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SEASIDE, Calif. (KRON) — Hundreds of California police officers listened as Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn retold their real-life “American Nightmare” on Thursday.
The law enforcement training event was organized by Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges to learn from blunders made by the Vallejo Police Department after Huskins was kidnapped, raped, and falsely declared a hoaxster. The couple’s story was recently made into a popular Netflix documentary “American Nightmare.”
Huskins cried in front of an audience of police officers while she described in detail what happened nine years ago. Huskins was kidnapped by a masked intruder who broke into her boyfriend’s Vallejo home on March 23, 2015. The kidnapper threw her in the trunk of a car and drugged Quinn until he lost consciousness.
Vallejo police detectives almost immediately zeroed in on Quinn as their prime suspect. One detective interrogated Quinn for hours, peppering him with questions about a love triangle between the missing woman, Quinn, and Quinn’s ex-girlfriend.
“He was asking me question after question about my relationship with Denise. I answer them all, I didn’t hurt Denise. The detective says your story is very elaborate and far-fetched … he says I need to come clean,” Quinn told the audience of officers.
Quinn retold the moment when he realized that police were not searching for Huskins’ kidnapper. Police believed they already had her killer sitting inside their interrogation room, he said. “It’s clear I’m not a victim. I’m a suspect, and the only suspect,” Quinn said.
The detective eventually began calling Quinn a “monster” and “murderer,” interrogation room videos shown in the Netflix documentary revealed.
An FBI agent gave Quinn a polygraph lie detect test. “The FBI agent unhooks me and says ‘There’s no question in my mind that you failed this test.’ (Huskins’ death) was either an accident or I’m a monster.”
“I’m staring at the same four walls wondering if I had a psychotic break,” Quinn said. The interrogations were a classic case of confirmation bias and tunnel vision, he told the audience.
The kidnapper, Matthew Muller, held Huskins in captivity for 48 hours in South Lake Tahoe, raped her twice, and threatened to kill her if she spoke to police after.
She reappeared unharmed outside her parent’s home in Huntington Beach. For a moment, before police and news reporters arrived at the Huntington Beach home, Huskins thought her “nightmare” was over. But it wasn’t.
“I go from one nightmare to the next. There’s a media storm building. Police tell me I’m going to be granted … immunity,” Huskins said. She was confused and wondered, “Immunity from what? I’m the victim of a crime.”
Soon after, the Vallejo Police Department held a press conference. VPD spokesman Kenny Park accused Huskins and Quinn of faking the abduction, which spurred a massive search. Park expressed disgust over the resources supposedly squandered, and the fear it sparked in the community. “It was such an incredible story, we initially had a hard time believing it, and upon further investigation, we couldn’t substantiate any of the things he was saying,” Park told reporters.
Huskins found out about the news conference from her defense attorney. “He tells me, the Vallejo Police Department just held a press conference and they threw you under the bus,” she said.
A member in the audience asked if the couple ever found out why VPD held the controversial news conference. Quinn answered, “The chief of police said there was a lot of pressure from the media, so they needed to tell them something. It was a huge story, there was a lot of coverage.”
The case made national media headlines as the “Gone Girl kidnapping,” in reference to a movie about a woman who faked her own abduction.
Huskins said she believes VPD was also driven by anger toward her, adding, “They were very angry. The chief of police told (Park), ‘Burn that b**ch.’”
After police publicly declared the incident a hoax, Huskins underwent a rape survivor exam and went to the police station for questioning, hoping the give police information that would lead to her kidnapper’s arrest. However, the detective’s “main focus was not to find the truth, but to catch me in a lie,” she said.
Seaside Police Chief Borges stood up in the audience and asked, “Were you guys ever given a proper apology from law enforcement?”
Quinn answered, “The main actors have not, and tried to blame circumstances for their actions.”
Chief Borges then asked the entire audience to stand, and he said, “We are so sorry.” The Seaside Police Department, located more than 100 miles south of Vallejo, was not involved in the Huskins kidnapping investigation. Borges organized the event as a learning opportunity for law enforcement officers from agencies across the Bay Area and Central Coast. Chief Borges said he requires all of his investigators to read the couple’s book, “Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors.”
Borges told the audience, “We gotta be better. Victim shaming and blaming? It’s ridiculous. What are we doing? The book ‘Victim F’ is now mandated in Seaside if you want to be an investigator.”
Quinn said before Muller was caught, the couple battled depression, anxiety, and received hundreds of negative messages through social media.
Muller was arrested on June 8, 2015, in South Lake Tahoe for a home invasion that occurred in Dublin. A Dublin police detective, Misty Carausu, connected evidence seized in Muller’s South Lake Tahoe home connecting him to the Huskins kidnapping case. Evidence included a fake gun with a flashlight, a long blond strand of hair on a pair of goggles, and rape tapes. The goggles and other evidence items matched the story that Quinn and Huskins told Vallejo police.
At Thursday’s training event, Carausu said Vallejo police had no interest in talking to her about their case. She continued calling VPD “like a crazy ex-girlfriend,” Carausu said.
Quinn said, “Misty had compassion and curiosity for finding facts. Misty was relentless, she didn’t give up. If she hadn’t been as persistent, we wouldn’t be here today. She saved our lives.”
Muller later pleaded guilty to the kidnapping. He is currently serving a 40-year prison term for federal crimes, and a 31-year prison term for state crimes.
Huskins and Quinn married in September 2018 and are now parents of two daughters. The couple said they chose to take their “American Nightmare” public and continue sharing their experience to help other victims who are not believed.
Huskins said, “We refuse to live our lives in fear and hiding. We want to make change for our daughters … and others who may be lost in the (criminal justice) system. Our story is an example of the worst in people and the best in people. We have two beautiful daughters, our little ones give us so much joy. We want them to know that you can rise up even when you are knocked down.”
Huskins told the police officers in the audience, “I imagine most of you got into this because you want to help people. You want to be someone’s hero. Misty is ours.”
The couple said law enforcement and the media can improve by approaching people with an open mind. “You don’t know everything. As soon as you say, ‘I don’t believe this person,’ that cuts off the opportunity to find out the truth,” Huskins said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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