Vallejo Kidnapping Suspect May Have Ties To Palo Alto, Mountain View & Dublin Home Invasions
PALO ALTO (KPIX 5) – A man who has been charged in the bizarre kidnapping plot of a Vallejo woman may have begun his crime spree years earlier. Police said he might have ties to cold cases in Palo Alto and Mountain View and another in Dublin.
A woman who lived alone in this small rental on a quiet Palo Alto street woke up to a strange man in her home back in 2009. It was the middle of the night. And police say he bound and blindfolded her, and threatened to rob and sexually assault her.
"This case really was concerning to us right from the get go," said Lt. Zach Perron of the Palo Alto Police Department. "It's remained concerning to us because it has remained unsolved for almost 6 years now."
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The FBI affidavit released Monday revealed that Matthew Muller is a suspect in this home invasion robbery.
Radhesh Kamath man has been living in the Amherst Street home for the last two years. "It's really nice, it's a nice area," he told KPIX 5. "It's just bizarre. it's hard to believe that it happened here."
Muller could also be linked to another incident 5 miles away, at an apartment on Silverwood Avenue in Mountain View.
"It was a female victim, similar age, who was also restrained and blindfolded in her home in the middle of the night by a suspect with roughly the same physical description, which was a very vague description of being tall and lean," Perron said.
Palo Alto police would not say when Muller named a suspect in their case. Police hope Monday's development break will lead to new evidence or information that will help bring Matthew Muller to justice.
The FBI believes Muller's crime spree ended with a break-in at a Dublin home last Friday.
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It allegedly started much like the incident in Vallejo.
He came in with zip ties and police say he attempted to tie up two people, but they fought him off and one of them called 911.
Police say Muller left behind his cell phone, which police used to track him a home in Lake Tahoe where he was arrested.