Who is Denise Huskins and what happened to her?
AFTER the police famously dubbed Denise's case as the "Gone Girl" kidnapping, she had trouble getting them to believe she was a victim and a survivor, and not a suspect like they initially believed.
Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn are finally sharing their sides of the story in a three-part documentary series, American Nightmare, streaming exclusively on Netflix beginning January 17, 2024.
Who is Denise Huskins?
Denise Huskins is an American physical therapist, author, and social media personality.
Huskins was born in California in 1987 to Mike Huskins and Jane Remmele.
She graduated from California State University in May 2009, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology and Exercise Science with a minor in Business Entrepreneurship.
Just a few years later, she earned a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Long Island University Brooklyn.
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In 2014, she met her now-husband, Aaron Quinn, in the Bay Area of California.
The duo were both working as physical therapists, with Quinn also specializing as a fitness trainer.
As their relationship progressed, the couple eventually began spending time at each other's homes in Vallejo, California.
In March of 2015, however, the couple's seemingly happy life took a turn.
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It started when Huskins allegedly found suspicious texts between Quinn and his ex-fiancé, Andrea, who also worked with the couple as a physiotherapist.
The texts indicated that Quinn was planning on getting back together with his ex-girlfriend.
Despite Quinn's assurance that he loved Huskins, not Andrea, the couple got into a verbal argument.
On Monday, March 23, 2015, at around 3 am, burglars broke into Quinn's home, claiming that they were robbers.
They reportedly blindfolded Quinn, tied him up using zip ties, and gave him sedatives, leaving him in a drowsy state.
The robbers allegedly told Quinn that they would kidnap Huskins for some time, and ordered him to pay a ransom of around $8,500.
When he awoke the next morning at 11 am on his sofa, Huskins was nowhere to be found.
Quinn immediately called the police to report Huskins' disappearance and the robbery.
Vallejo police officers questioned Quinn for 18 hours about his involvement in the crime, even pressuring him into taking a lie detector test.
Despite his pleas, they didn't believe his story added up, and were adamant that he had something to do with Huskins' disappearance and reported "kidnapping."
What happened to Denise Huskins?
On Tuesday, March 24, 2015, just one day after Huskins was taken from Quinn's home, an audio recording was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle.
In the audio clip, a woman, who identified herself as Huskins, revealed a personal detail about herself and mentioned a plane crash in the French Alps to corroborate when the clip was recorded.
The following day, Huskins was found in the vicinity of her childhood home in Huntington Beach, California.
She walked to her mother's house, but after realizing nobody was home, borrowed a cell phone and left a voicemail on her father's phone.
After leaving the voicemail, Huskins walked over to her father's home, where a nearby neighbor allowed her inside their apartment.
Police officers quickly arrived at the neighbor's apartment and began questioning Huskins, who told the officers that she had been held captive for two days.
Huskins alleged that the kidnapper had threatened her, her family, and Quinn if she revealed that those involved in the abduction were in the military, and if she revealed that she had been raped.
Meanwhile, Huskins' disappearance – and subsequent reappearance – had set off a media firestorm.
Comparisons came flooding in that her case strongly resembled Gillian Flynn's 2012 novel and David Fincher's 2014 film, Gone Girl.
The fictional story describes a woman who fakes her disappearance and kidnapping as revenge against her cheating husband but ultimately comes back home to him.
During a press conference on March 25, 2015, Vallejo police spokesperson Lieutenant Kenny Park suggested that both Huskins and Quinn weren't, as they claimed, victims, but instead suspects.
"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 while instilling fear among our community members," Park said.
"So, if anything, it is Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins that owe this community an apology," Park added.
On March 26, 2015, just one day after the police and the media labeled the case as a hoax, the San Francisco Chronicle received a message, allegedly from the kidnapper himself.
The message included explicit details about Huskins' kidnapping, photos of Huskins, and photos of the room she was held in.
Despite the new evidence, the police stuck to their theory that Huskins and Quinn had orchestrated the entire experience.
Nearly a week after the kidnapping, Quinn and Huskins were reunited.
The surrounding media frenzy and ongoing police investigation made it difficult for them to move on with their lives, as both parties were now considered prime suspects in the case.
Months later, their case received a major break and made police question whether they had unfairly targeted Huskins and Quinn.
On June 5, 2015, police received a report that an attempted home invasion had occurred in Dublin, California, about one hour south of Vallejo.
Details of the break-in were eerily similar to what had occurred at Quinn's home months earlier.
While the burglar – and attempted kidnapper – had managed to escape the home, he had left his phone behind, allowing police to trace it back to a man named Matthew Muller.
Muller was a five-year veteran of the US Marines, a Pomona College California grad, and a former student at Harvard Law School.
Muller's mother led police to the family's South Lake Tahoe cabin, where they found and arrested Matthew Muller.
Upon searching the cabin, police discovered a stolen vehicle, several laptops and cell phones, ski masks, stun guns, replica squirt guns, swim goggles, and a wetsuit.
One of the laptops belonged to Quinn, while the stolen vehicle's GPS included the address where Huskins had been dropped off after her 48-hour kidnapping.
In 2016, Muller pleaded guilty to one count of federal kidnapping and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
While he faced additional charges, including kidnapping, rape by force, robbery, and burglary, in November 2020, he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Where is Denise Huskins now?
Denise Huskins confirmed that it took six years for the Vallejo Police Department to publicly apologize to her and Aaron Quinn for labeling their ordeal as a hoax.
In 2015, former Vallejo Police Chief Andrew Bidou did write a private letter to the couple, saying he understood that what happened to the pair was "not a hoax or orchestrated event" and that the police department's "conclusions were incorrect."
In 2016, Huskins and Quinn filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Vallejo and the Vallejo Police Department, alleging a number of claims, including defamation.
They settled out of court, with no party admitting any wrongdoing.
Huskins and Quinn were, however, awarded a $2.5 million settlement.
In 2018, Huskins and Quinn officially tied the knot in Monterey, California, after getting engaged in 2017.
According to ABC 7 News, the couple's first song was Dierks Bentley's Riser.
"It's very much about overcoming a tragedy and rising like a phoenix from the ashes," said Quinn.
The couple welcomed their first child together in March 2020, a daughter named Olivia.
Their second child, a daughter named Naomi, was born in 2022.
In the documentary series, streaming exclusively on Netflix, both Huskins and Quinn opened up about their family.
“I want them to know their value and to never let anyone dictate that or determine that for them,” Huskins said.
“More than anything, I just hope that they grow up to be like their mom. And if they do that, they’ll be okay," Quinn added.
In 2021, the couple also released a book, Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors.
That same year, the Vallejo Police Department finally issued a public apology to the couple.
"What happened to Ms. Huskins and Mr. Quinn is horrific and evil," then-Chief Shawny Williams said in the statement.
"As the new Chief of Police, I am committed to making sure survivors are given compassionate service with dignity and respect."
"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," Williams finished.
Today, Huskins and Quinn have largely moved on from the trauma they endured, and are focused on raising their two daughters.
Their story is also the subject of a Netflix documentary series, American Nightmare, which premiered on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.
“It didn’t make any sense to have law enforcement — the people who have the power to investigate and to help — just turn against you."
"It made it that much more frightening,” Huskins told Tudum.
“It was just layers upon layers, and then finding out what evidence they had at the time that they did not use, they could have saved me."
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"There was just so many layers of betrayal and injustice," she added.
“I don’t know what needs to happen to me, to any woman,” Huskins says in the documentary series, “to be believed.”