'American Nightmare' kidnapper pleads guilty to crimes committed as teen
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Editor’s Note: This story contains discussions of rape or sexual assault that may be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can find help and discreet resources on the National Sexual Assault Hotline website or by calling 1-800-656-4673.

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Matthew Muller, the notorious kidnapper who held Denise Huskins captive and broke into several San Francisco Bay Area women’s homes, began his criminal career when he was just 16 years old.

On Wednesday, Muller pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young girl who was camping in a tent near Folsom Lake in 1993, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said. Then-16-year-old Muller ordered two young campers out of their tent at gunpoint. “He tied up the male and carried the female away to sexually assault her,” SCDAO wrote.

Muller, 48, was featured in a Netflix documentary, “American Nightmare,” that chronicled Huskins’ harrowing story of survival.

Aaron Quinn, left, and Denise Huskins, right, appear at a law enforcement training event in Seaside, California in March 2024. (KRON4 / Amy Larson)

On March 23, 2015, Muller broke into a Vallejo home where he tied up Huskins and her boyfriend. He kidnapped Huskins, brought her to his cabin in South Lake Tahoe, and recorded videos of rapes. Two days later, Muller drove Huskins to Southern California and released her.

The Folsom Lake sex assault went unsolved for 32 years. During that time, Muller joined the U.S. Marines, graduated from Harvard University, and became an attorney.

Investigators described him as an “exceptionally intelligent” predator who meticulously planned and practiced. Between 1993 and when he was finally caught and jailed in 2015 — Muller left behind “a trail of traumatized and terrified victims,” prosecutors said.

Denise Huskins
Denise Huskins talks to reporters in Seaside, Calif. on Jan. 7, 2025. (KRON4 Photo)

The Vallejo Police Department initially accused Huskins of faking her own kidnapping in a “Gone Girl” inspired hoax.

Following the release of “American Nightmare,” Huskins and Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges teamed up and found new evidence to reopen cold cases in Santa Clara County, Contra Costa County, and El Dorado County dating back to the early 1990s.

Muller was serving prison time for the Huskins case when he began exchanging letters with Borges in 2024, court documents show. In his letters, Muller admitted to committing more crimes across Northern California. The inmate explained in detail how he broke into women’s homes in Mountain View and Palo Alto in 2009, tied victims up, sexually assaulted them, and eluded investigators, according to court documents.

He also confessed to the 1993 Folsom Lake crime, prosecutors said.

Matthew Muller is seen in mugshots from 2015 and 2018. (Images via Solano County District Attorney’s Office)

The serial predator was first arrested in the summer of 2015 after Dublin police found enough evidence to connect him to the Huskins case and a violent Dublin home invasion. 

This week, Sacramento County prosecutors wrote, “The 32-year cold case was recently filed after evidence linked Muller, now age 48, to the crime.”

Muller was sentenced Wednesday to serve 11 years to life for the Folsom Lake sex assault. He will serve the sentence consecutively with a life sentence ordered by a judge of the Santa Clara County home invasions, as well as a 40-year federal prison sentence for crimes committed against Huskins.

Denise Huskins walks into a news conference in San Francisco on Sept. 29, 2016. (Photo By Paul Chinn/ The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho said, “This case is a powerful reminder that the pursuit of justice never ends. Matthew Muller’s admission to the horrific kidnapping and sexual assault of a young girl in 1993 brings long-overdue justice for the victims. A dangerous sex offender is being held responsible for his crimes in our community.”

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