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What Is The True Story Behind Netflix's Newest Crime Documentary 'American Nightmare'? Find Out Here
American Nightmare is a three-part series that delves into the 2015 real-life Gone Girl case, an incident where the police refused to believe a woman's abduction was legitimate.
Netflix has released a true-crime documentary, American Nightmare, which is expected to become its next word-of-mouth hit. The documentary follows the success of the platform's previous hit with the same makers, The Tinder Swindler which was released in February 2022.
American Nightmare, a three-part series, explores the real-life Gone Girl case, which involved a woman's abduction and the police's refusal to believe it was legitimate. In 2015, an intruder broke into Denise Huskin's home in California, drugged her, and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn, and abducted Huskins for ransom. When Quinn turned to the police for help, he was shocked to discover he was not believed and was soon suspected of being responsible for her disappearance.
The case was compared to Gone Girl, a 2014 film adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel, featuring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.
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Exploring the true story behind the documentary
Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins narrate the first two episodes of American Nightmare, detailing their perspectives on the night of Huskins' kidnapping. "I remember being asleep and hearing a voice and thinking it was a dream," Huskins told ABC News.
She continued, "But the voice kept talking and I just remember my eyes shot open and I could see the walls illuminated with a white light that was flashing and I could see a couple of red laser dots crossing the wall, and I could hear, 'Wake up, this is a robbery. We’re not here to hurt you.' And in that moment, I just thought, 'Oh my God. This is not a dream.'"
Huskins and Quinn were sedated, bound, and blindfolded. Huskins was taken in Quinn's while Quinn was left inside to deliver a ransom. He was warned about a camera monitoring his movements and that if he contacted the police, the kidnappers would kill Huskins.
In Part One: The Boyfriend, Quinn discusses how he is suspected in the case of Denise Huskins' disappearance and how the police didn't believe his explanation. He shares footage with Vallejo Detective Mathew Mustard, who disagrees with his story and suggests Quinn killed Huskins in a domestic violence dispute. After 18 hours of interrogation, Quinn's brother Ethan hires attorney Dan Russo to secure his release and represent him.
In Part Two: Gone Girl, Huskins recalls that she is kept in a remote location by her kidnappers, who are ex-military members of a criminal group. The kidnapper, Andrea Roberts, is Quinn's ex-fiancée who looks similar to Huskins. Huskins is raped twice by her captor over the next 48 hours who videotaped the assaults.
Huskins was released 400 miles away from her childhood home in Vallejo, California, without ransom. She then went to her father's home, where she was let inside a neighbor's house as her father wasn't home. The same day, Vallejo Police declared her abduction an orchestrated event, forcing Huskins to hire her defense attorney, Doug Rappaport.
"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," Vallejo police spokesperson Lt. Kenny Park said during a press conference. "So, if anything, it is Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins that owe this community an apology."
How was the case solved?
The kidnappers, feeling guilty about Denise Huskins' treatment by law enforcement and the press, sent multiple emails to the San Francisco Chronicle, confirming the couple's truth and providing photos that substantiated Huskins' story.
"We cannot stand to see two good people thrown under the bus by the police and media, when Ms. Victim F (Huskins) and Mr. Victim M (Quinn) should have received only support and sympathy," one email read. "We are responsible for the victims’ suffering and the least we can do is come forward to prove they are not lying."
An attempted kidnapping in Dublin, California, on June 5, 2015, provided a break in the case, as the couple who were threatened managed to thwart an intruder who dropped his phone inside their house during a scuffle. The incident bore striking resemblances to Huskins and Quinn's story.
Dublin police traced the phone to a woman who told them that it belonged to her son, Matthew Muller, a former U.S. Marine and Harvard law school graduate. After searching Muller's South Lake Tahoe cabin, Misty Carausu, one of the officers who took part in the arrest, started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. "Looking back at all the evidence, there was just no denying that this wasn’t his first time committing a crime," Carausu told ABC News. "I just had to figure out where these other crimes occurred."
Muller, who had previously committed similar home invasions, was charged with kidnapping for ransom in Sacramento federal court. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was later charged in Solano County with sexual assault, robbery, burglary, and false imprisonment of Huskins and Quinn, and sentenced to 31 years in state prison. Muller is serving his state sentence concurrently with the federal sentence.
While Huskins and Quinn maintained there was more than one suspect involved, no one but Muller has ever been charged in the case.
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