|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Matthew Muller pleaded guilty on Friday to two felony counts of committing a sexual assault during a home invasion after he broke into Palo Alto and Mountain View homes in 2009.
Now, he faces life in prison for his crimes in Mountain View and Palo Alto.
On Sept. 29, 2009, Muller broke into a Mountain View woman’s home, attacked her, tied her up and made her drink a concoction of medicines, according to a Santa Clara County statement.
He threatened to rape her, but the victim, in her 30s, persuaded him not to. Before fleeing, Muller suggested the victim get a dog, according to the statement.
Less than a month later, on Oct. 18, 2009, Muller broke into a Palo Alto home, tied up and gagged another woman in her 30s, then made her drink Nyquil, according to the statement. He sexually assaulted her, gave the woman crime prevention advice, then left.
The Peninsula cases went unsolved for over a decade.
On March 23, 2015, Muller broke into a Vallejo home, where he tied up a young couple and drugged them. He kidnapped the woman, Denise Huskins, and sexually assaulted her at a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, according to the statement. He released her in Southern California two days later.
In June 2015, Muller broke into another home in Dublin where he was interrupted and left his cell-phone at the scene, according to Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Brian King.
Former Dublin detective Misty Carausu was then able to trace Muller to a Lake Tahoe location, where authorities found evidence linking him to the Vallejo kidnapping, King said.
In June 2015, he was arrested for kidnapping and assaulting Huskins and for his crimes in Dublin.
Muller pleaded guilty in 2016 and 2022, respectively, to kidnapping and sexually assaulting Huskins, according to the statement. He is currently facing a 40-year prison sentence at a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona.
Huskins’ kidnapping led to the creation of Netflix docuseries ‘American Nightmare,’ which shows how authorities falsely suspected Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn of conspiring to commit the kidnapping, inspired by the novel and movie “Gone Girl.”
Since her assault and conflict with local authorities, Huskins and her husband Quinn went on to train Vallejo police on how to avoid situations like hers, King said.
Throughout their training, Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges reached out to Muller to rediscuss the case, when Muller admitted to his connections to the 2009 crimes in Palo Alto and Mountain View, King said.
In a renewed investigation in 2024, Muller’s DNA was found on the straps he used to tie up one his 2009 victims, which connected him to the Peninsula home invasions.
He will be sentenced Feb. 21 at 9 a.m. in Department 34 of Santa Clara County’s Superior Court.
“It’s important to emphasize the involvement of Denise and Aaron,” King said. “Their experience has been turned into a force for good and it was their advocacy for victims that led to this case being re-opened.”
City commission objects to tree removal plan for Mountain View's new police headquartersMarch 19, 2026 2:58 pm