‘Gone Girl’ kidnapper charged in previous home invasions: prosecutors

• Matthew Muller, who is behind bars for the infamous “missing girl kidnapping” case, now faces charges for a series of home invasions that occurred years earlier, prosecutors confirmed.
• The charges relate to cases in California dating back to 2009, according to a statement from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
• “The details of this person’s violent crime spree seem like they were written in a Hollywood script, but they are tragically real,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said of the update, according to the statement.

The man who pleaded guilty to the infamous 2015 case “Kidnapping of the missing girl” He now faces charges in a series of other home invasions in California, authorities said.

On Monday, December 30, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Matthew Muller, 47, who was the subject of the 2024 Netflix documentary series. american nightmarewhich chronicled the kidnapping of Denise Huskins of Vallejo, had been accused of “a series of home invasion sexual assaults in Mountain View and Palo Alto 15 years ago,” according to a release.

Prosecutors said “notorious kidnapping convict” Muller had been charged after authorities were able to use “advances in forensic DNA testing” following a new lead into the 2009 crimes, the statement added.

“The District Attorney’s Office coordinated with the Palo Alto and Mountain View police departments to send all evidence to the DA crime lab for further testing,” authorities said in the post.

“The district attorney’s criminalists found Muller’s DNA on the straps he used to bind one of the victims. Police agencies and the district attorney’s office conducted a follow-up investigation that resulted in the current charges.” , he added.

Muller, a former Marine and Harvard-educated lawyer who was later disbarred, now faces “two felonies for committing sexual assault.” He faces life in prison if convicted, according to the statement.

The district attorney’s office alleged that Muller, who PEOPLE reported He had been sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2017 for the 2015 kidnapping of Huskins: “he broke into a woman’s home in Mountain View, attacked her, tied her up, made her drink a concoction of medication and said he was going to rape her.” “. in the early hours of September 29, 2009, according to the statement.

“After the victim, in his 30s, talked him out of it, he suggested she get a dog and then fled,” the post alleges.

Muller is also accused of breaking into a Palo Alto home on October 18, 2009, where he allegedly “bound and gagged a woman in her 30s and forced her to drink Nyquil.”

“He then began assaulting her, before he was convinced to stop. Muller gave the victim crime prevention advice and then fled,” prosecutors alleged in the statement.

“The details of this person’s violent crime spree seem written in a Hollywood script, but they are tragically real,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, according to the publication.

“Our goal is to make sure this defendant is held accountable and never hurt or terrorized anyone again. Our hope is that this nightmare ends,” Rosen added.

Prosecutors recalled how Muller “gained national infamy” six years after the Huskins kidnapping case, which has been compared to the plot of the 2014 film. missing girlstarring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck. The film followed the release of Gillian Flynn’s 2012 book about a hoax disappearance.

“On March 23, 2015, Muller broke into a Vallejo home, where he drugged and tied up a young couple. He kidnapped Ms. Huskins, took her to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, and sexually assaulted her. Two days later, Muller took his victim to Southern California and freed her,” the Prosecutor’s Office recalled about the kidnapping in the December 30 publication.

Police initially thought the invasion and kidnapping were a hoax perpetrated by Huskins’ boyfriend, Aaron Quinn. However, authorities eventually apologized and Muller was arrested in June 2015.

After Muller’s sentencing, Quinn said he “strategically destroyed our lives,” the San Francisco Chronicle previously reported.

“I cannot and will never be the same,” he said at the time, according to the outlet. “My family will never be the same.”

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“Muller, who pleaded guilty in 2016 to the kidnapping and in 2022 to the sexual assaults of Ms. Huskins, is currently incarcerated in a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona,” the district attorney’s office said in the Dec. 30 statement. .

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.