Crime & Safety
'Gone Girl' Kidnapper Faces New Charges Out Of San Ramon
Contra Costa officials allege the convicted kidnapper and rapist was responsible for an unreported home invasion in San Ramon in 2015.
SAN RAMON, CA — The man at the center of the so-called "Gone Girl" Vallejo kidnapping case, Matthew Muller, who was recently charged with two more sexual assault cases in Santa Clara County, is now also suspected in a home invasion robbery in unincorporated San Ramon, the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office said Monday.
According to Sheriff's Office, the district attorney's office in El Dorado County carried out an investigation into Muller, 47, and believe he committed a home invasion robbery in San Ramon in early 2015. The alleged crime was never reported to the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office, but upon learning about the suspected robbery last November, the case has now been turned over to the Contra Costa DA, a spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office said.
Muller was convicted in 2015 for the Vallejo kidnapping of Denise Huskins.
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Huskins' abduction was the subject of "American Nightmare," a Netflix documentary series that chronicled her kidnapping and police and FBI suspicions that the abduction had been staged with her boyfriend Aaron Quinn.
Muller, a former U.S. Marine, broke into the Vallejo home on March 23, 2015, and tied up the young couple. He took Huskins to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, where he sexually assaulted her. Two days later, he drove Huskins to Southern California and released her.
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Vallejo police initially believed the invasion and kidnapping was a hoax perpetrated by Huskins' boyfriend, generating the reference to the novel and film "Gone Girl".
Muller was eventually arrested for both the Vallejo kidnapping and a violent Dublin home invasion.
He pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and sexual assaults of Huskins and is serving a 40-year prison sentence at a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona.
At the end of December, The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office announced that DNA testing led authorities to charge Muller in two 2009 home invasions and sexual assaults in Mountain View and Palo Alto. Muller's DNA was eventually found on straps he allegedly used to bind one of the victims in the assaults and he was arraigned on two counts of sexual assault on Dec. 30, 2024.
According to prosecutors, in the early hours of Sept. 29, 2009, authorities allege Muller broke into a woman's Mountain View home, attacked her and then tied her up, made her drink a concoction of medications, and said he was going to rape her-- the same modus operandi in the Huskins' case.
"After the victim, in her 30s, persuaded him against it, he suggested the victim get a dog, then fled," the district attorney's office said.
In the second attack, on Oct. 18, 2009, Muller allegedly "broke into a Palo Alto home, bound and gagged a woman in her 30s and made her drink Nyquil," prosecutors said. Muller allegedly started to assault her but was persuaded by the victim to stop. "Muller gave the victim crime prevention advice, then fled," the district attorney's office said.
The newest San Ramon investigation regarding Muller is on-going. Anyone with any information on this case is asked to contact the Contra Costa County Sheriff's investigation division at (925) 313-2600. For any tips, email: tips@so.cccounty.us or call (866) 846-3592 to leave an anonymous voice message.
Story by Katy St. Clair and Kathleen Kirkwood, Bay City News.
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