A California couple who survived a gruesome kidnapping for ransom faced intense scrutiny from the national media after police accused them of staging the attack in the spirit of Ben Affleck's thriller Gone Girl. .
According to Netflix's new documentary series American Nightmare, the harrowing 48-hour captivity in which Dennis Haskins was kidnapped and raped before ultimately escaping in 2015 was “set up” by Vallejo police. The incident was dismissed as a “misadventure.”
Directed by “Cinder Swindler” filmmakers Felicity Morris and Bernadette Higgins, this January release takes viewers through the couple's ordeal, their efforts to make them believe, and how, 40 miles away, A similar crime occurred, leading to the final confirmation of the story when the assailant was arrested three months later. later.
The couple sued the Vallejo Police Department for $2.5 million, but did so before it could survive months of public scrutiny. Haskin's boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, called police the day after his girlfriend was kidnapped from their home in Vallejo.
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Dennis Haskins and Aaron Quinn attend a press conference with attorney Doug Rappaport (left) in San Francisco on September 29, 2016. (Paul Chin/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
His story seemed fantastic. He and Haskins said they woke up around 3 a.m. on March 23, 2015, to flashing lights and what appeared to be a cadre of intruders wearing wetsuits.
The intruder, armed with a stun gun, instructed Haskins to tie up Quinn with zip ties. Quinn then told police her swimming goggles were covered with duct tape and foam earphones were attached to her, leaving her blind.
A prerecorded message informed him that he would be given a sedative. The recording said that if he refused oral medication, he would be given intravenous medication. According to the documentary, Quinn had her blood pressure checked and was given a combination of Nyquil and diazepam.
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The Vallejo Police Department publicly accused Dennis Haskins and Aaron Quinn of staging the ordeal, leading to a barrage of negative press before the attackers were arrested for a similar home invasion. (Related news organizations)
When Quinn came to, she was told that Haskins was being kidnapped. Quinn told police the intruders were demanding $15,000 to ensure her safe return. They said cameras were installed to monitor Quinn's movements and that Haskins would be injured if he left the device's view.
Although he said at a press conference that he was treating the incident as a kidnapping, Vallejo police suspect Quinn murdered his girlfriend and falsified the bank account, KRON4 reported. According to the documentary, he endured 18 hours of interrogation.
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Quinn was immediately questioned about why she had not called police sooner, even though she had waited nine hours to do so out of concern that the kidnappers were threatening her. In interrogation footage filmed at the Vallejo Police Department and shown on “American Nightmare,” detective Matthew Mustard revealed the current state of Quinn's relationship with Haskins and whether he had been cheating on her. I'll investigate what's going on.
Mustard told Quinn: “I don't think you're telling the truth. I don't think anyone came into your house,'' and that if she waited for him to come clean, she would look like a “monster.'' Told.
Photo of Dennis Haskins and Aaron Quinn attending a press conference. Both men hired attorneys for fear of losing their jobs as physical therapists after being publicly accused of fabricating a home invasion. (Mike Jolly/Times Herald, via AP)
The FBI conducted lie detector tests in which Mr. Quinn repeatedly denied the agents' accusations that he had harmed his girlfriend. The bureau claimed that the polygraph showed Quinn's dishonesty, but American Nightmare showed that the results were actually inconclusive.
Meanwhile, Haskins was stuffed into the trunk of Quinn's car and taken to a property in South Lake Tahoe. There she was sexually assaulted twice on camera, and her attacker threatened to release her footage if she turned herself in to the police after her release.
During that time, Quinn received a text message requesting money to return home.
Haskins was released two days later near her childhood home in Huntington Beach. She thought her ordeal was over. Instead, she was accused of her own elaborate fabrication.
Quinn's ex-fiancée told authorities that she and Quinn had talked about getting back together. Following this information, authorities accused Mr. Haskins of staging the kidnapping and likened the event to the plot of the movie “Gone Girl,” in which a small-town wife tries to get revenge on her cheating husband. The story is about staging your own murder.
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At a press conference after Haskins' safe return, a Vallejo police spokesperson publicly accused the couple of making up the story.
Vallejo Lt. Kenny Park said at the time, “Mr. Quinn and Mr. Haskins plundered valuable resources from our community, took the focus away from the real victims of our community, and threatened the community.” Vallejo Lt. Kenny Park said at the time, ABC News reported. It instilled fear in members of the group.” . “So if anything, it's Mr. Quinn and Mr. Haskins who owe this community an apology.”
Matthew Muller, a Harvard-educated immigration lawyer, was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping Haskins after he was involved in a similar home invasion involving a forgotten cell phone. (Solane County Sheriff's Department)
Haskins told Netflix that the network's response was puzzling.
“It doesn't make sense for law enforcement (people with the power to investigate and assist) to just be hostile. That's what makes it so much scarier,” she told a reporter for Netflix affiliate site Tudum.
“If I had layered on layers of evidence that they had at the time and didn't use, I could have been saved. There were layers of betrayal and fraud.”
Amid the ensuing media furor, Quinn and Haskins told the filmmakers that they feared losing their jobs as physical therapists in the aftermath.
“When you go through something like that, every moment, every bit of energy goes, 'How am I going to live for the next moment?' That's all you can think about,” Haskins said in the documentary. he told ABC News in sampled footage. “The last thing you think about is, 'If I survive, I need to make sure I'm believable.'”
Haskins and Quinn told the filmmakers that their hero was Misty Carous, the rookie detective who solved the case. On June 5, 2015, a couple noticed a nearly identical home invasion in the middle of the night. The intruder was standing over the bed, shining a light into their faces.
The husband fought off the attacker while the wife hid in the bathroom and called the police. However, he left behind important evidence, including zip ties, duct tape, gloves, and a cell phone.
Karaus traced the call to the man's father-in-law, a Harvard-educated immigration lawyer and Marine Corps veteran named Matthew Mueller.
She contacted Bay Area police departments and learned he was a suspect in a 2009 Palo Alto home invasion, NBC Bay Area reported. Also at the scene were swim goggles painted black with duct tape and blonde hair attached to them.
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At that point, Karaus contacted the FBI. Mueller was arrested on June 8 in Dublin, California on suspicion of burglary.
Evidence found in Quinn's home, including her laptop, ultimately linked her to Haskins' kidnapping. Mueller's confession matched Quinn and Haskins' story perfectly, down to the audio recordings, pitch black goggles, and liquid sedatives.
He pleaded guilty in September 2016 to one count of federal kidnapping and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Mueller also faces state charges of robbery, burglary, kidnapping and two counts of rape by force.
However, he was deemed incompetent to stand trial on these charges in November 2020, according to the documentary. Mueller allegedly suffered from “Gulf War Illness” after his military service, and his lawyer claimed he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, NBC News reported.
To this day, Haskins and Quinn told People they have no idea why Mueller targeted them.
“Like many victims and many people who have experienced tragedy, we will never have all the answers,” Quinn told the magazine. “And that can be a roadblock to recovery. So for us, instead of relying on finding those answers, what we have to do is move forward in the unknown. , to focus on what matters most to us.”
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The two married in 2018, published a book about their ordeal in 2021, and welcomed daughters in 2020 and 2022.
