Denise and Aaron Quinn Get the Last Word

Summary

48 Hours — “Denise and Aaron Quinn Get the Last Word”

Date: March 30, 2026
Host: CBS News

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Episode Overview

This gripping episode explores the harrowing ordeal of Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, the couple at the center of a 2015 Vallejo, California kidnapping case that captured national attention. Initially dismissed and branded as hoaxers by law enforcement and the media—likened to the “Gone Girl” narrative—Denise and Aaron were ultimately vindicated when evidence surfaced and their assailant, Matthew Mueller, confessed to numerous crimes spanning decades. Through detailed investigative journalism, interviews, and first-person accounts, the episode reveals how dogged persistence by the victims and a handful of committed law enforcement officials unraveled decades of silence, leading not only to justice for Denise and Aaron, but also for victims long overlooked.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The 1993 Attack: A Prelude to a Pattern [02:31]

• Victim “Lynn,” age 19 at the time, recounts a traumatic camping attack in Folsom, CA:
  • “We were awakened to someone hitting the back of our tent… A towel was put over my head and my hands and feet were tied up… I was sexually assaulted.”
    — Lynn (Victim), [03:10]
  • Lynn felt ignored by park authorities, calling repeatedly for updates and living with fear for 30 years, believing her attacker would return.

2. 2015 Vallejo Kidnapping: Denise and Aaron’s Ordeal [03:52]

• Early morning home invasion:

  • Denise and Aaron recount being drugged, tied up, and threatened by a masked man they call “The Voice.”
  • Denise was taken, sexually assaulted, and held captive; Aaron left at home under suspicion.

• Law enforcement’s first instinct was disbelief; they zeroed in on Aaron as a suspect.

  • "[They] did not come into your house and kidnap her and take her for ransom. That did not happen."
    — Detective Matthew Mustard, [09:15]

• Media quickly dubbed the case a likely hoax, comparing it to the Gone Girl film.

  • “All of the headlines had the word Gone Girl in it, relating it to the blockbuster movie... where a beautiful blonde fakes her own kidnapping. And it stuck.”
    — Commentator, [13:03]

3. The Turning Point: New Evidence and a Pattern of Attacks [18:04]

• Months later, a failed Dublin, CA home invasion led police to Matthew Mueller:

  • Mueller is a Harvard Law graduate and former Marine.
  • Investigators found evidence at Mueller's cabin (Aaron’s laptop; Denise’s hair on blacked-out goggles; car GPS routed to Denise’s drop-off point) tying him directly to the Huskins/Quinn attack.

• Vindication forced by further violence:

  • “The only way they were vindicated was not by police work. It was by other people being harmed.”
    — Commentator, [19:53]

• Mueller ultimately receives 40 years in prison (plea deal), but Denise and Aaron continue to push for investigation into additional victims and accomplices.

4. Long-Delayed Justice and Reluctant Law Enforcement Apologies [22:34]

• Police Chief Nick Borges, inspired by Denise and Aaron’s story on Netflix’s “American Nightmare,” apologizes to them—offering the validation they'd never received from Vallejo PD.

  • “Just to be respected and listened to and treated like we have value. It meant the world to feel like we had an ally.”
    — Aaron Quinn, [23:01]

• Borges personally writes to Muller in prison, prompting confessions for two uncharged 2009 attacks and hints of further crimes.

• District Attorney Vern Pearson adopts science-based interviewing to elicit further confessions from Mueller:

  • Pearson: “One of the hallmarks of science-based interviewing is speaking to somebody without revealing any judgment you might have.” [25:22]

5. Uncovering a Serial Predator’s Full Scope [26:43]

• With a science-based interview approach, Mueller confesses to:
  • Voyeurism and hidden cameras as early as law school.
  • A series of assaults and home invasions, including a previously unreported family abduction for ransom.
  • The 1993 Folsom attack from the episode’s start—confirming Lynn’s long-dismissed trauma.

Memorable Confession:

• "I ordered them out of the tent. I believe I put them both on their stomachs and asked them to put their hands behind their back... I basically forgot about it pretty quickly. I just put it out of my mind, I didn't like it didn't happen."
  — Matthew Mueller, [29:03]; [29:18]

6. Justice for the Forgotten Victims [33:24]

• Lynn, the 1993 victim, describes decades of hypervigilance and finally finds some peace when investigators confirm her story.
  • “I knew that I was being believed. I knew that something was getting done about this finally.”
    — Lynn, [33:57]
• By late 2024, Mueller is formally charged in multiple cold and dormant cases, facing four life sentences.

7. Confronting the Predator, Publicly and Personally [38:43]

• Denise and Aaron seek closure via a mediated meeting with Mueller. They hope to learn the truth about potential accomplices.
  • Mueller “maintained he acted alone,” but Denise and Aaron remain deeply skeptical:
    • “I don't believe everything Mueller says. I know what we saw. We know what we heard.” — Denise Huskins, [41:06]
• The confrontation stands as a reckoning:
  • “It was more showing that we're not scared of you. We see you, we see who you are.”
    — Denise Huskins, [41:21]

8. Lessons in Accountability and Systemic Change [46:23]

• Denise and Aaron become advocates for reform in the way law enforcement treats victims.
  • “Denise has said not being believed was more traumatic in many ways to her than the actual assaults themselves. If that doesn't open your eyes in law enforcement, something's wrong with you.”
    — Chief Borges, [46:33]
• Both Borges and DA Pearson stress the imperative to “listen to victims and follow evidence, not assumptions.”
  • “We have to believe victims when they come forward. We have to listen to what they say and follow the evidence.”
    — Borges, [46:49]
• Denise Huskins:
  • “What you're hoping is that people recognize mistakes, they learn from mistakes, and it changes their actions going forward.”
    — [47:04]
• Aaron Quinn:
  • “The publicity was so damaging to us in the beginning... having this strange, unique position, it almost seems irresponsible to not utilize it in a positive way that can maybe help others.” [47:38]

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Lynn’s empowerment at sentencing:
  “Feeling like my voice could be heard finally felt very empowering. I got the last word. Now you get to be silent.”
  — Lynn, [43:01]

• On closure and advocacy:
  “We can take back control of our trauma and maybe use it for good.” — Aaron Quinn, [22:17]

• On law enforcement skepticism:
  “This case was too strange to believe.” — Denise Huskins, [21:12]

• On what they needed most:
  “Just to be respected and listened to and treated like we have value.” — Aaron Quinn, [23:01]

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• [02:31] — Lynn describes 1993 attack
• [04:04] — Denise and Aaron describe their home invasion
• [08:15] — Aaron debates calling police, fearing for Denise's safety
• [09:05] — Police immediately doubt Aaron’s story
• [13:03] — Media labels case as “Gone Girl” hoax
• [18:04] — New attack links to arrest of Matthew Mueller
• [20:10] — Denise and Aaron on feeling only “a little safer” after Mueller’s arrest; still believe others involved
• [22:34] — Chief Borges acts on empathy sparked by Netflix doc; apologizes to Denise and Aaron
• [25:22] — DA Pearson describes science-based interviewing
• [29:03] — Mueller describes 1993 attack in detail
• [33:51] — Lynn finds relief being believed, after decades of fear
• [36:41] — Aaron stunned learning of Mueller’s first crime at age 16
• [41:06] — Denise and Aaron still don't believe Mueller acted alone
• [43:01] — Lynn gets "the last word" at sentencing
• [46:33] — Law enforcement begins to understand the trauma of disbelief
• [47:04] — Denise: Hope for systems to learn and change

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Conclusion: Lasting Impact and Advocacy

The episode closes with Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn emerging as powerful advocates for change in law enforcement’s treatment of victims. Despite years of disbelief and trauma, their persistence brought about the unraveling of a serial predator’s decades of crimes. The voices of Denise, Aaron, and Lynn—victims who for years were silenced or dismissed—are finally central to the story, offering hope, hard-won wisdom, and a call for a more compassionate, evidence-based approach to justice.

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For Further Listening

• This episode is part of the ongoing “48 Hours” true crime podcast series.
• For deeper investigation and follow-ups, check out the “Post Mortem” series with producers and correspondents every Tuesday.

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Note: For anyone new to the case, this episode offers a comprehensive narrative: from decades-old attacks, through media skepticism and investigative failures to advocacy and reform spearheaded by survivors themselves.

Transcript

[Narrator/Host]

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[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

When you're 19, do you think you know where you're gonna end up? But then life has a way of taking its own turns.

[Reporter/Investigator]

Back in 1993, this young couple was

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

camping in the middle of the night. We were awakened to someone hitting the back of our tent.

[Reporter/Investigator]

They were ordered out of their tent by a stranger with a gun.

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

A towel was put over my head and my hands and feet were tied up. And then my boyfriend was tied up.

[Reporter/Investigator]

The suspect then carried the female away.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

He brought her down to this bridge.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Yes, you were fighting him as best

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

you could Yeah, I was trying to squirm away and then I was sexually assaulted. In the middle of what he was trying to do, he said that he saw a light and said he had to go. My boyfriend got me untied. We called the police. I told them what happened and it very much seemed like they maybe didn't believe me. I reached out to them many times trying to find out, have you guys found anything? You know, do you know who did this? And nothing.

[Reporter/Investigator]

She's worried for the last 30 plus years that he was out there and he was going to return.

[Commentator/Analyst]

In March of 2015, there was this really high profile kidnapping coming out of Vallejo, California. Denise Huskins went missing from her boyfriend Aaron Quinn's home.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Kidnappers stormed into Quinn's Vallejo house, bound and drugged him.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

We could hear what sounded like other people downstairs. I was told that I was going

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

to be taken and I'm told that there was a ransom demand to get Denise back.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

For the next 48 hours I was held captive and continuously drugged. And I was raped twice. To my surprise, in the middle of the night, he woke me up and said that he was gonna release me.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

Relief and joy after Denise Huskins arrived home in Southern California.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

I get my life back. Only to have it all completely blown apart by the false accusations of law enforcement.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Vallejo police believe Denise Huskins and her boyfriend staged assault, sending their department on a wild and expensive goose chase.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

Things like this never happen, so therefore we can't believe you.

[Commentator/Analyst]

This was a massive story. For months the world believed that this was a hoax. And then suddenly there's another attack. And that's what finally leads to an arrest.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

He was a Marine, then a Harvard

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

law student, then a practicing attorney. Now Matthew Mueller is accused of being a monster.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

Our hope was now that one person's caught, they would continue to investigate.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

There was still so many questions that were left unanswered. Was anyone else involved? And what other victims are still out there?

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

My name is Nick Borges. I did not investigate this case, but I wanted to give Denise and Aaron answers. I told them, I've always believed you guys and words are not enough. I'm an action guy. So I started writing letters to Matthew Moeller. Dear Mr. Moeller, I have followed and come to learn quite a bit about the vallejo case involving Ms. Huskins and Mr. Quinn. He ended up responding. This is incredible.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

I did not expect him to start confessing.

[Reporter/Advertiser]

Tracy Smith reports. Denise and Erin Quinn get the last word.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

In the pre dawn hours of March 23, 2015, Aaron Quinn and his girlfriend Denise Huskins were asleep in his Vallejo, California home, unaware they were being watched.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

Around 3am we were awoken to a strange man saying, this is a robbery. We are not here to hurt you. Stay calm.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

They never saw his face, but he was oddly wearing a wetsuit. He said he was part of a group of people there to rob them, but he did all the talking in recalling what happened to them. Denise and Aaron call him the Voice.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

And I saw a flashing white light on the walls and red laser dots scanning the walls. The Voice instructed me to tie Aaron up with zip ties. Left him on the edge of the bed.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

I'm tied up. He makes me hop to my closet. I can hear people downstairs going through the kitchen cabinet. I could hear a drill running.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Denise was ordered to go into the same closet. There. The Voice also tied her up and made them drink a sedative.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

Blacked out swim goggles were placed over our eyes. And eventually I was told that I was going to be taken for 48 hours and I was going to be held until Aaron could complete some tasks for my release.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Those tasks included going to a bank for ransom money. The Voice took Aaron downstairs to the living room, where a security camera had been mounted to monitor him.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

The Voice tells me that if I try to go to the police, it will kill Denise. So I can hear him put Denise in the trunk of my car. I just hear Denise say, okay, and I'm just hoping that's not going to be the last thing I hear from her.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Aaron says he soon passed out from the sedative. He woke in a stupor later that morning. The Voice had taken Aaron's laptop but had left his cell phone, saying they would contact him. Aaron says he wiggled his hands free from the zip ties, but then struggled with whether he should call for help.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

What was that like? Weighing that decision.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

My thought was, if I call the police, I know I'm going to be safe. But then my fears, am I actually killing Denise?

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Emergency.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

My girlfriend got kidnapped last night.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Erin took the chance and called 911. The Vallejo Police Department responded. As Erin told them what happened, he says investigators began to question his story.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

I don't blame him for being a little skeptical, but I gave him permission to search everything, and I agreed to go down to the station to provide a statement. My whole goal, which I thought everyone's goal, was to find Denise.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Aaron gave the police his cell phone and his clothes to test for evidence. He was given prison clothing to change into and Then the lead detective, Matthew Mustard, began to question him.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

And it's about 40 minutes into our interview. He basically leans back and says what I'm telling him is far fetched. And he doesn't believe me.

[Reporter/Investigator]

I don't think she was kidnapped from your home.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

I think something bad happened in your house. Not only did he appear not to believe Aaron, he seemed to be accusing Erin of killing Denise.

[Reporter/Investigator]

Denise is going to be found, and when I say she's found, she's dead. They did not come into your house and kidnap her and take her for ransom. That did not happen. It didn't? No, it did not. I have nothing to admit to. I didn't do anything.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

What the is going on? Meanwhile, word got out to the media that Denise was missing.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

Officers converged on the home where Denise was reportedly kidnapped.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Julie Watts is an investigative correspondent for CBS News, California.

[Commentator/Analyst]

I think immediately people were captivated.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

Search teams have been checking area fields. Cadaver dogs are among the searchers.

[Commentator/Analyst]

Folks assumed from the beginning that she was dead. And immediately her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, was the suspect.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

To Aaron, investigators were so focused on him. He wondered if anyone was looking for the people who had actually taken Denise. After being placed in the trunk of Aaron's car, she was driven for a bit, transferred to the trunk of another car, and driven for hours.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

You think of all the possible things that are going to happen. Where am I going to be taken? Am I going to be tortured? Am I going to have to withstand God knows what?

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

The voice took Denise to a secluded home where she was kept blindfolded and sedated. He told her he would keep her there until his group received the ransom money. She was in and out of consciousness, but remembered him telling her they'd done this before. He then raped her. The next morning, Denise says she heard someone come to the house.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

Then I heard what sounded like a truck pull up to the house, doors open, close. People entered, there was whispering, and then they got in the car and left.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

The assailant then raped her again.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

I told myself, no matter what, I'm not going to beg, cower, or scream.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Because you thought that would keep you alive, right?

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

I hoped that that would keep me alive.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Hours passed, but then, even without the ransom, the voice stuck with the plan to release her. Just not in Vallejo. He asked Denise where her family lived, blindfolded her and sedated her again and drove hours south. He then released her near where she grew up in Huntington Beach. A nearby security camera caught these images of her.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

I heard his car drive off and Started walking down this alley and turn and I see the street that I grew up on.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

A neighbor called the Huntington beach police, and the news of Denise's reappearance spread.

[Narrator/Host]

A Bay Area woman reportedly kidnapped for ransom is safe tonight. What exactly happened to her, that's still

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

very much a mystery. Although Denise and Aaron hadn't communicated since the attack, Denise told the Huntington beach officers the same story Erin had. But she too began to sense she wasn't being believed.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

It was ok. Yeah, yeah. But, well, you know, we need to figure out what's going on with Vallejo. And so it just felt like something wasn't right.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Worried, Denise hired an attorney. That night, as she was making her way back to Vallejo, the Vallejo Police Department gave a press conference saying they could not substantiate anything Erin had told them and that Denise would not talk to them. Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins has plundered

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

valuable resources away from our community.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

They essentially called the case a hoax. The media came up with another label. Is she a real life Gone Girl?

[Commentator/Analyst]

In the first few days after the kidnapper released her, all of the headlines had the word Gone Girl in it, relating it to the blockbuster movie that had just come out, I think the year before, where a beautiful blonde fakes her own kidnapping. And it stuck.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

That same night, Denise says her attorney told the Vallejo police Denise had been raped and asked to set up a safe sexual assault exam, hoping DNA evidence could help identify her attacker. But Denise says Vallejo police refused to order an exam until she talked to them.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

I could hear whoever was on the phone say, well, how do we know she was raped? She won't even talk to us. You know, just tell her not to shower, keep her clothes on, don't wash her hands, brush her teeth.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Denise says Vallejo police made her wait until the next morning to come in. We're not here to judge and we

[Reporter/Investigator]

are just looking to figure out the truth.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

They interviewed Denise for six hours before she went to a hospital for the exam.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

So in a way, it's like, yeah, I had to prove to them that I was worthy enough to have to have the exam.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

The initial testing led nowhere. After cooperating with the investigators, Denise and Erin feared they might be charged with lying to police, all the while knowing the people who attacked them were still out there.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

And that was, I think, the most terrifying thing, knowing they will do this again. We know that the only way that will be vindicated and the truth will come out is if they attack another family.

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[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

In June 2015, nearly three months after Denise Huskins and Erin Quinn were attacked, a home invasion was reported in Dublin, California, about an hour south of Vallejo.

[Commentator/Analyst]

An intruder came in. The wife called 911 while the husband fought back.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

The intruder escaped, but in the chaos, he left his cell phone behind. Detectives traced it to this house in South Lake Tahoe.

[Commentator/Analyst]

So they get their investigators together and they show up at the Tahoe cab.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Inside was 38 year old Matthew Mueller. He was arrested on the spot for the Dublin attack.

[Commentator/Analyst]

He is a Harvard educated lawyer. He is formerly a Marine. He is not the type of person that you would expect.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

And when they searched the house, they found some interesting evidence.

[Commentator/Analyst]

They found Aaron's laptop at Mueller's cabin.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Authorities also searched a stolen car parked nearby.

[Commentator/Analyst]

Investigators looked at the car GPS and they saw that it had the GPS point where the kidnapper had dropped off Denise Huskins.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

And in the back of the car

[Commentator/Analyst]

they found goggles, blacked out swim goggles with a single strand of blonde hair.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

The hair was later confirmed to be Denise's. The goggles, the GPS address and the laptop, all of it was strong evidence supporting the bizarre story Denise and Erin had been telling all along.

[Commentator/Analyst]

The only way they were vindicated was not by police work. It was by other people being harmed.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

The voice finally had a name. Matthew Mueller would be charged with Denise Huskins kidnapping and rape.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Did Mueller's arrest make you feel safe?

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

A little safer?

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

The arrest made us feel a little safer, but we still believe there's other people out there.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

But no one else was charged. Denise and Aaron steeled themselves to face Mueller in court.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

So you're preparing for him to go to trial. What happened?

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

Well, he ended up taking a plea deal.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Mueller ultimately received a sentence of 40 years total for the Dublin attack and their attack. Denise and Aaron had hoped for a life sentence.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

The idea that he'll be too old when he gets out to do something like this again, I don't think that's true.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Around this time, Denise and Aaron filed A civil lawsuit against the city of Vallejo, claiming defamation and emotional distress. They eventually settled for $2.5 million.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Did the Vallejo police ever vindicate you?

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

No, it was always. This case was too strange to believe.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

The Vallejo Police Department did not respond to our request for a comment, but they did issue a statement after the settlement saying the Huskins Quinn case was not publicly handled with the type of sensitivity a case of this nature should have been handled with. Although their case seemed to be over, Denise and Aaron hoped authorities would continue to investigate Mueller for other crimes and possible accomplices.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

And there was still so many questions that were left unanswered. A big piece of that was, what else was he involved in? We just knew that our case wasn't the only one you knew.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

But did you feel like anyone was listening to you?

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

Well, no, that's the problem.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Denise and Aaron spent years trying to move forward. They got married and started a family and eventually decided it was time to tell their story in their own words.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

We can take back control of our trauma and maybe use it for good.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

They wrote a book and participated in the Netflix series American Nightmare, which was watched by millions of people in 2024.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

I was hooked as soon as it started.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

One of those people was Nick Borges, the police chief in Seaside, California.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

I'm watching this just thinking, I want to reach out to these people. I want to hug her. I want to hug him and just say, oh, my God, I'm so sorry.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Though he wasn't involved in their case, Chief Borges reached out to Denise on Instagram to apologize on behalf of all law enforcement.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

When you read that message, what did you think?

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

I think I got really emotional. Because it's not. We're not asking for a whole lot, you know, like, just to be respected and listened to and treated like we have value. It meant the world to feel like we had an ally.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Chief Borges invited Denise and Aaron to Seaside to speak about their experiences with law enforcement.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

I gave them access to everything, and it wasn't enough because they had already decided, I killed her.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Chief Borges wanted to do more to help Denise and Aaron get answers.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

I don't have a problem shaking the tree a little bit and flipping rocks.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

He decided to write Mueller in prison.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

I was very honest with him. I want to know if you acted alone or not.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Within weeks, Mueller wrote back.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

Essentially, in his first letter back to me, he said he acted alone.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

So you start this kind of writing relationship with Mueller.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

Yeah. He sent me back a second letter, and this one was thick in the letter.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Mueller confessed to two crimes in Santa Clara county in 2009, six years before Denise and Aaron's attack.

[Commentator/Analyst]

One was in Palo Alto, one was in Mountain View. He broke in, sort of disguised and attempted sexual assault.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Back then, Palo Alto police had identified Mueller as a suspect because he'd been caught prowling in the area. But they didn't have enough to charge him. Now he was coming clean.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

They were full blown confessions with specific details that only the suspect would know.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Mueller also indicated there were even more crimes, but only teased the details in his letters.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

We know that Mueller did some really awful things.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Vern Pearson is the District Attorney of El Dorado county where Denise Huskins was held captive. Although he was not involved with the original investigation in 2024, Pierson also offered to help and wanted to speak with Mueller directly. Pierson thought the best way to get him to open up more was to use a strategy called science based interviewing.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

One of the hallmarks of science based interviewing is speaking to somebody without revealing any judgment you might have about either what they're saying or what you think about them as a person.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

It just strikes me how different what you're talking about is from the way that the Vallejo PD handled Aaron and Denise's case.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

Yeah, they passed judgment that did not happen. And they sought to confirm, confirm, confirm, and, and every time he would say, no, that's not what happened, they would cut him off, change the subject, go back to the theory that they had.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Pierson was determined to do things differently. He brought in a highly trained FBI interviewer who specializes in this technique, and their strategy would pay off.

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

I ordered them out of the tent, told them I had a gun.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

In November 2024, DA Vern Pearson and the FBI interviewer flew to Arizona to speak with Matthew Mueller at the prison where he was serving his 40 year sentence to see what else he might confess, confess to and figure out his motivations.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

He's extraordinarily manipulative, and if he's telling you anything, there is a reason why he's telling you what he's telling you.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

With an audio recorder running, Mueller claimed he now wanted to be upfront about his past because he'd undergone a religious transformation in prison. He shared that in the past he'd struggled with insomnia, which led to taking long walks at night.

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

I started then looking in windows, or it started general curiosity, then went kind of sexual.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Mueller described a long history of voyeurism, admitting that while at Harvard Law School in the early 2000s, he set up a video camera in an office bathroom. This evidence video shows him doing the same thing years later, while on vacation in Hawaii.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

He installed a video camera in a public restroom so he could look at it.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

The more space they gave Mueller to talk, the more depravity he revealed. After several hours, he began talking about yet another home invasion on the border of Contra Costa county, just two weeks after he attacked Denise and Aaron.

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

That night, I climbed up onto the veranda, came in.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Mueller described using a ladder to climb into a family's house and waking up a mother, father, and their teenage son

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

tied them up, telling them that we were some sort of criminal organization that a relative of theirs owed money to.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

He instructed the mother to go to a bank to withdraw a ransom. After she returned with $30,000, Mueller threatened that if they ever told the police, he would come back and harm them. The family never reported it.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

So there was no crime that matched this reported back then?

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

At that time, no, there was nothing.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

That wasn't the only crime Mueller said he'd gotten away with. He recalled another attack, which he said was his first, back when he was a teenager in the suburbs of Sacramento. Mueller said one day he'd walk by some campsites at a state park in nearby Folsom and fixate it on a young couple. He returned that night with a stolen gun.

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

I ordered them out of the tent. I believe I put them both on their stomachs and asked them to put their hands behind their back.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Mueller said he tied up the couple, then carried the woman away and down a bike trail, took the woman across

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

to do something bad to her.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Then he says he saw a light nearby, he sexually assaulted her, then fled.

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

I basically forgot about it pretty quickly. I just put it out of my mind. I didn't like it didn't happen.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Leaving that interview, Pierson set out to prove Mueller committed these crimes.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

Thank you.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Starting with the unreported home invasion, the

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

interviewer had him describe the location, and we had him draw a diagram that kind of roughly showed that. We looked on Google Maps, and we eventually came up with a community that very closely matched the diagram that he had drawn to us.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Pearson wondered if the ladder Muller mentioned using might still be there nine years later. It was a long shot, but his team asked Contra Costa investigators to search the ravine behind that house.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

You can imagine it's like, hey, this was never reported to you. You guys know anything about it? But we think there might be this ladder. Would you go look for it? And a couple hours later, I Get a text message that they found the ladder.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

But how remarkable is that?

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

Pretty remarkable.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

The family who still lived there confirmed everything. Next, Pierson set out to find the campsite victims. His team scoured Folsom and Sacramento county records until finally one of his staffers found a four page state parks report of an incident from August 7, 1993. At the time, Mueller was just 16.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

We look at it, and it's very close to what he described. I mean, virtually identical. Victim exited the tent with two sleeping bags and pillows. And as told by subject, to lay

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

face down in the camp, this had to be it. Pierson notified the Sacramento County District Attorney's office, and criminal investigators Kevin Papineau and Michelle Hendricks took over the investigation.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Back in the day, in the 1990s, did it look pretty much like this?

[Reporter/Investigator]

Essentially up here, it did.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

The campsites are no longer there, and original investigators have died. So Papineau and Hendricks started by retracing Mueller's steps that night.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

So he brings her up here, and again, she. She has no idea what's going on.

[Reporter/Investigator]

Yeah, she doesn't know where she's going.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

My goodness. And that night, this place is pitch black.

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

It must be terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.

[Reporter/Investigator]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

From the report, they knew the victim's boyfriend had found her on this footbridge along the bike trail, untied her, and they had called for help.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Park ranger showed up, a Folsom PD officer showed up, and they took a statement from them, and then they left. The officers left.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Papineau and Hendricks also found photos officers took that night, which showed a gun they believed Mueller dropped when he fled. With no other leads to follow, they reached out to the victims.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

And how old Were you in 1993?

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

I was 19. In the middle of the night, we were awakened to someone hitting the back of our tent.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

We spoke to the female victim in 2025. She's asked us not to show her face and to call her Lynn. This is the first time she's speaking publicly about what happened to her.

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

The only thing I can really remember is just praying, praying for this to stop, praying for him to get away, praying that he doesn't kill me.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Lynn says after she and her boyfriend called for help that night, it didn't feel like the officers were taking her assault seriously.

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

It very much felt like they maybe didn't believe me or believe my boyfriend just by their line of questioning.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Like what?

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

Like with my boyfriend. They asked him, you mean you didn't see the gun? What do you mean you didn't see the gun? Instead of just listening to us and believing what we were telling them.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

She says she called the Parks Department for months asking for updates, but nothing ever came of it.

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

In fact, I even stopped telling people about it as time went on.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Lynn and her boyfriend eventually married and drew strength from each other, but Lynn says it was difficult to ever feel truly safe.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Is there a way to describe the weight that you carry?

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

It's kind of hard to describe because it's just kind of part of who you are now. For many years, I didn't go by myself out at night. Even during the daytime, I'd make sure I would keep an eye over my shoulder of who's around and be aware of my surroundings at all times. I didn't feel comfortable wearing shoes that I felt like I couldn't run in, so, like flip flops or sandals just in case I need to run.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

But that began to change when she first spoke with investigators Papineau and Hendricks.

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

I felt this sense of relief. I knew that I was being believed. I knew that something was getting done about this finally.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

And Lynn felt more relief when she learned her attacker was now behind bars, but she wanted him to be held accountable for what he'd done to her.

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

No, you didn't get away with this. You didn't just move on with your life and forgot that it happened. You don't get to do.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

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[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

And now Campus Files is back for another season.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

There's a guy screaming into his phone. He's like, I just saw Charlie Kirk

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

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[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

It was so chaotic, it's almost like

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

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[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

To learn that he was 16 years old the first time he attacked a couple. It made a lot of sense, but it's also just incredibly disturbing.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn had long suspected Matthew Muller had attacked before. But to learn the details and have the crimes confirmed by investigators was still devastating.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

A lot of people have suffered from this man. Someone breaking in the middle of the night, tying you up. These are things that are nightmares.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

The voyeurism, the stalking. I think it's a way of invading people's lives to terrorize.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

In late 2024, Matthew Mueller was charged with the attempted rapes in Santa Clara county, the first attacks he'd confessed to in the letters. He was flown back to California to face those charges there. He was also charged with attacking the family in Contra Costa. While sitting in the Santa Clara county jail, Mueller wrote another letter.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

He sent a letter to Nick Borges, essentially indicating he had additional information that he wanted to provide to Denise and Aaron.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

He's trying to lure Denise and Aaron into coming.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

I read that letter exactly that way.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

DA Verne Pearson thinks meeting with Denise in particular may have been Mueller's objective for confessing all along.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

D.A. pearson was like, he's confessing to certain things for a reason. They're all in California. I think he wants to get back to California in hopes that he can meet with you.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Even though they were fully aware Mueller may have ulterior motives, Denise and Aaron did still want to talk with him. Mueller had confirmed and given details about other crimes he had committed but still maintained he acted alone in theirs. Denise and Aaron are adamant they heard other people during their attack.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

I felt like maybe of all people, he would be more honest with us.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

But having already spent many hours interviewing Mueller, Pierson did not want them in a room together.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

I didn't think that was a good idea.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

They came up with a compromise. On February 13, 2025, Mueller and his attorney met with Pierson, the FBI interviewer, and Chief Borges at the Santa Clara County Jail. Denise and Aaron were there too, watching from another room. Denise, Aaron are all present in building today and observing this live. Okay.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

They let him know early on in the interview, they're observing. They're not coming in. I think that irritated him. The FBI interviewer had said that conversation was very different.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

When asked why he wanted this meeting, Mueller claimed he was there to help Denise and Aaron.

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

Mostly I had an obligation to make it possible for them to visit with me to get closure on this. It's in a way that I need closure as well.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

But when the FBI agent agent pushed for the answer to Denise and Aaron's question, they are continuing to suffer in

[Reporter/Investigator]

the sense that they continue to believe

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

that there are other people.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

At first, Mueller didn't directly respond and talked in circles.

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

The only other information I could provide in it does go back, get into the religious matter. So, you know, if you are having events that seem to be described by the Bible or the Quran or anything

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

else, I mean, he's just an incredible, incredibly frustrating human.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Eventually, Mueller again denied he'd had accomplices.

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

I guess the best I can do is say, look, every other thing that I've done was a load hacker situation, and I'm just sort of a loner generally.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

But Mueller did go into detail about how he said he had tricked Denise and Aaron into believing he was working with a group.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

He did various steps to make it look as though he had somebody else with him. There was multiple people. He told us that he had used a device that he could make it sound as though he was talking to somebody downstairs and getting a response using a recorder.

[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

I think there was like a whisper tract or something like that, and I pretended to be whispering to someone at the same time.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Do you believe what Mueller was saying about. Well, I was pretending that there were other people in the room.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

I mean, I don't believe everything Mueller says. I know what we saw. We know what we heard.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Although Denise and Aaron didn't get the answers they'd hoped for, they say that confronting Mueller, even through the interviewers was a form of reckoning for us.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

It was more showing that we're not scared of you. We see you, we see who you are.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

And they were determined to see Matthew Mueller face justice for all the crimes there were and persistence had uncovered. In June 2025, he was finally charged with Lynn's attack and faced a life sentence for each of the additional crimes he was now charged with. Denise hoped this would finally lock him away forever.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

I don't believe if he's ever free that he could help himself. I feel like he'll always figure out a way to terrorize someone in some way.

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[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

By the summer of 2025, Matthew Muller was convicted of all the charges brought as a result of the new investigation spurred by Denise and Aaron. At Mueller's sentencing, Lynn read a victim impact statement. Three decades in the making.

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

I think for so many years, feeling like my voice was silenced, feeling like my voice could be heard finally felt very empowering. I got the last word. Now you get to be silent.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Mueller was sentenced to four life terms.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

How does that feel that he's now serving four life sentences for four crimes that he might have never confessed to had you not written that letter?

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

Goosebumps. I have them right now.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Lynn says she felt relief knowing Mueller would stay locked up while she walked free. Finally able to live without fear and enjoy old pastimes and new ones.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

How are you with going outdoors and camping now?

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

It's easier now. And one of the ways that we were able to do that was through playing disc golf. It gave me something to focus on outdoors. The. That felt safe again.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

She is also connected with Denise.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

She actually reached out to me on Instagram when I saw, you know, I'm Matthew Mohler's first victim, like, I was

[Lynn (Victim from 1993 attack)]

like, what I wanted to say thank you and just let her know that 32 years of waiting was finally over because of her continuing to Seek answers.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

While Lynn finally has answers. Denise and Aaron still questioned whether Mueller acted alone. DA Vern Pearson hoped forensics could prove if there was another assailant. Pearson learned Vallejo police had only done preliminary testing on Denise's rape kit. So his office had it fully tested in 2025.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

Well, there were. Results are essentially inconclusive.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Pierson says the test showed a mixture of DNA, including Mueller's. So they can't rule out the possibility that Denise could also have been assaulted by someone else. But Pierson doesn't think so.

[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

Based on everything I know, I don't believe that there was an accomplice. I think that was a ruse that he created and perpetuated very successfully.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Chief Borges isn't so sure.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Do you think Mueller had accomplices?

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

I think it's very possible. I certainly think it's very possible.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

But Borges and Pearson both believe Mueller committed additional crimes.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

Everywhere that man traveled, he was a threat.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

And Chief Borges says it's possible Mueller went even further.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

One of the times I interviewed him, I asked him if he ever killed anybody. It just seemed like an appropriate question. He kind of told me that he didn't have the heart to do that.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

Do you believe him?

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

Not fully. I don't fully believe him. I mean, at what point do you actually stop?

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Chief Borges says he hasn't stopped investigating, looking for other crimes and accomplices.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

If anyone else involved, we're coming for you. Just trust me. We're going to get you if you're involved.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Today, Denise and Aaron continue to speak to law enforcement, trying to change how officers interview victims and suspects.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

Denise has said not being believed was more traumatic in many ways to her than the actual assaults themselves. If that doesn't open your eyes in law enforcement, something's wrong with you.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Chief Borges says that is the biggest lesson he's learned from Denise and Aaron.

[Nick Borges (Police Chief)]

We have to believe victims when they come forward. We have to listen to what they say and follow the evidence.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

Despite all they've been through, the Quinns say that while their case revealed a lot of problems, it also shows the solutions.

[Denise Huskins (Victim)]

We understand it's a really hard job. People make mistakes. What you're hoping is that people recognize mistakes, they learn from mistakes, and it changes their actions going forward again.

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

It's bittersweet to be able to be here and reclaim this as something positive.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

And these unlikely advocates are determined to use their voices for good over us in our life.

[Interviewer/Investigator]

I don't think anyone would blame you if the two of you said, okay, enough. We don't need to talk about this anymore. Why not just move on?

[Aaron Quinn (Victim)]

I think there's a sense of responsibility. The publicity was so damaging to us in the beginning. And so I feel like, in a way, having this strange, unique position, it almost seems irresponsible to not utilize it in a positive way that can maybe help others.

[Reporter/Advertiser]

Kenny park left the Vallejo Police Department in 2020. Matthew Mustard retired in 2024. 48 Hours was unable to reach them for a comment.

[Narrator/Lead Storyteller]

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[District Attorney Vern Pearson]

There's no driving records, nothing tangible.

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[Matthew Mueller (Perpetrator)]

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