FBI obtains kidnap suspect's "off the record" interview with CBS affiliate
VALLEJO, Calif. --The man charged in a bizarre California kidnapping that police initially dismissed as a hoax allegedly said he acted alone in the plot in an "off the record" jailhouse interview with a local CBS station that has since been obtained by the FBI.
Federal prosecutors charged Matthew Muller - a disbarred Harvard University-trained attorney - with the March kidnapping of Denise Huskins from her Vallejo, California, home. Huskins, 29, turned up safe two days later in her hometown of Huntington Beach, where she says she was dropped off, hours before a ransom demand was due.
In the July KPIX interview recorded by the jail and outlined in an FBI affidavit in support of a search warrant, Muller allegedly "ascribed his conduct to mental illness, a belief in some kind of conspiracy, and some kind of supposed side effect from a vaccine." In a conversation with KPIX that Muller said was "off the record and on the background," Muller said that he acted alone as he discussed the kidnapping.
KPIX reporter Juliette Goodrich didn't include portions of the conversation Muller said were off the record in her television report, according to the station. But the jail, which warns people that it records conversations with inmates, recorded the interview, including the portions that the accused requested to be off the record, the FBI said.
"When Muller told me in our jailhouse interview, 'you cannot use certain things I am telling you in your publication,' I did not," Goodrich said, according to KPIX. "However it turns out 'off the record' does not pertain to the feds."
Goodrich did report that Muller said he felt bad for the kidnapping victim and thought the victim deserved an apology.
News of the FBI's access to the jailhouse interview was first reported by Wired.
Police in Vallejo initially said they had no evidence to indicate the case was an abduction and dubbed it the "Gone Girl" case - referring to a book and movie about a mysterious disappearance - but after Muller was charged by federal prosecutors, they've declined to comment.
Attorneys for the woman and her boyfriend have demanded police issue an apology, calling Huskins "100 percent, positively a victim."
'There was an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence that linked Muller to the crime but now there's direct evidence which is his detailed admission he was the kidnapper that was recorded during your jailhouse interview," Huskins' attorney, Doug Rappaport, told Goodrich Wednesday.
Muller was arrested in Huskins' case following an attempted Dublin, Calif. home invasion in June which allegedly had similarities to the Vallejo kidnapping, according to the FBI. Police said in that incident, one of the victims managed to fight back and Muller lost his cellphone at the scene. The cell phone number pointed police to Muller's South Lake Tahoe address and in turn much of the evidence against him in the Vallejo case, according to the FBI.
The FBI has said that evidence includes a water pistol with a flashlight and laser pointer on it, a laptop that resembled one Aaron Quinn had, a pair of goggles with hair on it the same color as the victim's, and a vehicle navigation system that turned up the same address of the home where Huskins resurfaced.
The FBI also uncovered four aerial drones - two of which had cameras -- and a wireless video camera and receiver in a Vallejo storage locker they say links Muller to Huskins' kidnapping, according to the affidavit.
Muller's attorney, Thomas Johnson, is asking a judge to throw out much of the evidence in the case, saying it was obtained through an illegal search of the cellphone. The judge has not yet ruled on that, Johnson told 48 Hours' Crimesider.
Johnson said his client's statement to KPIX didn't amount to a confession, though he said he hadn't heard it and couldn't comment beyond that. Muller has pleaded not guilty in the Dublin case and plans to plead not guilty in Huskins' case, too, Johnson said.
The FBI said in a July statement that in the early morning on March 23 in Vallejo, Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, were awakened by a bright light.
Quinn told police he heard a noise similar to a stun gun, and then a man, who authorities allege was Matthew Muller, told Huskins and Quinn to lie face down on the bed.
According to FBI documents, Quinn said the man told Huskins to bind Quinn's hands and feet with zip ties and forced them both into a closet before Huskins was taken to the next bedroom.
Tape-covered goggles were allegedly put over Quinn's eyes, along with headphones on his ears playing a prerecorded message that said the break-in was being done by a professional group collecting debts and that both victims would receive electric shocks and cuts on their faces if they didn't cooperate.
The recording said Quinn would be drugged with what he described as "1/4 a bottle of Diazepam and Nyquil," according to the FBI. The recording said that a camera would be placed in the home to monitor him, and responding officers found a small surveillance camera in the home.
The FBI said the suspect then allegedly retrieved Quinn's bank account information from his laptop.
Quinn said he was placed on the couch and fell asleep. When he woke up he said he was able to free himself.
He found that Huskins, his laptop and his car were missing. Huskins was located two days later.
During that time, police received a ransom demand of $8,500, in exchange for Huskins' safe return. Two days later, she was found near her parents' house in Huntington Beach, Calif.
The affidavit states that the victim was sexually assaulted during the kidnapping.
During the time Huskins was missing, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter received an anonymous email with a link to an audio file "stripped of identifying data" that depicts a female voice identifying herself as the kidnapping victim, according to the FBI. The FBI did not name Huskins in the document. The woman said "she is still alive because she knows of the German airliner that crashed in the French Alps, and that it was in fact her as her first concert she went to was Blink 182," the affidavit states.
The affidavit also outlines two 2009 home invasions that have eerie similarities to Huskins' case.
In the early morning hours of Sept. 29, 2009, a 27-year-old victim was sleeping in her Mountain View, Calif. apartment when she awoke to an unknown man on her back, according to the FBI. The man told her that this was a robbery and he was there for identity theft purposes, according to the affidavit - he said he needed to wire money offshore for fraudulent activity.
The man was masked and wearing tight-fitting black clothing, the FBI stated, and he handcuffed the victim's hands and used Velcro to bind her feet. At one point, the suspect placed something the victim said she thought were blacked out swim goggles over her eyes.
The suspect made the victim drink a small amount of what she thought was Nyquil, the affidavit states. The suspect asked the victim questions including her date of birth, mother's maiden name and social security number, according to the FBI.
Muller hasn't been charged in that incident. Mountain View police didn't immediately return a call for comment from 48 Hours' Crimesider.
Several days before the Mountain View incident, Muller was interviewed by police after he was seen walking in the area in Palo Alto where a resident said he saw a suspicious person coming out of the back of an apartment building and entering the back of another apartment building. Muller told an officer he was a visiting professor from Harvard teaching at Stanford, but police later determined he wasn't teaching at Stanford.
Several weeks later, on Oct. 18, 2009, the FBI says a 32-year-old victim - a Harvard University student studying at Stanford - was sleeping in her Palo Alto apartment when she awoke to an unknown man wearing tight-fitting black clothing straddling her. The man said it was a robbery, and that he was there for information. He allegedly restrained the woman's arms, tied her ankles using Velcro, used surgical tape to cover her eyes, and forced her to drink Nyquil, the document states.
The suspect asked the victim for information including PIN numbers, email addresses and passwords, and her family members' addresses and social security numbers, according to the affidavit. The victim later told police she believed he was asking the questions to make some kind of overseas transaction.
The suspect attempted to rape the victim and threatened to inject her with the sedative and pain killer Ketamine, the affidavit states, but then stopped the attempt.
The FBI says the victim was connected to Muller because she had attended a 2008 event at Harvard University which he had organized. Muller was later interviewed in the case by a detective, the affidavit states.
Palo Alto police told Crimesider Muller remains the only suspect in that case, and they'll review evidence in the Dublin and Vallejo cases to see if there's any evidence that could assist in their investigation.
"The fact that Muller knew facts about his victims indicates that he probably conducted online research of his targets," the FBI affidavit states. "These recurring crimes involving nighttime home intrusions in which passwords are demanded indicates some plan for further use of computers and/or the Internet for crime."
Johnson, Muller's lawyer, said his client hasn't been charged in either the Mountain View case or the Palo Alto case, and that the events outlined in the FBI affidavit don't amount to formal allegations.
On Nov. 13, 2009, Muller was reported missing by his then wife, according to the affidavit. He allegedly left a note stored on a USB drive that read, "I am going completely off the grid - no phone, email, credit cards, etc., so please do not try to reach me as it will only draw attention."
His family later received an automated email in which Muller allegedly stated he had "problems beyond his mental health."
"I lie in terror most of the time and can't keep up appearances any longer," the email reportedly said. "This is perhaps the least extreme thing I can do to resolve it that does not also expose everybody to criminal liability."
Two days later, the affidavit states, Muller called his then-wife from Utah, and she picked him up.
Muller, a former U.S. Marine, attended Harvard University where he also taught, according to court documents. He was admitted to the California state bar in 2011, and was disbarred in 2015.