Dublin 'Gone Girl' Kidnapper Hit With New Charges

DUBLIN, CA — A Dublin man who pleaded guilty to what became known as the "Gone Girl" kidnapping is now being charged with more break-ins and assaults from years ago, prosecutors say.

Mathew Muller, 47, appeared in a San Jose courtroom on Monday. He has been serving a 40-year sentence at a federal prison in Arizona.

Muller was charged in 2015 after he broke into a home in Vallejo, where he drugged and tied a couple up before taking Denise Huskins to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe. There, he sexually assaulted her for two days before he drove her to Southern California and let her go. Three months later, he was arrested after attacking a family inside their Dublin home. He pleaded guilty in 2016 to the Vallejo kidnapping, and later to the sexual assault charges.

On Monday, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said forensic DNA testing linked Muller to home invasions and sexual assaults in Mountain View and Palo Alto committed six years before the Huskins case.

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Early on Sept. 29, 2009, prosecutors say Muller broke into a woman's Mountain View home, attacked and tied her up. Then he made her drink, which was "a concoction of medications." Investigators said the woman persuaded him against raping her, and he fled the home.

Less than a month later, prosecutors allege Muller broke into a Palo Alto home, bound and gagged a woman, and made her drink Nyquil before sexually assaulting her. According to investigators, the woman convinced him to stop and he fled the home. Both cases went unsolved.

The District Attorney's office stated that a recent lead prompted cold case investigators to resubmit evidence from the South Bay cases to the crime lab for additional testing. Investigators revealed that DNA linked to Muller was identified on straps used to bind one of the victims, leading to charges being filed in connection with both 2009 cold cases.

The ex-Marine and Harvard graduate was the subject of the Netflix documentary series "American Nightmare," which details a case that police initially believed to be a hoax crafted by the woman's boyfriend. The incident drew comparisons to the novel and 2014 film adaptation "Gone Girl."

The case remained unsolved until Dublin Police Services of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department arrested Muller and searched his South Lake Tahoe residence. The officers had been investigating a home invasion burglary, which led them to Muller’s home where they found evidence related to the Vallejo kidnapping, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

"The details of this person's violent crime spree seem scripted for Hollywood, but they are tragically real," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. "Our goal is to make sure this defendant is held accountable and will never hurt or terrorize anyone ever again. Our hope is that this nightmare is over."

Muller has been charged with two new felony counts and was set for an arraignment hearing on Monday at the Hall of Justice in San Jose. If found guilty, prosecutors indicated he could face life in prison. He is currently serving concurrent sentences at the Federal Correctional Institution in Arizona, with a projected release date in 2049.