The Real-Life Gone Girl: Denise Huskins Vallejo Kidnapping Story

[00:00:02] Throw in a couple going through a bit of a rough patch, a man who's been caught messaging his ex and a woman who's unsure if she can trust him. The police, they think they've seen this one before. Except this story isn't fiction. This is serious shit. Aaron thinks it's a dream until lights were shining in his eyes and there's red laser dots dancing across the room. Then the unmistakable sound of a taser. They say to him if you tip anyone off, Denise dies.

[00:00:30] Aaron thinks it's a real mess. But the fact that these guys are in wetsuits is also really weird. Aaron's voiceover And that is the thing that makes me think this is fake. Aaron's voiceover They say, don't call the police, don't touch the thermostat. Aaron's voiceover He's been kidnapped by a bunch of dads. Aaron's voiceover A detective leans in and says, there's no question in my mind you strangled Denise and dumped her body. Aaron's voiceover I've never felt so torn in a story we've ever done. It just sounds so bizarre.

[00:01:25] Aaron's voiceover She sells seashells on the seashore. The seashells that she sells are seashells, I'm sure. Aaron's voiceover No, that's so old school. What they do in the new kids. They go, spatula. Spatula. You're supposed to like really whining. Aaron's voiceover Spatula. Aaron's voiceover Yeah. Aaron's voiceover Speaking whale. Aaron's voiceover That's how whales speak. Everyone knows that's their language. It's called spatula. Spatula.

[00:01:54] Aaron's voiceover Right, should we run the intro? Aaron's voiceover Welcome to The Compendium, an assembly of fascinating things. A weekly variety podcast that gives you just enough information to stand your ground at any social gathering. Aaron's voiceover We explore stories from the darker corners of true crime, the annuls of your old unread history books and the who's who of extraordinary people. Aaron's voiceover I'm your ringmaster for this episode, Adam Cox. Aaron's voiceover And I'm Kyle Reesey, your chief hostage negotiator for the mime enclosure. Aaron's voiceover We need one of them.

[00:02:23] Aaron's voiceover Yeah, I mean we haven't heard from them in days, but they are calm. They're calm, they're fine, it'll be fine. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. Aaron's voiceover We're soon.

[00:02:46] Aaron's voiceover And for as little as $3 a month, you'll become a fellow freak of the show. And that will unlock our entire backlog, including classic episodes like Amelia Earhart, and we've got the Turpin family, and we've got all sorts of things. Aaron's voiceover And as a special thank you, our certified freak tier members now receive an exclusive compendium keychain. Just DM us your address, and we'll send one straight to your door. So we can always be…

[00:03:14] Aaron's voiceover Dangling near your crotch. Aaron's voiceover Absolutely. Aaron's voiceover So ragged, so wrong. Kids listen to the show. A freak wrote in on Instagram saying that we should absolutely do a kids' version because, like, her kids love it. Aaron's voiceover Yeah. Aaron's voiceover But the thing is, though, that's very pointed because she's saying, you need to stop being so dirty, basically. And, yeah, do a kid-friendly version. Aaron's voiceover I think most of the content is friendly. It's just, you know, you start effing and jeffing.

[00:03:41] Aaron's voiceover I know. I know. The thing is, though, I try to edit this swear words out because it really helps me get the emphasis behind it. But then I try to edit them out. And then sometimes you can't edit them out. It sounds really rubbish when you do. Aaron's voiceover Yeah. And then we also do talk about some horrendous topics. So I don't know. I don't think we can edit that. But yeah, we'd love to do a kids' version. Aaron's voiceover Can you imagine? Aaron's voiceover So we just need a few more Patreon members.

[00:04:02] Aaron's voiceover Do you remember in the early days when we used to have this little segment where, like, we would have- I can't even remember what it was called. But basically, I would mention something. I'd be like, do you know what that is? And you'd be like, no, I have no idea. And then I would go into this whole thing where I'd try and explain it like you're five years old. Aaron's voiceover Mm-hmm. Aaron's voiceover Do you remember how cringe that was? Aaron's voiceover Yeah, that was a long time ago. Aaron's voiceover Maybe we should bring that back. Aaron's voiceover Let's not. Aaron's voiceover For the kids' version. Aaron's voiceover Oh, I guess we're in on a tangent then.

[00:04:26] Aaron's voiceover And guys, lastly, please do follow us on your favourite podcasting app and leave us a review. Your support really helps others find the show and keeps these amazing stories coming. But also, if you have a comment on one of the advertisers like Wix and how, like, they go against your policies and it's got nothing to do with the actual show and content, please just keep that to yourself because that one star review really plummets our score and is really unfair. Aaron's voiceover Was that a bit of a rant? Aaron's voiceover Wow, someone is bitter.

[00:04:55] Aaron's voiceover I am so angry this morning. Like, Jesus, what's wrong with some of you guys? Aaron's voiceover I mean, I don't know. That's something we'll have to pick up with our… Aaron's voiceover No, I will have to pick this up with that reviewer. You wanna go? You wanna go? Come on, then. Aaron's voiceover Listen, guys. Like, I get it. Palestine and Israel, it's a big topic. But you know what? You have to really pick your battles. I'm already advocating for gay rights and trans rights. I can't. Aaron's voiceover You have to be a fan fight for everything. So just calm down.

[00:05:25] Aaron's voiceover If anyone needs to calm down, I think it's you. Aaron's voiceover I think it's me. Aaron's voiceover Okay, enough of the housekeeping because it's time to dive into today's story. So Kyle, today on the compendium, we're diving into an assembly of blindfolds, betrayal, and the long road to justice. Aaron's voiceover Ooh, I have no idea what that means. Betrayal. Long road to justice. What could this possibly mean, Adam?

[00:05:48] Aaron's voiceover Okay. So it goes without saying, based on the number of cases and stories we've covered on the compendium, that relationships can be messy. You've got exes who don't let go. You've got partners who keep secrets and then jealousy that's just beneath the surface. Aaron's voiceover Yeah.

[00:06:03] Aaron's voiceover Now throw in a couple going through a bit of a rough patch, a man who's been caught messaging his ex, and a woman who's unsure if she can trust him. And what do you get? Well, if you're the Vallejo Police Department, you've got a Gone Girl style disappearance that's just a little too convenient. Aaron's voiceover Are we doing Gone Girl? I thought that was a fictional story. Aaron's voiceover The movie is a fictional story, but this case got compared to the Gone Girl film because of what happens. So a girlfriend vanishes. A boyfriend fumbles.

[00:06:32] Aaron's voiceover He doubles his way through a strange story, and the police, they think they've seen this one before, except this story isn't fiction. Over the next hour-ish, we're going to untangle a story that on the surface seemed too strange to be true, a late night disappearance, a boyfriend with a slightly murky past, and a trail of clues that had everyone from the media to the police asking all the wrong questions. It's a case where nothing is quite what it seems. And the truth? Well, the truth takes its sweet-ass time in showing up.

[00:07:01] Aaron's voiceover But it's worth it, I promise. Aaron's voiceover The way you've set that up feels a bit like an escape room. It reminds me a bit like the scavenger hunt that Brian Wells went through, the Peterbomb collar guy. So that's the vibes I'm getting right now. Aaron's voiceover Yeah, we're going to have some twists, we're going to have some turns. Aaron's voiceover The thing is, though, do you know what? I have this vague memory of maybe starting to research this story about Gone Girl. It involves a woman called Denise Huskins, right? Aaron's voiceover That's right, yep. Aaron's voiceover I've got nothing. Aaron's voiceover You've got nothing.

[00:07:30] Aaron's voiceover I'm sure I started researching this, or I was going to do the show or the episode, I don't know. Aaron's voiceover Well, hopefully you've forgotten all about that. Aaron's voiceover I hope so. Aaron's voiceover Because buckle up, on today's compendium, we are covering the disappearance of Denise Huskins, the woman nicknamed the real-life Gone Girl. Aaron's voiceover Ooh, I'm so excited, Adam. Aaron's voiceover Okay. So our story starts with Aaron Quinn. He's just put down the phone. He's done the one thing he was told not to do. Aaron's voiceover Oh, he's called the police. Aaron's voiceover Shit. Aaron's voiceover He lives on Mare Island in Vallejo, California.

[00:08:00] Aaron's voiceover So where is Vallejo? Aaron's voiceover California. Aaron's voiceover Oh, so sorry. I am listening. Aaron's voiceover It's going to be a long episode. Aaron's voiceover So just moments ago, he reported something terrifying, a break-in. Someone had entered his home in the middle of the night while he and his girlfriend, Denise Huskins, were asleep. It was around 3am, and they were jolted awake by a voice saying, wake up, this is a robbery. Aaron's voiceover What's her name? Aaron's voiceover Denise Huskins Aaron's voiceover Denise Huskins

[00:08:27] Aaron's voiceover Now you should probably say, Denise, I've mentioned it five times. Aaron's voiceover Denise. Denise, Denise, Denise, Denise. Aaron's voiceover Denise Good old Phoebe. You don't get that many Denises anymore. Aaron's voiceover No, you don't. Aaron's voiceover Do you? And I was shocked that it is Dennis with an E. Aaron's voiceover When I was typing it out, when I was first researching, I was like, oh, this is just Dennis with an E. Aaron's voiceover It is. Aaron's voiceover And I was really surprised. Aaron's voiceover That's how they get people to spell it. How do you spell it? Aaron's voiceover Oh, it's Dennis with an E. Aaron's voiceover Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Yeah, it's Dennis with an E.

[00:08:53] Aaron's voiceover Okay, Aaron and Denise, they've just been woken up by a guy saying this is a robbery. So at first, Aaron thinks it's a dream until lights were shining in his eyes and there's red laser dots dancing across the room. So someone has a weapon. Then the unmistakable sound of a taser. So he tries to make sense of it all, but this feels really serious. Aaron's voiceover Yeah. Aaron's voiceover He thinks that there may have been about three people in the room. He wasn't really too sure. I mean, he's still half asleep.

[00:09:18] Aaron's voiceover There's only one guy that does most of the talking and that guy seemed to be the leader and they're ordered to lie face down. Face down, ass up! Aaron's voiceover Yeah. Aaron's voiceover Denise bays immediately, but Aaron freezes until one of them says his name. Oh. Aaron's voiceover And just like that, it hits him. This wasn't random. They knew who he was and it was premeditated. And so he's starting to ask himself, what? Why me? Why are they coming after me? What did I do? Ah, God, okay. Aaron's voiceover Okay.

[00:09:46] Aaron's voiceover So then it gets even more surreal. The intruder tells Denise to zip tie Aaron's wrists and the plastic starts to dig into his skin because it's pretty tight. And then the intruders then tie up Denise. They then place blacked out swim goggles over Aaron's eyes and headphones. And it starts playing this bizarre recording, which starts with the sound of wind chimes. And then a calm pre-recorded voice tells them that they're going to check his vitals and give him a sedative to keep him calm.

[00:10:14] Aaron's voiceover Okay. Let's hold up there. This sounds very elaborate. So this isn't just someone laser dots darting around everywhere. All right. This is no little kind of back alley gun that they've gotten. This is serious shit. That's a lot of money. They have got a recording ready. They're going to check his fucking vitals.

[00:10:35] Aaron's voiceover Tell me about Aaron. Is he a wealthy guy? Because it feels like the stakes are high here. If you are someone who's got all these weird guns with these laser dots and you are going to be giving someone a sedative, you've prepared a recording, this isn't just random that they're broken and they're going to rob him. Aaron's voiceover Okay. So Aaron's profession and Denise's, to be fair, I think, are both physiotherapists. Aaron's voiceover That doesn't sound like... Aaron's voiceover That doesn't sound like... Aaron's voiceover They're rich. Aaron's voiceover Yeah, it's not richy, rich, rich. Aaron's voiceover Yeah. Aaron's voiceover Interesting. Aaron's voiceover Yeah.

[00:11:03] Aaron's voiceover Yeah. Okay. We can jump to that part, but yeah. Aaron? Yeah. He's not that wealthy or anything like that. And so for him, he's like, why? What is going on? Yeah. Aaron's voiceover Yeah. Because you're right. It's very elaborate. It feels very serious. This is a very targeted attack. Who are these people? Aaron's voiceover Yeah. Aaron's voiceover So they tell them they're going to give him a sedative. They say he can take it by mouth or they can eject it. Aaron's voiceover Well, they can take it. Aaron's voiceover Not a suppository note. Aaron's voiceover Damn it. Is that not an option? Aaron's voiceover The drug is a mix of NyQuil, which is a bit like night nurse for meds, and then diazepam.

[00:11:32] the tranquilizer oh i love a bit of diazepam just like just like victoria from uh white lotus she's such an icon i hope we see more of her she better be back for series four without the rest of the family just bring back her just her so aaron he starts to shiver maybe from fear maybe from the cold and then something really odd happens the main guy the one in charge he says oh i forgot how cold it is in here we're in wetsuits let me get you a blanket what it's a really odd behavior

[00:12:01] right you've got the kidnapper who could be potentially trying to kill him and then he's offering him a blanket to keep him warm but aaron's not in a wetsuit aaron's not in a wetsuit but the fact that these guys are in wetsuits is also really weird um maybe it's to avoid leaving any dna any hair fibers no fingerprints so again very planned so do they live in the water or something why are they in wetsuits have they swam out to this house and then like they've got like a dock at the bottom of their garden no it's just a house in the road this is fucked up do you know what best

[00:12:31] disguise ever wetsuits like i said it's maybe it's to try and contain all the like you know don't drop any hair and leave any traces of dna that's the reason i assume it's so elaborate isn't it and also if you're in a wetsuit and you're not in water it's very sweaty is it yeah i don't know i only wear a wetsuit for when i'm going in the water i don't really wear it for general attire like you clearly are no one does well then how do you know it's really when you're walking down to the beach i went to the sea then you get a little bit sweaty anyway so denise has been moved

[00:13:01] into another room away from aaron so they're both kept separate the intruder comes back into the room and he says to aaron there's been a problem this abduction was meant for andrea what andrea was aaron's ex-fiancé wow okay so wrong target yeah so aaron and andrea they had lived together once but had broken up a few months earlier so it's clear that aaron was the target and andrea and denise she just got caught in the crossfire and that's really irresponsible of him because like

[00:13:30] he is clearly moved on far too quickly like how long should you wait before breaking up before like bringing another woman back to your house we'll get into what went on with them in just a bit but whoever had planned this had clearly been watching aaron's house for quite a while maybe they thought denise was andrea some say the two women looked alike they were both blonde similar build but whatever the reason the kidnappers decide that it doesn't matter they're just going

[00:13:54] to take denise anyway yeah so the motive is finally revealed over the headphones the voice says that they want fifteen thousand dollars oh so is money it is money but but it's small fry considering like the elaboration all this is exactly fifteen thousand dollars and all this that doesn't seem right i'm gonna say it sounds like a ruse that's a cover yeah and as we said like aaron's not rich he's

[00:14:19] just a regular average guy so physiotherapy rich yeah the voice keeps talking and recites details from aaron's life where he grew up where his parents lived so as a clear warning they knew everything about him they say don't call the police don't touch the thermostat leave the house exactly as it is he's been kidnapped by a bunch of dads i don't know why is it maybe they're concerned about his energy bill maybe

[00:14:51] uh they tell him they have installed cameras and if he steps outside they'll know oh outside of the house they've installed they're lying fifteen thousand dollars and they've installed cameras outside okay okay dad that probably is the cost of the cameras they just want their money back this is so dumb so they say to him if you tip anyone off denise dies they give him a to-do list

[00:15:16] for the next day you have to call in sick for both you and denise keep your phones close we'll be in touch and before leaving the kidnappers lead aaron to the living room couch they hand him some scissors to free himself later when it's safe to do so uh they leave two phones on the counter and then they're gone so moments later aaron hears his car starting so he assumes they're getting away in his car they're taking denise and before he can really sort of process what to do next the sedatives kick in and

[00:15:43] he passes out oh god will he remember all this tomorrow especially calling in for denise i mean that is one way to sound the alarm because everyone knows if you are sick you call in yourself you don't get like adam to call in go oh hi um kyle's boss um yeah he can't come in today can we speak to kyle please and like no he can't come to the phone that sends off the alarms right as an adult that's quite strange exactly and what that ends up doing is your boss then ends up just checking you

[00:16:11] out on social media checking out what you're doing where you were last night and they could put things two and two together and they might get wind there something's up and then send the police so these dads with these thermostats i don't know what they're doing this sounds so strange to me and i get why this is such a compelling story because it's weird right yeah i'm surprised if you started researching this and you got to this bit you'd be like what is oh no i do remember now i think i read

[00:16:37] a vanity fair article on it but i only remember bits of it so it's coming back but these details are compelling i clearly was skimming it so aaron wakes up around 5 a.m he's still tied up obviously he's in the same spot denise is gone this is all real it hasn't been a dream there's a camera pointed straight at him and there's red tape that's been stuck to the floor boxing him into a small space and i think the idea is that he's not allowed to cross that red tape line otherwise the cameras

[00:17:05] will capture it and the intruders are going to be spying on him so he's been given these strict controls to stay where he is but how's he going to call in to him how's he going to call in sick i think that it's close enough for that he can the area is enough like him to go get the phones and and he just has to stay in there until they get the money essentially yeah i think the intruders actually even say to him you can leave to go to the toilet that's fine but you have to come back to this straight back which this is the really weird thing there's another instance of these weird rules

[00:17:34] where they're like it's really strict yeah but then this is okay i know it's so weird so he's drifts in and out of sleep and then buzz that he hears a text from the phone and it's an email the kidnappers are keeping their word they say denise is safe and they want seven and a half thousand dollars from two different accounts so there's no red flags to the bank and then they say that they want the money tonight or first thing in the morning that's fine it's just another example of them going what yeah are you serious about this or there's a bit of leeway yeah why be so forceful

[00:18:03] and it doesn't work well for your credibility right yeah if you say we want the money tonight bitch but if you can't do that tomorrow's fine yeah it's fine don't stress about it don't put yourself out um so yeah it's just another example which there's a few of these as we go on in the story so aaron springs into action he calls the bank the credit card company anyone who might be able to get him that money but the fastest turnaround is the next business day ah in the morning yeah exactly so he's got a little bit of time yeah uh he tells the kidnappers that he can get three and a

[00:18:33] half thousand today but there's no response the time is ticking he's panicking he's not getting a response after his offer and now he's really afraid for denise he knows his phone is being spied on i think because the cameras are watching him so he's a bit worried that his phone's been bugged i think at this point in time and he can't bring himself to call 911 just yet so his second plan is to call his brother ethan who is an fbi agent and aaron explains everything that's just happened and

[00:19:00] ethan gives him one answer he didn't want to hear just call the police now wow but like he's an fbi agent i am calling the police i'm calling you he's like well i'm i'm not at work today no but i think he just said yeah you need to follow the processes this is serious you can't get around this but the thing is though the kidnappers or the dads have said don't call the police so what if that ends up getting denise killed well this is what aaron is thinking like his brother has suggested

[00:19:29] that and he trusts his brother and what else is he gonna do i guess at this point he's panicking who do i listen to do i listen to my brother who's an fbi agent or do i listen to these weird dads yeah and so he does call the police and he says that's one of the hardest decisions he's ever had to do in his life you've been with denise for three months but i think he was like he was concerned that phone call was going to kill denise fair the police arrive at his mare island home and they look

[00:19:53] around for evidence and start asking questions such as why did it take you so long to report this aaron explains that he was drugged and that he's warned not to of course and of course he thought for several hours that following the instructions he was given was the only way to keep denise alive still the questions keep coming did he and denise drink last night did they take drugs and maybe this is all standard protocol but to aaron it felt like they didn't believe him yeah like he was

[00:20:20] already a suspect so he's taken to the police station to give a full statement and it's been nearly 10 hours since denise had vanished and then they take his phone the very one the kidnapper said that they'd used to contact him they yeah we'll come on to that later because that's important they swab his mouth for dna and they take his clothes for evidence they give him jail clothes just until they've done sort of processing everything and they say like you're still a victim technically but the tone

[00:20:47] had shifted something felt off to aaron yeah that's the thing though like normally in these situations it's the boyfriend right or the person involved or the girlfriend yeah there's a generalized women can kill too so i guess they're just following protocol so the main detective a guy called matt mustard he meets it's not a cluedo character okay let's not dwell on that let's just ignore it it didn't happen okay he meets with aaron and aaron's ready to cooperate he wants to help he tells them

[00:21:16] everything how denise was taken the ransom the warnings the tapes everything and even that the kidnapping was meant for his ex andrea now andrea had only moved out a few months earlier she and aaron had been engaged but the relationship fell apart and then aaron met denise at work in fact all three of them pretty much work in the same unit oh no so they're all working together in the same hospital and denise and aaron start talking it's friendly chats then there's a bit of a spark and

[00:21:44] they start dating but emotionally aaron was still reeling from his breakup like i say it's only been a few months and so the relationship or at least when aaron started to date denise it had its ups and downs pretty early on they took frequent breaks they kept coming back together and denise had this feeling that aaron wasn't completely over his ex and then she finds out that aaron had been secretly messaging andrea and it was a huge blow which caused a rift between aaron and denise sure i mean i get

[00:22:13] it they were engaged all right we don't know why they broke up i guess they haven't made that public but they broke up and it sounds like it wasn't on aaron's terms i think that's right i think andrea had broken up with aaron if i recall should be wrong is denise involved so the fact that what happened with aaron and andrea definitely sparked some questions from the police

[00:22:38] side is kind of like well actually this is some jealousy going on here yeah we'll come on to exactly what they think in a bit the only thing that's made me think that maybe denise is involved is the fact that you talked about this breakup everything else seems so bizarre that i would if i was police i'd be looking at aaron specifically yeah because and that's what they're doing at this point they don't suspect denise has anything to do with this no they just think it's something's gone wrong and they

[00:23:02] think it's it's aaron so with denise and aaron because of him messaging andrea there were weeks would gone by and they perhaps weren't sure what to do as a couple but finally on march the 22nd 2015 denise comes over to aaron's house they spend the night talking apologizing crying and aaron tells her that he'd started therapy and that he wanted to make things work with denise so yeah he was still struggling and trying to get over andrea but wanted to have a future with denise he was committed to

[00:23:31] that now so they went to bed that night quite hopeful for the future trying to forgive trying to heal but a mere few hours later as if by some weird coincidence now that they'd started to fix things between each other they had their break-in and denise is kidnapped maybe it's andrea so police are trying to piece it all together how did the intruders even get in because there's no signs of forced entry no doors are kicked in no broken windows and one officer even jokes did they swim in with

[00:23:57] their wetsuits yeah so weird in the middle of the street yeah so it just seems like they're not taking this seriously or at least the the story that aaron has given them andrea aaron's ex is also brought in for questioning and she admits that the relationship ended badly after she had cheated oh okay aaron says he'd still hope to win her back and then that's when things got complicated andrea worked at the same hospital with aaron denise denise had already asked aaron to cut off ties with

[00:24:26] andrea denise felt like it was emotional cheating essentially and aaron's doing his best to be honest with the police but to them the whole story sounds too strange the wetsuits the sedatives the ransom for 15k and then this long delay before calling the police and then this drama with the ex it just didn't add up yeah that's the thing though like this sounds bizarre and the details could sound bizarre but until one piece makes sense then all the other pieces fall into place and i think that's what

[00:24:52] we're missing and i think i think it's sitting there with andrea or denise or aaron or the police i don't think he's involved but the police at this moment in time they don't think they're looking for a missing woman in fact they're looking for a body is what they're thinking oh so they think denise is dead yeah and they're and they're looking at aaron but they push hard they even get him to do a polygraph test and afterwards a detective leans in and says there's no question in my mind you

[00:25:18] failed this test oh your family is going to try and defend you but you'll lose their respect you're going to be this cold calculated monster who strangled denise and dumped her body somewhere did he fail the test or is this like a tactic for the police to say it's very clear you failed this test to try and make him break but actually he passed the test i can't remember if he passed it or not but it's a very good intuition you got there because are they just trying to force a confession out of

[00:25:46] we see it time and time again where the police they just get this idea that you must be guilty and then they just follow every line inquiry to try and prove that exact thing and very often it just ends up derailing the case yeah and it's i guess an interrogation tactic which is allowed but i think the issue is when there is this bias and it's not backed up with any evidence so aaron is stunned because this is just not what he's expecting he's just had denise kidnapped and everything else so he asked

[00:26:15] for a lawyer because to him he realizes okay they're making me the fall guy it's now the next day and there's been a press conference the media reports denise is missing but they don't mention aaron is a suspect although the police have hinted that to denise's family and then everything changes because that afternoon the newsroom at san francisco chronicle gets an email the subject line is denise

[00:26:38] okay there's an audio clip attached and they play it it says my name is denise huskins i'm kidnapped otherwise i'm fine okay she references a plane crash which happened in the alps that morning as a way to prove the message is current and that she's alive essentially oh interesting okay the thing is though journalists the police they're stunned is it real is it actually denise she sounds very calm

[00:27:04] maybe too calm yeah is this a hoax so no one's really sure what to believe but one thing is certain the police were not expecting to get this tape once they receive that it's verified that it is her she must be alive or was alive at least and so to aaron he is relieved because he now thinks finally they're going to actually turn their attention to finding the people that kidnapped her interesting detective matt mustard is back on the scene he's now searching for denise and he's busy

[00:27:31] questioning her family asking how many boyfriends she's had if she drinks a lot why is that relevant how many boyfriends have you had how many men have you let nail you why is that relevant i don't know if he says it quite like that that's what they're getting at yeah would they ask him how many women he's nailed no no exactly what is it implying that she is hysterical because she's had too much dick so she is hysterical is that what they're saying they're trying to dig up dirt is what yeah i think

[00:27:59] you're trying to say in a roundabout way i'm just i just get so mad then it's back to aaron there's more questions they probe into the state of his relationship with denise and if she knew how much money he had but the thing is the police aren't acting like this is a kidnapping still they're acting like denise might have staged the whole thing yeah yeah yeah she's station all because i guess that's why they're asking like because of what happened with you and your ex has she staged this

[00:28:26] whole disappearance in order to get back at you that is their line of thinking at this moment yeah i'm with them that makes sense interesting oh that makes you question it now okay let's see what happens next because just 48 hours since denise had vanished a home security camera picks up a figure walking calmly up the road in a wetsuit not in a wetsuit no it's denise though okay she's carrying a

[00:28:54] small overnight bag she's wearing a hoodie and she's heading straight for her parents house and that is 400 miles from where she was taken oh so it's a sherry pepini situation maybe but sherry pepini hadn't actually happened at this point this was before sherry pepini aaron is stunned and relieved of course because yes denise is alive she made it and the news spreads fast she appears uninjured

[00:29:18] there's no bruises no blood but she's clearly hiding overwhelmed perhaps by the attention then the fileo police hold a conference and instead of celebrating her return they say that they can't verify any of aaron's claims and worse they accuse both denise and aaron of wasting police resources what the fuck is happening well to them they think this thing is a whole setup the whole thing is

[00:29:42] why and how i don't get it well why would a kidnapper just drop off their victim at their parents house exactly but i'm confused that's good you're supposed to be okay good and then this audio clip of denise which was sent earlier she sounded really calm too calm and so the police they're just not buying it and then the press kind of follow that kind of story as well and they start publishing these stories they think it's been a wild goose chase and that the whole thing's staged and some

[00:30:11] even compare it to the film gone girl which is what a lot of the news reporters say and based on the storyline of that film if you remember it's a thriller where a woman fakes her own disappearance because she catches her husband cheating i think and frames him for murder so it sounds very much potentially like that case okay hot take revelation i've not actually seen gone girl have you not there's some side peen of ben affleck in it oh is there if you um side peen yeah if you uh

[00:30:40] adjust the contrast i remember the first time i ever saw a penis on television and um and with side peen that was very exciting it was patrick swayze in dirty dancing where there's a shot where he gets out of bed and the covers fling off you kind of don't really see anything but when you're like 11 years old and you're secretly gay and desperate for peen any side peen will do it was the most thrilling

[00:31:06] moment of my life and i remember like freaking out and then i told my sister and she was like freaking out as well and then she was like why are you freaking out so much and you're like i don't know yeah my friends are okay but also going back to i've not seen gone girl so what you've just said is just a massive spoiler to me so she has framed aaron for this kidnapping she's trying to frame him that's what the police are thinking at this moment in time but if that's what gone girl is about that's what's happened right yeah and that's why she's called the real life gone girl

[00:31:36] i thought honestly that gone girl the film was based on this story but it sounds like the film came first and then yeah denise huskins arrived that's right i think the film was released about a year before this incident happened i see and they think she was inspired by this story so the media start to shift its focus they're suggesting denise isn't being cooperative that she's hiding out that she's lawyered up all these things that suggest that i guess she's guilty denise does get a lawyer though

[00:32:04] because she realizes shit i'm gonna need a lawyer when she recounts her version of events it lines up exactly with what aaron had said so that means there's two possibilities at this point either they're both in on it or the kidnapping really did happen yeah and they refuse to believe that the kidnapping really happened yeah and the kidnapping could have happened but was it staged so denise agrees to speak to the police and detective matt mustard is back and he's polite on the surface but clearly very skeptical

[00:32:31] of what denise is saying just like aaron denise tells him everything she explains the rocky start to her relationship with aaron and then walks through the events of what happened that night she remembers the exact moment she realized someone was in the house and that feeling of being like frozen she couldn't scream or fight instead she just switched into survival mode to kind of stay quiet observe what was going on gather anything that might help them stay alive and then it comes to the bit about being kidnapped

[00:32:59] she remembers being moved first into aaron's car and then switched into a second vehicle okay she is pretty alert and switched on as she recognizes the engine and thinks it might have been a mustang but it's a very specific event but like i say she's trying to catch on to any clues that might help sure and she's clearly watched or listened to a hell of a lot of true crime podcasts where they say like if you get kidnapped a number one do not leave location one if you get moved to location two is bad news but

[00:33:27] if you do then you've got to be just alert with everything you've got to be really observant with sounds voices like smells anything that will give us clues i think i remember hearing a story about a woman who got kidnapped and when she finally managed to get to the police she had told them i'd been kidnapped and she said i remember counting like 64 street lamps on the way to where i ended up and from that they were able to track where she traveled that night and all the street lamps that she would

[00:33:57] have seen going to go through that's the light coming through the window yeah isn't that crazy so being really observant can really save your life yeah and that's exactly what denise does although she can't see anything she's got the blindfold on and she's in this trunk but she counts every time the car turns left or right she's counting those turns to give some indication if she ever gets to speak to someone about where her location might be so she's smart but also makes me think that she's credible

[00:34:24] credible or thought this through or she's watched me in two questions possibly yeah so she's listening to like the the motorway noise and things like that but the drugs that they're now pulling her under and she drifts in and out of sleep so she's trying her best to stay awake but she just can't fight it anymore then she's jolted awake when the car stops she's pulled out and laid on the ground the kidnapper says stay there i need to clean up a little bit these dads are weird denise doesn't

[00:34:51] think that's weird she just thinks oh god they're probably cleaning up after the last victim again just a little bit weird but you know she has to wait outside and then she's taken inside wherever this is okay she's left in a room and she hears someone in the next room and the sound of duct tape tearing and something being scrubbed and then every horror movie just flashes you know through her mind because she's like what the hell has happened in the other room he takes her out of

[00:35:15] one room and then leads her through a doorway and so she can feel carpet at first then tile then she's into a bedroom and onto a bed and he sits beside her and then he speaks this wasn't meant for you it was supposed to happen to aaron's ex andrea okay so that's what she's telling police yeah wow okay and so she's stunned and she's shit why did you pick on me then the man claims he's part of this black market group they are trained to kidnap people for ransom and he tells her that aaron has

[00:35:43] instructions to bring the money and she'll be released in 48 hours okay and does she know at this point why andrea has been targeted does she get any clues or information as to why no just be honest they're targeting aaron for money that's kind of it sounds like i guess what she can assume from this there's some kind of blackmail or ransom and so regardless if it's denise or andrea it just needed a girlfriend but it is strange that these thermostat dads have done this for 15k do you know

[00:36:10] what i mean it is so elaborate again as we've already touched upon that's the thing that i just can't get over and that is the thing that makes me think this is fake and because she's clearly thought about this she's clearly thought this very elaborate thing out but she's like the only way it can work is if the ransom matches what aaron is capable of paying and she's gone for 15 000 right if it was

[00:36:36] anyone else this type of ransom would only be done especially for your contract or ransomer for a million dollars minimum do you know what i mean it's gonna be a lot right and not 15k and that's why maybe 15k they're like oh don't call the police and just to get that 15 000 but even still is she gonna do a runner just take some money from him and then run off is that a possibility i think she this is just

[00:37:02] another just an attention thing okay well we'll find out so the man tells her she can use the bathroom and he helps her walk to the bathroom she's allowed to shower alone and take off her goggles when she's in a room by herself he goes on to tell her that the group had been watching her and aaron for the last six months and knew where both of their families lived that fear made her comply because not just to survive but to protect aaron she was thinking if i did something that led to him being hurt or killed could she live with that she's then taken to a bedroom and told that this is where

[00:37:31] she would be staying and at the end of the first day of captivity denise was feeling grateful for the fact that no one had hurt her in fact she remembers being treated actually quite well in the grand scheme of things interesting because these are contract kidnappers right they're not in the business of killing people just kidnapping if it's true yeah so she remembers that but then she's given more sedatives and she just passes out and falls asleep right hours later she wakes up the light has shifted but she's still blindfolded and she can tell it was later in the day by this i guess some of the

[00:38:01] sunlight that she could peer through her kidnapper is still there somewhere beyond this wall and he's listening to some french pop music of all things playing in the background and she remember thinking oh he just seems like a normal person just listening to music strange this man i guess the main guy that she'd always heard is talking to her on bathroom breaks when he takes her she sensed he was tall perhaps around about six feet he tells her about his insomnia his ptsd after the

[00:38:27] military and he's quite gentle he's polite but he's measured and he wanted to get to know her asking her questions he's trying to make it as if though what he's doing is not bad by building some kind of relationship with her but make no mistake he's in complete control and for a moment denise wonders if i stay calm if i follow every rule maybe this will all be over soon but then later a change in tone happens she hears these footsteps coming towards her and they seem heavier he enters the room and he

[00:38:57] says we have a problem we don't have collateral and if we let you go how do we know you won't talk to the police okay so what kind of collateral are they looking for ideally he tells her that the collateral will be a sex tape what what one of the men will have to assault her record it and if she talks they'll release it online but she's literally a victim do you know what i mean like why would you

[00:39:24] be ashamed to show someone abusing you why would that be used as collateral that does not make sense at all do you understand what i mean by that like if me and you released our sex tape that would be super embarrassing for your family and stuff but if you attacked me and we caught it on the nest camera that's not something that i would be worried about getting out there because i'd be like adam attacked

[00:39:49] me it tickled me to death do you think if you're being kidnapped that's the logic you think or do you just go i'm gonna have to go along with this in order to survive to make sure aaron's okay no i in light of the story this does not make sense in real life yeah if that happened real life sure i would go on with it so that was the reality but this clearly didn't happen yeah i think when you take a step back that is what logic tells you but in this moment all denise can think about is her body

[00:40:18] just shuts down and she just withdraws in on herself and just to be clear we are talking about what she is telling the police at this moment in time right okay so as a police officer hearing that what kind of reaction do you have when you hear what she's just said well i think you wouldn't believe it well i think they've already gone in with this that they don't believe her sure okay so there's just another nail in that another nail in the coffin so they don't quite buy that yet at

[00:40:43] least hang on did this happen or did this not happen because you just keep dangling this carrot like it didn't happen it happened what's going on let's find out the rest of what she tells the police person okay um so she's gonna get assaulted poor thing yeah the guy says like it's uh it's gonna be me but i'll be gentle exactly it's kind of like almost like oh don't worry it'll be me it's it's fine it's just so messed up this weird relationship that he's tried to build with her to

[00:41:11] make her kind of feel somewhat safe he's just now going to do this to her yeah it's just i don't know now you kind of question this guy is just not a nice guy yeah he climbs on top of her he kisses her and denise has to do the unthinkable but she stays still and she doesn't fight she just does it in order to get it over and done with and in that moment she leaves her body is what she says just to survive and cope with what's happening yeah when it's over he takes her to the bathroom and this time

[00:41:40] as some kind of weird reward he says oh you've been good from now on you can remove the goggles when i'm not in the room so just this weird conditioning that he does to reward her behavior denise pulls off the goggles for the first time in more than half a day and she looks in the mirror and doesn't really recognize the person staring back it feels like a massive epic that she's been through but it's been half a day yeah it's was that evening so i guess maybe 16 17 hours something like that i

[00:42:07] don't know but yeah it hasn't been a full day at this point which is a lot to be kidnapped and raped in the same day but also going back to the collateral thing like with all the planning and all the logistics that they put into it you would have thought that they would have thought about the collateral before got to this point right that would have been number one on their list could have been premeditated still we don't know at this stage she's given some toiletries and a clean towel as if she was in like a hotel and then she says remembering like the little toiletries that

[00:42:36] she's given so it's very weird the next morning she hears him cleaning uh she remembers how this started that it was just a robbery then it was just a kidnapping for ransom then he dehumanizes her and so i guess she's now thinking well i can't trust anything he says what's to say that he won't kill me sure she starts scanning the room for an exit a weapon of any kind but the door is locked

[00:43:00] the windows are barricaded the guy comes in so she has to put on her blindfold again he says that we've lost contact with aaron so remember the police had taken his phone yes that's it and so she's shit something's happened to him he then says to her that his associates are on their way and protocol says that i have to give you another sedative and when they get here don't engage just pretend to

[00:43:23] be asleep they're not as nice as me okay ominous denise hears a car pull up outside she doesn't know how many people are involved or how big this organization well if she was smart she would have heard how many car door slams she she heard good point yeah good point boom boom boom but mind you though that only guarantees that there was four people right because yeah it'd be like five people or someone could just be opening the door and shutting it again so it might four times

[00:43:50] maybe just me she doesn't say how many times the door shut she does hear voices flow in and out the energy's off there seems to be this kind of anger or weird tension he comes back and he says it's been decided we need to record a proof of life you'll say your name and mention a current event this is when she makes the tape to say that i'm denise i'm alive i'm fine sort of thing i've been kidnapped she's also still on a bit of sedatives at the moment so maybe that's why she comes across a bit

[00:44:16] calm when she's on this tape he also says to her that the footage from yesterday of the sex tape wasn't good enough why what does that mean he says to her we have to record another session at this time it has to look consensual like we're in a relationship why why who knows at this point because right now it just seems like this is some sick game it yes this is fucked up adam

[00:44:44] her blood runs cold and she sees that she's got to like go along with this in order just to continue to survive she sees that there's some glasses of wine um as props right uh well to make it look like a date i think it is she chugs them just to i don't know make her feel numb that's greedy both of them um one was for him the attacker i thought you know what she's allowed both glasses she puts on the blindfold again he walks in and even apparently makes a joke to say whoa you started without me

[00:45:14] and she's just like uh yeah started without you and she she goes through it again okay i mean i don't know i'm so torn this is horrific because we're recounting a story but we also have a very strong inkling that this is just bullshit so i kind of want to make fun of it but then at the same time like people do go through that so it's so weird and it's really messing with my emotions i want to

[00:45:39] take the piss because i know it's bullshit but at the same time how awful yeah but everything so far has been over the top almost like could this have happened and i don't know at this point like someone recounting this story and she's breaking down in front of the police but they're not buying it but if this was real then well they're horrible people for not even like just trying to like look into it or believe like this is true at this point yeah i mean if someone is telling you that

[00:46:08] they've been attacked and this has happened to them you need to take that seriously but it is so difficult to believe so what do you do in these situations well yeah it's at the moment it's her word against aaron's word against the police right now so we need to get to a resolution the kidnapper says i want to show you something and he lifts the goggles just a little so that she can see a tv and it's her family on the screen like saying we love you denise we're not giving up we want you back

[00:46:37] and she's overcome and it breaks her essentially and then the kidnapper he gently puts his hand on her back and basically says i must feel real now so it's just this really creepy psychological game that he's trying to play with her but then he says to her it's time to go home what yeah he gives her another sedative loads her into the car and he says i can't take you back to where i kidnapped you uh there's too many police so i'll drop you off closer to your parents i'm going to go to the

[00:47:06] wherever they are so next thing she knows she's waking up she's still groggy she's drugged but she's sitting in the front seat now her eyes are taped shut with sunglasses slipped over the top as if you know i guess if passing someone in traffic it doesn't look like she's you know been kidnapped they come to a stop and he gives her his final orders he says because aaron just went to the police you'll have to talk to them too but you cannot mention two things first none of us were ever in the military and second do not talk about the sex tape or the rape he says if you screw this

[00:47:36] up it's just not you who pays i'll be watching what the fuck what is happening it's a threat basically to say if you say anything then i know where your parents live and i'll come after you or them or whatever so it's a real twisted character he's not a nice person but it's also all fake fake it's all fake so i don't know why i'm acting shocked and going well clearly she's lying and now yeah she's been really clever with certain details but it's getting to the point where nothing just

[00:48:04] makes sense um he then says to her count to 10 and i'll drive off and then you can go so the engine fades into the distance and that's what she does and she peels off the tape from her eyes and for the first time in 48 hours she can actually see properly and she's outside she's free um and then she walks between these apartment buildings there's no one really around and she sees a street sign which says utica which she knows this place it's where her family's home is and that's when she's

[00:48:29] captured on cctv of one of the neighbors of her walking up to her parents um sure that's the first time yeah that's real footage yeah so what's interesting is though she's been told not to mention the rapes and not to mention um that they're part of the military right sounds like that's the very first thing she's told the police yeah and and the thing is though they've threatened her by saying if you do we're going to come after your family that's clearly not an empty threat if it's real because they've

[00:48:57] dropped her off near her family's house so they clearly know where she lives so i don't know why would she mention that i think initially she doesn't mention the attack but it's her lawyers that basically convince her to say that you do need to give all this evidence and or come on to why because they need that for her story so the police are asking her like have you ever been in the trunk of that car before as if that's something you do often why you didn't fight back why didn't you scream

[00:49:24] did you make any noise at all and she realized shit they're making me look like the victim yeah you know the last 48 hours she was just trying to survive she had no anticipation that when she did get out she would then be having to fight for her freedom yeah i mean if i apologize if the story is real but if it's not i mean it is an extraordinary series of events and you can't deny can't deny that

[00:49:51] this is absolutely bizarre and so the police are like tell me that story again and so she has to do it again basically trying to see if she slips up of course and how does she do uh she says exactly the same thing she's then allowed to have a sexual assault examination because of obviously the rape and sure enough there was evidence there were micro lesions inside her cervix which indicated she did have sex within the last two days maybe that happens to a woman's vagina every time they have

[00:50:18] sex i guess maybe it's if it's forced but it doesn't sound like well it doesn't matter whether it's forced or not they're just that that's what happens really and so intrusive as this was for Denise because obviously it's horrendous to go for an examination like that at least it was some form of physical proof that she was telling the truth um so the next day the police bring her into the station again another interrogation room but something's wrong she can feel it there's another

[00:50:44] fbi agent there and he says straight to her there are inconsistencies in your story is there anything you want to change because you know it's a crime to lie to a federal mind game going on this what does she say well this is when her lawyer steps in and says there hasn't been one discrepancy in her story every time she recounts it how can you possibly believe she's lying and this agent just looks

[00:51:04] Denise in the eye and says haven't you seen gone girl oh okay interesting so they're saying that Denise Huskins was directly inspired by gone girl yeah yeah and probably several other things as well but what this is is it's confirmation bias when somebody already convinced that they know the truth and every piece of evidence that they get they twist it to fit their version of events yeah and so they

[00:51:32] just think Denise is an actress not a victim but what does she have to gain why would she go through all this to put on a show for fifteen thousand dollars because she must have known that even if this was staged this could go wrong Denise is looking up to 18 months in federal prison not for a crime she committed but for supposedly lying and wasting police time so her future sort of hangs in the balance Denise is eventually allowed to see Aaron obviously she tells him everything that's happened

[00:51:57] and he just wants to support her look after and they're both just really angry that they've given the police their truth and the kidnapper is still out there and they're not doing anything they're not looking for them the media thinks it's over and as far as the public is concerned the case is closed it's all them two that made up this huge lie but then another twist in the story comes when people don't expect it something i don't think anyone could have predicted another email is sent to san francisco

[00:52:24] chronicle and it comes with no name no signature just a message a confession yeah details about the kidnapping photos and a gun wrapped in duct tape a woman blindfolded it's the kidnapper and he's angry he's furious that the media is calling Denise a liar and he's sending proof that it was all real what that Denise isn't faking she's not been acting this whole time she actually was abducted

[00:52:49] and her story all real every single thing why would a kidnapper be that invested in trying to prove that his victim was telling the truth why does he care surely he only cares about the money and i can understand if he hasn't got the money and he's still trying to get the money why he would do this but it doesn't matter now because Denise has been let go yeah i don't know if he actually did get the

[00:53:14] money no he didn't she let her go for no random reason those four guys arrived we think four guys because we didn't hear any door slams but a bunch of people arrived the plan had changed they had to do one more sex tape and then they let her go what's the thinking there they did all that all this elaborate plan that cost a lot of money and they had like little laser beam things and thermostats and wetsuits and nothing yeah this is a right of this is a loss they've made a loss on this kidnapping what

[00:53:43] is the whole deal one of the emails that follows after the first one is he the kidnapper mentions about a white mustang the same car that Denise believes that she was stuffed into so she was like told you it was a mustang then there are photos that match her description of the house where she was held uh the kidnapper for whatever reason wanted the media backlash on Denise to go away and it was kind of is it a way of coming clean or was this all stage two and part of Denise's plan that's what

[00:54:10] the Vallejo police must have thought initially because despite all this evidence that was coming in whether it was credible or not they just ignored it they didn't even look into it they have their narrative of what happened to Denise then another email arrives and this one's chilling it says we are three acquaintances two of us are college grads and they're basically trying to prove that they're real that they're educated and this wasn't a wild story and they say if Denise and Aaron don't get an apology from Vallejo police we'll do it again and so the police now must take this threat seriously

[00:54:39] surely is someone saying that they're going to kidnap someone no no no it's her so yeah why does he do it did he do it because he wants the credit for the kidnapping do they do it because they're actually feeling guilty for what happened to Denise and they feel sorry for her um do they want to admit that they're not a monster no none of that makes sense what makes sense is that Denise is there they don't believe that this happened they're pointing the finger at us and they're blaming us

[00:55:06] for making this all up and now this is what you do you go you send an email to say blah blah blah this actually happened how dare you not believe this person this is what princess Diana did she did the same thing and I know we haven't done the episode yet but she does something very similar where she will then try make up this other story that will prove that her lie was correct so you're saying that they orchestrated the whole thing or Denise has Denise has I don't think that Aaron has anything

[00:55:35] to do with this I feel really mad for Aaron but she has done this and they don't believe her and now she's trying to get the kidnappers to go she's telling the truth guys we really did this interesting yep that's what the police are probably thinking but then a crucial piece of evidence would eventually set in motion everything that would prove that Denise and Aaron were not lying and everything they said had happened that the police can't refute it anymore go on it came in the form of a mobile phone a mobile

[00:56:05] phone that was accidentally inside the home of a different victim's house not Denise Huskins but a separate home invasion and attempted kidnapping in Dublin California and it was just a few months after Denise's abduction so the kidnappers were at it again so the officers arrive at this quiet home and there's red tape on the floor just like what was left with Aaron there's duct tape there's zip ties and everything like that the intruder had zip tied the parents and attempted to kidnap their 22 year old

[00:56:33] daughter attack had failed and the dad somehow got loose and was able to fight off the intruder which the intruder was not prepared for and basically fled but he dropped his mobile phone okay so when did this happen specifically before we get to the mobile phone did this happen while Denise had been kidnapped and she was away and they tried again this happened a couple of months after Denise's kidnapping so where could Denise have been involved in that again again as part of this this thing but

[00:57:02] you really want to lay on Denise it's gotta be Adam it's just so weird are you telling me I just told you that the kidnappers are real I just told you this is all real yeah no but I know what you're like it's real I promise you what I don't understand so the police have got this mobile phone yeah okay so what's on this mobile phone what evidence they look at some of the numbers they give them a call someone picks up it's a woman and the police are really cautious to let on what's actually happened

[00:57:28] and they're just going like oh we're just after the owner of this phone and the woman goes oh that's my son's phone his name's Matthew Muller and the police department finally have a name Matthew Muller was a former marine a Harvard law graduate and a man with a record linked to past sexual assaults and attempted rapes could this be the guy that kidnapped Denise oh so the police continue to play it cool they're like oh we just want to get the phone back to you know the owner can he let us know

[00:57:54] where he is and she's like oh he's in a cabin in South Lake Tahoe you can find him there so they have to move quickly so before the mum lets on what's what she's just revealed who he is and where he is yeah as the police get ready to take Matthew Muller down a new detective is asked if she wants to join her name is Misty Karasu so it's her first case as a detective and she's like yep I want to be on this and they travel down to the lake and they approach the cabin real quietly before they storm in to

[00:58:21] find Muller there they handcuff him and they see quite quickly that there's nothing really remarkable about him he's not like wild or aggressive or anything like that he just seems like an average white American officers are looking around the cabin and this is where Misty Karasu the new detective can sense that something feels off about this place it smells it's like there's real stale sour smell to the air the house is a mess they then start finding zip ties duct tape things that were

[00:58:49] left behind at the Dublin home invasion they find toy guns which have been painted black and then had little razors like added to them oh this is really real yeah so no real weapons he'd I don't know put it all together and what they don't know at this point is that all these obviously matched the weapons and things that Denise and Aaron had incurred yeah okay so this is making more sense now this is a small time guy who's not part of a big organization it's just him on his own

[00:59:16] the money makes sense because like to him 15k is a lot of money right he's faked all the kind of like the tech wow and it makes sense about the assaults as well like he's because he did it twice right first one wasn't convincing now we've got to make it look consensual and he's he's done this before that's exact yeah yeah see that's what I mean soon as one piece of the puzzle makes sense everything

[00:59:44] else makes sense exactly as a side note there is a documentary on Netflix about this which covers this much great detail which I'll talk about a little bit at the end but what you don't learn about in the Netflix show which I find weirdly interesting but also very very creepy is they find a tub of Vaseline and a penis pump at his cabin which um Matt is like oh that's not mine everything else yeah that's that's mine but that that's not that's a friend's it reminds me of like Austin Powers when

[01:00:13] I think in the first film with Liz Hurley I think he's getting all of his stuff after being like frozen whatever and they're like no it's yours he's like that's not mine but I joke because actually I'd rather not know because it could be something actually more sinister like what well he might use it to get ready for attacking women yeah so back to this cabin to Misty as I said something didn't sit right with her the windows are all covered the bedroom is filthy and there's this heavy feeling and she's something else must have happened here in the bathroom they find a

[01:00:42] syringe then outside there's the white Mustang which is parked which then matches Mustang in the email that was sent about Denise yeah there's GPS attached to it and inside they also find Matthew Miller's ID so they're like it's your car then the GPS within the car it's filled with addresses after addresses uh random addresses which don't really make any sense he was going to probably stalking people yes all these places over America when they check the boot they see that there's this

[01:01:09] shaped like torso dressed in black it's not a person it's a blow-up doll dressed to look like a human so was that designed to fool someone maybe at a distance maybe in the dark to make it look like there's extra people with him that's so weird I don't know maybe I don't know for sure but that's what we assume because it seemed like a puppet and when Aaron and Denise were first taken there were three people okay dads in wetsuits yeah do we know who they are at this point that's going to be an

[01:01:37] interesting point I think because at the moment all they have is Matthew Miller but all the statements from Denise and Aaron says that there were more people yeah so we don't know at this stage they also discover a nylon belt uh in the pocket is a pair of goggles it had duct tape covering the eyes and what was clinging to the tape was a single strand of blonde hair and everyone's whose hair is this is she out there she's still alive and detective misty is like I need to find out who this person is because

[01:02:06] has he killed someone or whatever meanwhile back in vallejo Denise huskins and Aaron Quinn are still trapped in this fallout of their own sort of nightmare they're living weeks on weeks knowing that their attackers were still out there but everyone was turning on them but also now they must be at the verge of feeling this overwhelming sense of relief while the police are like starting to prove that actually this weird thing actually happened yeah but the police in vallejo they're not oh

[01:02:32] they're not communicating yeah so meanwhile back at the station in dublin detective misty is staring at this single strand of blonde hair and she's wondering who does it belong to she does some digging the first real lead takes her back to 2009 in palo alto california misty places a call she says she's got a man in custody called matthew miller but before she can even explain anything else the detective cuts her off and says I've had a photo of that man on my desk since 2009 he's been a person

[01:02:59] of interest in a sexual assault case but I could never prove it okay back then a woman had woken up at 3 30 a.m by a masked man he tied her up blindfolded her said he was going to rape her she begged him not to and he just stops he basically says oh I don't want to victimize you again and he just leaves he's so weird he's so caught between I'm a bad guy and I'm going to do these bad things and then he's clearly has a conscience it is it's strange he's kind of torn which if you remember I did say

[01:03:29] he had bipolar and so he has mental health issues so maybe this is his kind of I don't know conscience coming through at certain times but then he can't just fight off this other urges and voices I guess going on that is interesting yeah similarly another attack happened where he tried to rape another woman and then she convinces him not to do it thankfully and he just says you should get a dog maybe that will stop something like this happening next time what the fuck yeah but it's

[01:03:56] again very very weird but women shouldn't really necessarily need to they just need to not be attacked yeah I think that's at the end of the day that's what needs to happen so whilst Misty is doing this investigation back at the lab detectives were following one more clue a white mustang found at the cabin the car had been reported stolen and seven months earlier they found out that it had been stolen from a place in Vallejo California where Denise was so detective Misty is on the phone

[01:04:23] again she's trying to track down the owner of the vehicle she tells him it's linked to a violent home invasion but the man interrupts her and says have you heard of the Mare Island creeper and Misty's like no I haven't that's where Denise lives right yeah so he explains back in 2014 a man in black stalked student housing on Mare Island just across Vallejo he watched through windows took photos and disappeared into the night and when police didn't act students tracked the guy themselves all the way to this house

[01:04:49] on Mare Island and that's where they got the name Matthew Muller he's ex-military studied law at Harvard and Misty is stunned she's like ah the Mare Island creeper is Matthew Muller the guy that we've got detained I see and it gets even worse the man tells her that those peeping incidents they stopped around March 2015 the same time as that Gone Girl case and Misty's like Gone Girl case what are you talking about and she googles it and then it comes up the Vallejo kidnapping Gone Girl hoax and there

[01:05:15] she comes up a picture of Denise Huskins and she sees a picture and she's like she's got blonde hair is this the blonde hair of Denise Huskins so the the blonde hair that they found on the goggle is Denise Huskins hair yeah great do you know what this is Vin delu no vindication it's vindication it is she checks the GPS on Muller's Mustang and it sees that it had a stop

[01:05:43] in Huntington Beach where Denise and Aaron were so again all this evidence they can now build up and connect the dots do you know this is brilliant because you have taken us on a ride just like the police like no the police didn't believe her I didn't believe her like why who would believe her and then all of a sudden there's evidence so Denise calls the Vallejo Police Department and there's no

[01:06:08] answer so she keeps calling and finally a detective picks up she passes over to the FBI she gets a name agent David Sesma who'd been one of the agents that basically just didn't believe Denise as she calls him she says I've got a suspect in custody and he matches the profile of the man from Denise Huskins case she gathers all this evidence everything that had been collected in Tahoe and basically takes it to them and basically says you're wrong this is everything and finally the tide turns

[01:06:37] the police are like okay we're gonna have to now look into this properly yeah not use our stupid bias that we've had all along I get it but Adam this is such a sensational story where things just don't add up it's tricky I agree with the police for not believing her I think that's an avenue that they definitely should have explored because it is sensational but they make some crucial errors that they should

[01:07:04] have just done at the same time and had they had done that which I'll come on to this a lot of could have been avoided interesting I'm really keen to find out what those are because that will make me feel a little bit less guilty about also siding with them yeah I should do well as if don't sit there on your little pedestal when you were researching this I guarantee you were like she's behind this I keep an open

[01:07:29] mind Kyle really really really do you want me to name the 29 times where you haven't kept an open mind that one time that I wanted to introduce to chimp into the bedroom you were like no cut that so news changes they're now reporting that actually this gone girl kidnapping is actually true there is a suspect it was you know it was not a hoax all along for Misty Karasu it was never a question of headlines or narratives it was about just listening and believing a woman when no one else

[01:07:58] would and thanks to her Denise finally had someone in her corner authorities once implied that Denise was lying then she made the whole thing up now admit that they're wrong and that the documents make it clear and the FBI now named Matthew Muller was the one behind Denise Huskins kidnapping and as we know Muller had various run-ins with the police before his mental health after the war seemed to deteriorate so not an excuse for his behavior but perhaps an explanation and over time he became increasingly

[01:08:26] reclusive rarely sleeping obsessively watching the Batman film series he thought his parents were spying on him he created this nocturnal vigilante identity to fight evil which is why he wore that wet suit and created these tools resembling weapons on the front man yeah so he kind of almost became like a bit of a Batman I guess because he was inspired by that he said he created this Robin Hood plot to kidnap

[01:08:51] evil wealthy people for ransom to give to the poor which he believed in his psychosis to be morally justified yeah this guy needs some help I think that's the thing if he probably got help a lot sooner I don't know what aftercare or anything that he received but yeah some of these things could have prevented because you know maybe with and not that medication is always the answer but maybe with help and some kind of medication he wouldn't have these other sort of urges to do these things yeah for sure

[01:09:19] so Denise sees his face for the first time in a clip on TV and she's never seen him before but then he speaks and just like that the cadence in his voice the rhythm it's like yeah that's the guy yeah crazy as she picked up on that straight away but the thing is whilst this is now good news for Denise she just can't like get rid of the injustice towards her she wants to see the affidavit the sworn statement written by law enforcement usually detailing the evidence and timelines of the investigation and it's

[01:09:47] often submitted to a judge to justify arrests of search warrants it's meant to tell the full story with facts not opinions and so when they read this it's quite an interesting read really instead of focusing on the actual kidnapping the planning the abduction the physical evidence the trauma what the affidavit revealed is that the police spent an overwhelming amount of time building a case against Denise and Aaron they framed their behavior as suspicious rather than considering the trauma that

[01:10:14] they received they showed no real investigative effort to follow the evidence pointing to a real perpetrator they dismissed inconsistencies as lies rather than symptoms of stress or PTSD they even noted that the polygraph test that had been given was basically unknown they couldn't actually say if Aaron was lying the affidavit said there was no physical evidence of non-consensual sex as if to say that without any bruising it wouldn't be rape which is awful Denise had spent hours recounting

[01:10:43] every detail of that assault and she cooperated she relived it she did everything she handed her trauma to the police and they just did nothing and remember Aaron was given a phone by his kidnappers but the police just took it away and if you remember the kidnappers said that they were going to contact him later that day but what the police did is they turned the phone into airplane mode and when they turned it back on the next evening it showed two missed calls both of those calls were traceable

[01:11:10] and they were traced 200 meter radius of where Denise was being held so had they just monitored that yes they could have traced those calls and it would have given them a thread exactly i think this is the thing that's not to say that they shouldn't have been questioning perhaps them but they should have been also looking at an alternative angle yes and that's what didn't happen yes and the thing is had they just traced that phone call on that first night they could have stopped the second rape from

[01:11:38] happening yeah this is a bizarre story the fbi make it official the case is closed they say that matthew miller acted alone and that no one else was pursued in this but these were the same agents who once accused Aaron of murder and obviously that Denise made it all up so now that they're saying that Miller was a lone wolf despite evidence and logic that said otherwise or at least the evidence from Denise and Aaron they just brush it under the rug and just say it was just him so i guess it's

[01:12:06] really hard i don't know the truth from Aaron and Denise's perspective they're saying there were other people involved but the police don't follow up on that and they just say it's matthew and in fairness a lot of the things that he did it did seem like it was just him it feels like it was just him but it is weird how they managed to fake the invasion where they were confident it seemed yeah there was other people and that's why that blow-up doll perhaps was there to make it look like those other

[01:12:32] people i don't know how convincing that would have been i could understand if they were already drugged and the drugs are kicking in and maybe you would think that but it doesn't sound like there were three people there before the drug started kicking in and i was thinking about it like he's got two blow-up dolls attached to him it's gonna make a squeaky noise tandem yeah so i don't yeah i don't know but either way like matthew he's definitely the one that blame the journalists involved actually feel

[01:12:58] really guilty because they ran with that hoax narrative that they were fed by the police muller now faced state and federal charges at first he pled not guilty and he wanted to represent himself in court because of his background so even a disbarred attorney can actually represent himself denise was worried because she was like she's got to sit on a witness stand and potentially get examined or cross-examined by him that didn't happen thankfully but this was just one of her

[01:13:25] concerns at the time muller's defense uh leaned towards mental illness likely angling for an insanity plea on the state charges from a separate home invasion he pled to no contest and that means that he wouldn't fight the charges but he was saying that well he didn't want to admit that he did it it's called an alfred plea i believe i think it's often used to avoid harsher sentences so a loophole i guess then came the federal case in september 2016 muller pled guilty to

[01:13:52] kidnapping denise huskins he was sentenced to 40 years and in court he claimed he acted alone no partners no help but as i say that's not what denise and aaron believe that's not what necessarily the police believe so i guess we perhaps won't know the full truth about that for a while maybe so whilst matthew muller is now behind bars things didn't magically get better for denise and aaron straight away in march 2016 they filed a defamation lawsuit against the vallejo police department

[01:14:19] who obviously had said that they were lying the whole time uh their lawsuit claimed the police ruined their reputation they forced them to leave their jobs their home and had to rebuild things from scratch wow so that this ruined their lives it did for a good period and that's not to say that they're over the case there's still a lot of trauma that they've had to deal with and they did eventually settle out of court for two and a half million dollars um so that money helped to one pay for the cost to defend themselves they spent 140 000 just to defend themselves from these lies wow so

[01:14:49] it covered that and it gave them some money obviously to rebuild things what they really wanted was a trial though a chance to expose the truth and to hold the police department accountable and maybe help other victims to be believed that are perhaps just dismissed because we know this isn't the first time that this has probably happened is it i get it and you know honestly it's the way you've told the story i mean i have yeah i've obviously tried to replay the events as it was told

[01:15:13] in the media yes absolutely and it is an unbelievable story so i think as a spectator as a member of the public looking in on this i would be like this is crazy but in her defense there are some very crucial evidence that would have brought this to light i can't let go of that and i've never felt so torn in a story we've ever done because it just sounds so bizarre i can't see the logic behind

[01:15:41] some of it seems like a bloody movie it doesn't seem real and that i think that's the thing that's why people struggled to perhaps believe her in the first instance is only when you really dig into it and actually hear her story but the thing is her story wasn't properly told initially and that's the thing i think and that's the injustice that was served the police didn't have her back and yeah and i think this is why denise now is committed to helping other women that aren't believed that are attacked and stuff like that to find their voice matt mustard the one that was

[01:16:10] leading a lot of the case wasn't disciplined in fact he was named officer of the year in 2015 having said that he had faced multiple accusations over his time with the vallejo police department about racist remarks manipulating autopsy findings to fit his theories and pressuring for easier promotion standards so he could rise through the ranks interesting so one former forensic pathologist claimed to steer her findings to charge a man with murder asking what will it take you to call

[01:16:39] this a homicide so you know this is the kind of thing that we're talking about the police manipulation yeah bias they exactly they settle upon one avenue and then they just don't pursue any other threads at all after the case with denise and aaron mustard kept his position became a sergeant and led the union that inside to say held massive power over the department policy in 2022 he earned

[01:17:03] 129 000 which was down from the previous years but to this day neither he nor vallejo police department has issued an apology for what denise and aaron went through or the damage caused by dismissing a real crime as a hoax so for now the less said about him the better the real turning point of course became from one person detective misty karasu a woman in law enforcement who did what no one else had done she listened and she believed what denise was saying yeah she solved the case and denise later

[01:17:32] said that all she ever wanted was someone in law enforcement to be her hero and misty was that hero yeah and because of her denise and aaron could finally live their life they got married they moved to the coast and they started over and in 2020 denise gave birth to their first daughter olivia and not long after another daughter naomi so for them it was a new chapter they had a complete family

[01:17:56] and that is the true story of denise huskins she's not a gone girl she's a survivor wow do you know what i am so disappointed that this story didn't turn out to be like a bunny boiler fatal attraction kind of moment where denise had pulled this off because she was jealous of adria and their relationship

[01:18:20] but at the same time it turned into something even more wild it's what a crazy story and i'm so torn on whether or not i should feel ashamed of myself for not believing her because still part of me is like the story is so wild why would you think the police would believe you do you know what i mean but is that not a lesson that we should learn to kind of go like well let's let's just double check ourselves

[01:18:49] because we can be misled easily but yes you're 100 right we should explore the two avenues but wow really crazy episode and when i read i think it was the vanity fair article on this it's not how i remember it going i clearly did not finish reading that story maybe i told her better maybe and maybe if i had kept reading that story i would have been like i need to do this episode wow so if you want even more then you can check out the netflix documentary called american nightmares

[01:19:18] it's a three-part series that dives deep into the case you can hear more interviews from denise and aaron um yeah i really recommend it or you can grab their book it's called victim f from crime victims to suspects to survivors detailing their journey and everything that they went through why victim f i don't know i probably should know that i don't know but essentially it's their first-hand account of everything they endured and how they're using it to help others still waiting to be believed

[01:19:45] sure and yeah yeah that's it i loved it well done i was gripped the whole way through good too many avenues my brain was going wild i love a love a yeah throw you one way then i pull you back and take you another way yeah which okay i've done that for a creative storytelling and to relive what was happening in the media i don't want to downplay what happened to denise just for entertainment

[01:20:10] that was pretty horrendous but at the same time yes of course it was horrendous but it is a truly remarkable story you cannot deny that sorry denise it's awful what happened to you but what happened to you was just incredible do you know what i mean so adam should we run the outro for this week let's do it and that brings us to the end of another fascinating foray into the compendium an assembly of fascinating things we hope you enjoyed today's episode and if today's episode sparked your

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