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Denise Huskins. Courtesy of Netflix
When American Nightmare topic Denise Huskins was kidnapped from her Vallejo, California, house in 2015, she was known as a real-life Gone Lady — one thing she didn’t perceive on the time.
“I remember the second day, before I was going in for questioning with the FBI, my attorney said, ‘They’re calling you Gone Girl.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, what does that mean? Is that a bad thing?’” Huskins recalled throughout her “Call Her Daddy” podcast look on Wednesday, April 3. “I didn’t read the book; I didn’t see the movie. … I heard about it.”
After watching “one Nancy Grace clip,” Huskins decided. “I can’t f—king watch a thing,” she recalled to podcast host Alexandra Cooper.
Huskins was 29 years outdated and courting her now-husband, Aaron Quinn, when she was kidnapped in March 2015. The harrowing expertise was explored in Netflix’s American Nightmare, which premiered in January, and Huskins shared extra perception throughout Wednesday’s podcast interview.
In the midst of the evening, the couple have been woken up by a vibrant gentle and male voice telling Huskins to tie up Quinn. Each Huskins and Quinn have been administered sedatives earlier than she was blindfolded and put in a automotive that was subsequently pushed to a distant location.
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When Quinn known as the police, he was instantly suspected of the crime. After days within the cabin along with her captor, Huskins was launched. (Quinn obtained emails demanding a $17,000 ransom, however Huskins returned house with out cost.)
One yr previous to the incident, Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike starred within the 2014 thriller Gone Lady based mostly on the e-book of the identical title by Gillian Flynn. Within the film, Nick Dunne (Affleck) turns into the prime suspect when his spouse, Amy (Pike), goes lacking. The story, instructed by means of flashbacks immortalized in Amy’s diary entries, finally reveals that she arrange a complete scheme — framing Nick for the disappearance.
Because of the movie’s reputation, Huskins was instantly in comparison with the character of Amy when her kidnapping garnered widespread consideration.
“I finally watched Gone Girl, probably nine months after the kidnapping. I couldn’t face it. When I watched it … it actually released a lot of that self-blame,” Huskins mentioned throughout her “Call Her Daddy” interview. “I was like, it didn’t matter what I did. You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It didn’t matter. They believed what they believed and whatever I did or said was only going to fit that box. I was able to, kind of, release myself from it.”
The reality was finally revealed when a detective related Huskins’ kidnapping to an tried abduction in Dublin, California, after a person named Matthew Muller left his telephone on the scene. Regulation enforcement tracked Muller to a cabin within the woods the place strands of blonde hair — amongst different proof — have been found.
In 2017, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace introduced that Muller had pleaded responsible to 1 depend of kidnapping and obtained a 40-year jail sentence. In 2022, he pleaded no contest to 2 counts of rape and pleaded responsible to a few separate fees in Solano County Superior Court docket. Muller was sentenced to 31 years in jail, to be served concurrently together with his prior conviction.
As for Huskins, she and Quinn married in 2018 and have since welcomed two youngsters.