple was awakened at around 3 a.m. by a man whod broken into the house. Matthew Muller was a Marine and Harvard-educated lawyer who was convicted in federal court for carrying out a kidnapping so bizarre Vallejo Police believed the victims were lying as part of an elaborate hoax. His parents, Monty and Joyce, are both career educators in the Sacramento area. In addition, Matthew pled guilty to robbery of an inhabited dwelling, residential burglary, and false imprisonment. Weeks passed without a break in the case and Huskins and Aaron Quinn found themselves the prime suspects in their own home invasion and kidnapping case. Join Facebook to connect with Mathew Muller and others you may know. The suspect had tried essentially the same things to another couple, 20/20 learned. In 2016, Aaron Quinn and Huskins filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Vallejo and its police department, as well as specific officers involved, alleging a number of claims, including defamation. California law dictates that a defendant who cannot understand his or her charges and who cannot assist in their own defense cannot stand trial, but once they are again deemed competent, charges can be reinstated, The Mercury News reported. High School Fight in Santa Rosa Leaves 1 Student Dead, 1 Injured, Alaska Airlines Unveils New San Francisco Giants-Themed Plane, California Bar Association suspended Mullers license, Police Activity Halts VTA Light Rail Service Through Downtown San Jose, Sierra Snowfall Report: Over 7 Feet of Snow in 72 Hours, San Mateo Police Arrest Massage Parlor Owner on Suspicion of Operating Brothel. NBC Bay Area's Mark Matthews contributed to that report. He described Muller as someone who loved music and studying, who didnt have a wide circle of friends. He has a brother and a sister, Johnson said. Why would there be a blonde hair stuck to goggles? Back in California, he attended college and graduated summa cum laude, then entered law school at Harvard, the AP reported. They kept asking, Has he ever gotten angry? Hes being asked questions and at some point, the intruder realizes theyve got the wrong person, said Melanie Woodrow, an investigative reporter with San Francisco ABC station KGO, who covered the story. He was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, plus a $2,500 fine and restitution of $1,250. He graduated summa cum laude from Pomona, and received his juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School. Thats the same year Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinns property invasion and abduction matter transpired. Search warrants unsealed Monday show the FBI seized five drones, remote controls, video cameras and other items linked to Muller from a self-storage unit he rented in Vallejo. The city managers office said the FBI asked officials not to talk about the case. Aaron Quinn said he feared he was close to losing his job. Matthew Muller. On June 17, Alameda. Huskins said that while walking to the closet she noticed two sets of legs from what she believed to be two different people in the bedroom. She said that after their conversation, as they went to bed around midnight, it felt like a fresh start.. Today Muller, 38, is behind bars in Alameda County, accused of one of the most bizarre and twisted kidnapping cases in recent memory. He approached college in a very regimented manner, unlike most of our classmates, myself included., Harvard educated kidnapping suspect worked at SF office of LA based law firm. "However it turns out 'off the record' does not pertain to the feds.". He allegedly told. The reason being is that there was no jurisdiction in federal court for those crimes.. Whitney further alleges in the lawsuit that he was in the room and that he heard Bidou instruct Parks to "burn that bitch" prior to Parks' March 25, 2015, press conference where Parks suggested that Huskins and Aaron Quinn had lied about their home invasion and abduction. I had no reason to believe, at that time, that they doubted me, she said. The kidnapper, who had taken Huskins bags when he abducted her, had removed them from the car and placed them on the ground. Rappaport said this new evidence still didnt deter police from their theory that Aaron Quinn and Huskins story was too unbelievable to be true. But some of Mullers problems are documented in legal filings in federal and state court. [In] the Dublin home invasion, none of them had blonde hair.. Two incidents from 2009 took place in Palo Alto and Mountain View, and involved an unknown man breaking into the homes of the female victims and threatening to rape them. Carausu said they also discovered Muller was driving a stolen car. Any abnormality he might have shown in college was his drive.. It was later discovered that the kidnapper had called the phone three times. Muller pleaded guilty to the federal kidnapping charge and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. "Despite going to both Pomona and Harvard with him I didn't know him especially well," Helperen wrote in an email. They were ostracized by everyone other than family, he said. Is California a better place to live? He thought that one day Muller would be "sitting behind a desk in an elected capacity, not sitting in a jail cell. What do I do next? she told ABC News Amy Robach. When he was handed his phone, Quinn says a member of his legal team noticed that it had been placed in airplane mode, even though it was the only means of communication with the kidnappers. Matthew Muller Today: Where Is the Gone Girl Kidnapper Now in 2021? The FBI said the suspect then allegedly retrieved Quinn's bank account information from his laptop. He's also been linked by police to home invasions in Dublin and possibly the Peninsula. After kidnapping a Vallejo couple and rapping the woman before releasing her near her familys Southern California home, Matthew Muller was sentenced to prison. He was a U.S. Marine for five years and graduated summa cum laude from Pomona College in California before going to Harvard Law School. Maybe we were into weird sex things and something went wrong.. This is a robbery.. Matthews intended mark was Aaron and his ex-fiance, but it makes no difference because of his actions. Family members of Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, urge the judge to consider the pain caused by . Looking back at all the evidence, there was just no denying that this wasnt his first time committing a crime, she said. Sign Up. Federal prosecutors charged Matthew Muller - a disbarred Harvard University-trained attorney - with the March kidnapping of Denise Huskins from her Vallejo, California, home. A home invasion in Dublin in June led police, and then the FBI, to Muller, through evidence in his car, including goggles with a long blond hair attached. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Quinn said he was placed on the couch and fell asleep. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Gary Silva of Huntington Beach proclaimed the department the dumbest organization in America.. He, in turn, hits the husband upside the head with a Maglite-style flashlight and exits the house, said Dublin police Sgt. On Dec. 4 last year, Healy ordered Muller committed to one of five California state hospitals for a maximum term of two years. After all, the sequence of events was very similar. Melanie Woodrow, an investigative reporter with ABC News Bay Area, talks about covering the story of Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins' home invasion and kidnapping in 2015. When Weldon asked Muller to move so he could park without blocking his wifes access to their driveway, Muller got confrontational, and threatened him. Quinns older brother is an FBI agent, so he decided he would call him instead, but his brother instructed him to immediately call 911. ", "I lie in terror most of the time and can't keep up appearances any longer," the email reportedly said. KPIX reporter Juliette Goodrich didn't include portions of the conversation Muller said were off the record in her television report, according to the station. The suspect at the center of akidnap case out of Vallejo, California, is a smart, determined trumpet player who graduated from Harvard law school the place where he likely began suffering from bipolar disorder, according to documents, friends, family and his lawyer. Rappaport and Russo both went to bat for their clients, even as they endured repeated questioning by the Vallejo police and the FBI. Muller is charged with kidnapping Denise Huskins and boyfriend Aaron Quinn from Vallejo in March. Gavin Newsom likes to bash Texas. Two years before Huskins kidnap, the AP reported Mullers law license was suspended because he failed to pay his annual dues. She attempted to reach the Vallejo police but says she initially did not get a call back. Several weeks later, on Oct. 18, 2009, the FBI says a 32-year-old victim - a Harvard University student studying at Stanford - was sleeping in her Palo Alto apartment when she awoke to an unknown man wearing tight-fitting black clothing straddling her. I knew there was an old stain on my sheet, Quinn said. Huskins' Boyfriend Quickly Reported Her Missing. Matthew Muller, a former attorney, is representing himself. In addition to the Dublin home invasion and kidnap charges, Palo Alto and Mountain View police suspect he may be linked to 2009 robberies in their cities, too, though they havent made any arrests. One of them had just your typical pen-style laser pointer that was duct-taped to it., There were several swim goggles that were duct-taped black, Carausu added. While she waited, her father said he heard the voicemail and got word to the Huntington Beach Police Department. Huskins said the man then told her to walk to the bedroom closet. It just would have been impossible to have been done by one guy, Huskins said. Her daughter, she says, filled that hole. Today, Muller is in the custody of a California jail and in court-ordered mental health treatment, according to his jail records. Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 12 of 27 Steve Reed, a spokesperson for the Muller family spoke to reporters after Matthew Muller plead guilty to the kidnapping of Aaron's . Id washed those sheets multiple times. On Tuesday, federal search warrants obtained by NBC Bay Area show that the FBI seized drones, black night vision goggles, an empty zip tie bag and a blood pressure cuff, among other items. The authorities were able to corroborate the details of Aaron Quinn and Huskins case, even finding Aaron Quinns computer at the South Lake Tahoe cabin, Aaron Quinn said. Quinn had lived with his ex-fiance in that house before their breakup, and she had only recently moved out all of her belongings. They demanded two payments of $8,500, he said. Watch The outbreak of hepatitis in children is unusual and concerning Latest News, Mwai Kibaki Illness & Death Cause: The Former Kenyan President Passed Away. 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