Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: US News, Crime, True Crime, Netflix
Joe Harker
The man serving 40 years behind bars for kidnapping Denise Huskins has been served two consecutive life sentences in prison for separate home invasions carried out in 2009.
You may have watched the Netflix true crime series American Nightmare which follows the 2015 kidnapping of Huskins, who was dubbed the 'real life Gone Girl' after police and the FBI thought the kidnapping had been staged by Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn.
After her kidnapping, a ransom demand of $17,000 was issued and two days afterwards she was found 400 miles away.
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The couple were accused of 'plundering valuable resources' and taking 'focus away from the true victims of our community while instilling fear among our community members'.
Justice was only done when an attempted kidnapping in Dublin, California, was found to have similarities to Huskins' case and a former US marine named Matthew Muller was arrested after a phone found at the crime scene was traced back to him.
In 2017 he was sentenced to spend 40 years in prison, and he has now been handed two life sentences.
CBS reports that Muller pleaded guilty to new charges in January in connection with 2009 home invasions in Mountain View and Palo Alto.
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On 29 September, 2009, Muller broke into a woman's home in Mountain View and tied her up, drugged her and told her he was going to rape her.
She persuaded him not to, after which he told her she should get a dog and fled the scene.
The following month, on 18 October, 2009, he broke into another woman's home in Palo Alto, tying her up and drugging her.
He started assaulting her before she persuaded him to stop, with a news release saying that he then 'gave the victim crime prevention advice' before once again fleeing the scene.
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“I am today so thankful for the bravery of these women,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said of Muller's sentencing after he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault during a home invasion.
"We marvel at the growing power of forensics, the never-say-die determination of investigators and prosecutors. But this case is about victims who never gave up."
Both of the cases had been investigated at the time but were left unsolved.
Muller also faces other charges of kidnapping for ransom in Contra Costa County, California, for a crime which is alleged to have taken place two weeks after Huskins was released and was not reported at the time due to fears that if the family said anything then Muller might return.