Man charged in San Francisco-area kidnapping first deemed hoax
By Curtis Skinner
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A man has been charged in connection with a bizarre San Francisco-area kidnapping, which authorities initially deemed a hoax after the female victim reappeared in Southern California days after she was reported snatched.
A June 29 complaint charging 38-year-old Matthew Muller with kidnapping was unsealed on Monday, and Muller was in custody, according to court documents provided by the FBI.
The FBI declined to confirm the identities of the victims for privacy reasons, but local authorities and attorneys for the victims confirmed it was connected to the case of a woman whose boyfriend called Vallejo police in March to report that his live-in girlfriend had been abducted.
The boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, reported that Denise Huskins was being held for $8,500 in ransom. Huskins reappeared safely two days later nearly 400 miles (640 km) away in her hometown of Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles.
Vallejo detectives who interviewed Huskins said at the time there was no evidence to support a kidnapping, calling the incident "an orchestrated event and not a crime."
Lawyers for Quinn and Huskins on Monday said they were vindicated by the charges.
"The deed has been done, you can't unwind the trauma and say 'Oops, we made a mistake.' That's not acceptable. That's not good enough," Quinn's attorney Dan Russo told reporters, standing in front of a somber Quinn and a teary-eyed Huskins.
"The idea that in a short period of time they decided that it was a hoax, that only works in Batman movies. In real life, it doesn't work that well," Russo added.
On Monday, the FBI provided an affidavit saying the boyfriend had initially called police reporting a home invasion in which both he and his girlfriend were drugged, and that she was forced to bind him with zip ties before they were ordered into a bedroom closet.
Headphones were placed over the boyfriend's ears with a prerecorded message saying a group that collects debts was robbing them and that they would be subjected to electric shocks or slashed in the face if they did not comply, the affidavit said.
The boyfriend, under the influence of the drugs, fell asleep and upon waking found his girlfriend missing, along with his laptop and car, the FBI said. He was able to free himself and call the police, according to the affidavit, which did not name the couple.
Several months later, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office arrested Muller over a separate robbery and the FBI said it later found similarities between that case and the Vallejo kidnapping.
The Vallejo Police Department could not be immediately reached on Monday.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
