Matthew Muller, 47, the man behind the infamous “Gone Girl” kidnapping, now faces charges for two brutal home invasion sexual assaults from 15 years ago, prosecutors revealed Monday.
In one case from September 2009, Muller allegedly broke into a woman’s home in Mountain View, California, where he attacked her, tied her up, and forced her to take medications. Prosecutors say he threatened to rape the woman, who was in her 30s, but she managed to talk him out of it. Before fleeing, Muller reportedly advised her to get a dog.
The following month, Matthew Muller allegedly broke into another home in Palo Alto, California, where prosecutors say he bound and gagged a woman, forcing her to drink Nyquil. He reportedly began assaulting the woman, also in her 30s, but she managed to convince him to stop, according to authorities.
Muller now faces two felony charges of committing sexual assault during a home invasion, each carrying the possibility of a life sentence. He is already serving a 40-year prison term for the high-profile 2015 kidnapping case.
“The details of this person’s violent crime spree seem scripted for Hollywood, but they are tragically real,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure this defendant is held fully accountable and will never have the chance to harm or terrorize anyone again. We hope this marks the end of a long nightmare.”
Muller’s attorney, public defender Agustin Arias, has declined to comment on the new charges.
Prosecutors say new charges against Matthew Muller emerged after testing evidence from a “new lead.” District attorney criminalists discovered Muller’s DNA on straps he allegedly used to bind one of the victims, officials revealed.
Muller, a disbarred Harvard-educated attorney, is no stranger to high-profile crimes. He pleaded guilty to the 2015 kidnapping of Denise Huskins and, in 2022, was sentenced to 31 years in state prison after pleading no contest to two counts of forcible rape of Huskins.
Huskins was abducted from her boyfriend Aaron Quinn’s home in Vallejo, California, during a chilling home invasion. According to Quinn, a masked intruder broke in, drugged, blindfolded, and tied both of them up before kidnapping Huskins and demanding an $8,500 ransom.
Quinn, however, found himself under suspicion. A Vallejo police detective interrogated him for hours, implying his involvement in Huskins’ disappearance. The couple later revealed in a book that Quinn was subjected to a polygraph test, which an FBI agent claimed he failed.
Denise Huskins, 29 at the time, resurfaced two days after her abduction outside her father’s apartment in Huntington Beach, Southern California. She reported being dropped off there, just hours before the ransom deadline.
However, instead of treating her return as a breakthrough, Vallejo police held a news conference that same day, declaring they had found no evidence of a kidnapping. Authorities accused Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, of staging the abduction, an allegation that sparked a widespread but misplaced search.
Following Denise Huskins’ release, Vallejo police wrongly compared her kidnapping to the plot of Gone Girl, where a woman fabricates her own abduction after disappearing.
That theory unraveled when Matthew Muller was arrested in Dublin, California, for a similar home invasion. During the investigation, authorities traced a cellphone to Muller. A search of his car and home uncovered critical evidence, including a computer stolen from Aaron Quinn, directly tying the disbarred attorney to Huskins’ abduction.
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Evidence found in Matthew Muller’s home, including Aaron Quinn’s stolen laptop, ultimately tied him to Denise Huskins’ kidnapping. His confession aligned precisely with the couple’s accounts, detailing audio recordings, blacked-out goggles, and liquid sedatives used during the crime.
In September 2016, Muller pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping and received a 40-year prison sentence. He also faced state charges, including burglary, robbery, kidnapping, and two counts of forcible rape.
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In November 2020, Matthew Muller was deemed incompetent to stand trial for state charges, reportedly due to “Gulf War illness” from his military service and a bipolar disorder diagnosis, according to NBC News.
In 2022, Muller pleaded no contest to two counts of forcible rape of Denise Huskins and was sentenced to 31 years in state prison. He is currently serving his sentence in a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona.
Huskins and her husband, Aaron Quinn, told People magazine they still don’t know why Muller targeted them. “Like many victims or people who’ve experienced tragedy, you don’t always get all the answers,” Quinn said. “We’ve chosen to move forward, focusing on what truly matters—our family, our kids, and our work—rather than dwelling on the unknown.”