Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, US News, Crime, True crime
Emily Brown
A documentary detailing the shocking story of a couple accused of faking a kidnapping is set to arrive on Netflix.
Physical therapists Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn were hanging out together at Quinn's home in Vallejo, California in March 2015 when their lives suddenly changed.
Two intruders broke into the home, tied up the couple and forced them into a closet, where they were drugged and blindfolded.
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Denise was kidnapped and held for ransom, but when Aaron called the police to report the kidnapping they didn't believe his story and instead believed he could be to blame.
Two days after the break-in, Denise was released near her mother's home in Huntington Beach, California.
Police publicly claimed the story didn't make sense, prompting Aaron and Denise's story to earn comparisons to the book and movie Gone Girl, which tells the story of a woman who faked her own kidnapping.
American Nightmare, set to arrive on Netflix on 17 January, takes a closer look at the case and what went wrong through a mix of interrogation footage and new interviews.
Across three episodes, the series raises questions about society's rush to judge, and what happens when law enforcement decides the truth isn't true.
People continued to doubt what happened to Aaron and Denise for weeks, until, three months after the kidnapping, police investigating a case involving a masked intruder found evidence connected to the couple.
Matthew Muller, a former Marine and disbarred immigration attorney, pleaded guilty in 2016 to one count of federal kidnapping and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
He also faced additional state charges of rape by force, robbery and burglary, but in November 2020 he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
In an interview with People, Denise explained how the disbelief surrounding their case would have had long-lasting impact if Muller hadn't been caught.
“I don't know if I would've had the confidence to be able to return to work knowing that people would still think that I'm some con artist or hoaxer,” she said.
"A big part of our job [as physical therapists] is putting our hands on people, quite literally, to help facilitate their healing. And a big piece of that is trust and how can you trust someone who lied about something so significant as a kidnapping? I'm not sure where we'd be.”
After Muller had been caught, Denise and Aaron sued the City of Vallejo for defamation and managed to secure a $2.5 million settlement in 2018.