Featured Image Credit: ABC
Topics: TV and Film, Netflix
Lucy Devine
A woman who was kidnapped and released two days later has described the terrifying moment she walked free.
Denise Huskins, who was labelled the 'real life Gone Girl', explained how she thought she was 'walking to her death' when her kidnapper and abuser finally released her.
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Denise recently recalled her horrifying experience in the new Netflix true-crime documentary, American Nightmare which dropped on the streaming platform on Wednesday (January 17).
Denise had been hanging out at her boyfriend Aaron Quinn's house in Vallejo, California, back in March 2015, when her life changed forever.
The pair, who had recently started dating, went to bed that evening, but were awoken in the middle of the night by intruders.
Two men broke into the home, tied them up and forced them into a closet where they were drugged and blindfolded.
Denise was kidnapped and held for ransom, while Aaron was left sedated in the living room.
When he reported the crime the following day, police ended up suspecting him instead, believing he had murdered his girlfriend.
Incredibly, even when Denise was released a few days later, police still had doubts over the couple's story.
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Their ordeal became known as the Gone Girl kidnapping, after earning comparisons to the book and movie, which tells the story of a woman who faked her own kidnapping.
Prior to the Netflix doc, Denise and Aaron sat down with ABC News, where they revealed further details of their experience.
During the chat, Denise opened up about the moment her kidnapper released her, and how she was convinced that in that moment, she was going to die.
"He made the decision to release me," she began.
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"When he opened the car door I thought this is it, either I'm going to hear a gunshot and that's it, or I'm going to get pushed off a cliff.
"I thought I was walking to my death. And then I heard a door close behind me, and I pulled off the blindfold.
"I started walking and the only thing I was thinking of was, 'I want to see my mum and dad'."
The couple were finally vindicated when three months later, police were investigating a similar case and found Aaron's stolen laptop in the possession of a man named Matthew Muller.
Muller ended up being sentenced to 40 years in prison, meanwhile the couple sued the City of Vallejo for defamation and won a $2.5 million settlement.
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You can watch American Nightmare on Netflix now.