The Vallejo Police Department has reportedly been receiving terrible reviews after accusing Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn of conspiring to set up a home invasion and kidnapping. Ultimately, the Vallejo couple shared their side of the story through American Nightmare, Netflix’s newest true crime documentary. They also sued the Vallejo Police Department and received a settlement of $2.5 million.
In an interview with ABC News, Denise Huskins shared how scary it was when Matthew Muller kidnapped and abused her in 2015. During her captivity, she held on to the hope of seeing her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, again and imagined being safe in his arms. The traumatic event happened when Muller broke into Quinn's house, drugged, blindfolded, and tied up the couple, and then took Huskins.
Vallejo Police Department sued by the Gone Girl Case Couple
Fortunately, Muller was captured and charged with kidnapping Huskins, but not by the Vallejo Police Department. After learning about Matthew Muller from a previous house invasion, Misty Carausu, a police officer in Dublin, California, traced the links. Carausu and her team secured a search warrant for the family's house in South Lake Tahoe after receiving a tip from Muller's mother.
The status of the residence was terrible once the search warrant was acquired. They entered when Muller wasn't there, but Carausu knew something horrible had happened there. She subsequently discovered Huskins was imprisoned there.
Carausu and the Dublin police arrested Muller and imprisoned him at FCI Tucson in Arizona. The absurd behavior of the Vallejo Police Department, which depressed Huskins and Quinn, made them file a lawsuit. In 2016, a slander lawsuit was filed with the Vallejo Police Department for $2.5 million.
The documentary series concluded that none of the cops involved were disciplined under any circumstances. The city and police apologized to the couple in 2021, but it was too late. While promoting their book Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors, Denise Huskins stated,
"I think the thing that really matters most is action and showing not just us but the whole community of Vallejo that Vallejo Police Department is dedicated to making changes."
Higgins and Felicity Morris' American Nightmare case explored
American Nightmare creators Bernadette Higgins and Felicity Morris mostly relied on interviews with Quinn and Huskins to arrange the real-life story developments in chronological order. It's a story narration that captivates and excites the viewers, and American Nightmare provides the true aim of the story production.
American Nightmare’s approach to Muller is also atypical. Viewers were trained to expect a detour into a suspect’s backstory or motives, but there is none here. Morris and Higgins took the opposite approach.
The producers' real goal is to have American Nightmare become the gold standard account of Huskins and Quinn's story rather than have it overshadowed by Gone Girl They hoped that these instances could preach that a defendant is often acquitted due to long-standing prejudice among the police department in many more commonplace incidents.
American Nightmare is available for streaming on Netflix now.