The FBI now links the case to a Dublin home invasion last month in which a man fought off an intruder. Matthew Mullers mental illness will be most likely used as his defense strategy, said his Sacramento-based lawyer, Thomas Johnson. Watch The outbreak of hepatitis in children is unusual and concerning Latest News, Mwai Kibaki Illness & Death Cause: The Former Kenyan President Passed Away. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? 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. Muller had always been a good student, according to Johnson, who culled his information by meeting his clients family and friends. Huskins' Boyfriend Quickly Reported Her Missing. His parents, Monty and Joyce, are both career educators in the Sacramento area. RELATED: Attorney: Kidnapping victims' family outraged over Vallejo officer's award Matthew Muller is facing federal charges as he is accused of kidnapping Denise Huskins from her boyfriend Aaron . Its unfathomable., What happened here, he said, reflects a systemic hubris that comes with the uniform., Vitriol about the case spilled also over on Facebook. 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 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. Muller also served in the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in El Toro through his stint that lasted from Oct. 2, 1995, to Aug. 8, 1999. The FBI says the victim was connected to Muller because she had attended a 2008 event at Harvard University which he had organized. The same year that Reeves hired Muller, their relationship went south. According to FBI documents, Quinn said the man told Huskins to bind Quinn's hands and feet with zip ties and forced them both into a closet before Huskins was taken to the next bedroom. In that recorded message sent by the kidnappers, Huskins spoke about a recent plane crash, to prove the message wasnt old. Quinn said he was placed on the couch and fell asleep. 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. @ARobach's report shares never-before-seen interrogation video of Aaron following Denise's kidnapping Watch tonight at 9/8c on @ABC. Matthew Muller served as a Marine from 1995 to 1999. Years later, when he was interviewed for a Pomona College publication, he described himself as a classic smart but lazy high school student who lacked discipline and maturity. His family later received . I grabbed my bags and started walking down that alley and I looked at the corner street name and I saw Utica, which is the street that I grew up on.. The suspect made the victim drink a small amount of what she thought was Nyquil, the affidavit states. When police asked if shed been sexually assaulted, she told them she hadnt. 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). Sacramento sheriffs detectives investigating, Man arrested after striking officer with their own Taser holster, Galt police say, Latest car sideshow in Sacramentos Meadowview area ends in arrest, others cited, Half of Sacramentos violent crime is centered in 3 areas. 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. He graduated summa cum laude from Pomona, and received his juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School. Mountain View police didn't immediately return a call for comment from 48 Hours' Crimesider. She told them about Muller, and two FBI agents and a representative from Vallejo police came pretty quickly after that.. They cried and held each other when they finally reunited nearly a week after that terrifying night, Huskins said. Sign Up. The Bees Sam Stanton, Denny Walsh and Ben Egel contributed to this report. He is also survived by his aunts, uncles and cousins, as well. The message received on March 26, 2015, contained explicit details about the kidnapping as well as photos of evidence, even showing the room where Huskins had been held. 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. He traveled to Australia and the United Arab Emirates, among other places. After initially being found mentally incompetent to stand trial, Matthew was ordered to take antipsychotic medication until he was declared mentally competent. Johnson said that Muller grew up with his parents, who divorced sometime after high school. At Bella Vista, Matthew Muller was a high achievement student but was largely unmemorable, said Mary Shelton, his ninth-grade English teacher. Back in California, he attended college and graduated summa cum laude, then entered law school at Harvard, the AP reported. In particularly bizarre cases, cops can find themselves jumping to the conclusion that crimes dont occur this way, said Vizzard, who emphasized he has not studied the Muller case. In December 2020 former Vallejo Police Captain John Whitney filed suit against the city and the police department alleging he was wrongfully terminated for speaking out on a variety of issues that he characterized as misconduct, including ones related to Huskin and Aaron Quinn's case. Matthew Muller, who was sentenced to prison after being convicted of kidnapping a Vallejo couple, has yet to be listed in Wikipedia. He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,250, plus interest. But he was stationed at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, at Camp Pendleton, at the Naval School of Music in Little Creek, Virginia, and at the III Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa, Japan. The intruder escaped but left behind a cellphone that led agents to Muller, who was arrested at the South Lake Tahoe house. The man said it was a robbery, and that he was there for information. Today, with their assailant Matthew Muller in prison, they've chronicled their story in a new book called "Victim F: From Crime Victims, To Suspects, To Survivors." Huskins says that in the end, the couple's experience of trauma and survival is ultimately a love story with a happy ending. Muller has since been charged in Solano County with kidnapping for ransom, two counts of forcible rape, robbery, burglary and false imprisonment. Muller enlisted in the Marines after high school, and ended up in Okinawa, Japan, where he worked for a newspaper off of his base and played trumpet in the Marine Corps band. Quinn told police he heard a noise similar to a stun gun, and then a man, who authorities allege was Matthew Muller, told Huskins and Quinn to lie face down on the bed. He is also survived by his aunts, uncles and cousins, as well as a large extended church family and friends in Christ. accused kidnapper since his arrest was announced by the FBI on Monday. The recording said Quinn would be drugged with what he described as "1/4 a bottle of Diazepam and Nyquil," according to the FBI. Muller is charged with kidnapping Denise Huskins and boyfriend Aaron Quinn from Vallejo in March. "Despite going to both Pomona and Harvard with him I didn't know him especially well," Helperen wrote in an email. Matthews intended mark was Aaron and his ex-fiance, but it makes no difference because of his actions. Carausu said they also discovered Muller was driving a stolen car. How much rain and snow fell in Northern California storm? 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. Matthew Muller, who was already serving a 40-year sentence for federal offences, was sentenced to Solano county superior court, according to the county district attorneys office. 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. The suspect asked the victim questions including her date of birth, mother's maiden name and social security number, according to the FBI. Two years before Huskins kidnap, the AP reported Mullers law license was suspended because he failed to pay his annual dues. 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. 'There was an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence that linked Muller to the crime but now there's direct evidence which is his detailed admission he was the kidnapper that was recorded during your jailhouse interview," Huskins' attorney, Doug Rappaport, told Goodrich Wednesday. According to the District Attorneys office, Muller also admitted to robbery of an occupied house, domestic burglary, and false detention. Huskins borrowed a cellphone from a stranger and called her father, who did not answer. Meanwhile, Huskins reappearance had set off a media firestorm fueled by suggestions that her case bore striking resemblance to the book and film Gone Girl. The fictional story is about a woman who fakes her own disappearance as revenge against her cheating husband. Rappaport said this new evidence still didnt deter police from their theory that Aaron Quinn and Huskins story was too unbelievable to be true. Matthew Muller, 39, of South Lake Tahoe previously pleaded not guilty to a kidnapping charge for the March 23, 2015, incident. Huskins said they were drawn together., I was very conflicted because I obviously was attracted to Denise, Quinn said. Its been six years since the night that Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins awoke in his Vallejo, California, home to a mans voice saying, Wake up. Quinn was let go and Huskins dropped off two days after she was abducted near her familys home in Huntington Beach. Matthew Muller. I said, Yes, the kidnappers drugged me, he said. . Quinn said the officers entered the house and immediately unplugged the camera that the kidnapper had left. During that time, police received a ransom demand of $8,500, in exchange for Huskins' safe return. Heres how to help police stop it, Tesla crashes into Girl Scout table at a Northern California Walmart; 3 people are hurt, Video shows carjacking arrest turn violent, with police firing shots in North Sacramento. They ultimately settled out of court for $2.5 million with no party admitting any wrongdoing. In 2011, an immigration law firm he was working for, Reeves & Associates, sued Muller for allegedly sleeping in their offices and stealing client information and passwords, with the hunch that he wanted to start his own firm. Several days before the Mountain View incident, Muller was interviewed by police after he was seen walking in the area in Palo Alto where a resident said he saw a suspicious person coming out of the back of an apartment building and entering the back of another apartment building. During the time Huskins was missing, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter received an anonymous email with a link to an audio file "stripped of identifying data" that depicts a female voice identifying herself as the kidnapping victim, according to the FBI. 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. Not only was Muller a good student, he was in top physical condition, running five miles a day before class started. Odd behavior got him fired. Huskins said she hoped that the confusion would result in the intruder deciding just to leave them, but that is not what happened. Carausu did a search of Mullers name and found that although he had never been charged, he had been a person of interest in several other incidents in nearby cities. I said, We have evidence thats going to dissipate And they said the most callous thing I think Ive ever heard somebody say from law enforcement, Rappaport said. The cell phone number pointed police to Muller's South Lake Tahoe address and in turn much of the evidence against him in the Vallejo case, according to the FBI. The woman said "she is still alive because she knows of the German airliner that crashed in the French Alps, and that it was in fact her as her first concert she went to was Blink 182," the affidavit states. 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. Dublin Police/Marine Corps First published on September 3, 2015 / 6:08 PM. California cannabis laws to know before you travel, LeBron James, DeAaron Fox, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander injury updates and NBA playoff race, Man, 43, killed in Rio Linda shooting. The comparisons began after Vallejo Police announced that Huskins abduction appeared to be an orchestrated event and not a kidnapping.. 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. Instead, then-Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou wrote a private letter of apology to them, saying in part that it was now clear what happened was not a hoax or orchestrated event and that [Vallejo Police Department[ conclusions were incorrect.. There were these pre-recorded messages, Huskins said, referring to what they heard through the headphones. ", His family later received an automated email in which Muller allegedly stated he had "problems beyond his mental health. Johnson said that Muller grew up with his parents, who divorced sometime after high school. Muller pleaded guilty to the federal kidnapping charge and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. San Francisco judge sentenced the first of two men connected with a plot to bomb the state Democratic Party HQ. Then they continued to question Quinn about what hed been doing before calling for help. However, the physical evidence soon made it apparent that Matthew Muller was their perpetrator. I also didnt trust myself anymore., I could see who Aaron was and the man he was and the good in him, Huskins said. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Quinn and Ms. Huskins have plundered valuable resources away from our community and taken the focus away from the true victims of our community while instilling fear among our community members. And he's had his share of legal troubles, including the time he was accused of sleeping in a law office and stealing client information. When they responded, she says they told her to call the FBI. This story was originally published July 14, 2015, 11:49 AM. Any abnormality he might have shown in college was his drive.. Muller has pleaded not guilty in the Dublin case and plans to plead not guilty in Huskins' case, too, Johnson said. 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. 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. 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