BY AMELIA BISCARDI
Daily Post Staff Writer
Six years before he abducted Denise Huskins in a notorious case that generated the “American Nightmare” documentary series, Matthew Muller allegedly assaulted two women in Palo Alto and Mountain View, authorities said today (Dec. 30).
The case against Muller, 47, currently serving 40 years in federal prison in the Huskins case, has been tied to the two local cases from 2009 through new DNA testing and a renewed investigation, according to Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
In the 2009 cases, Muller allegedly broke into the homes of two women, made them drink something, and threatened to rape them.
Muller’s DNA was found on a velcro strap he allegedly used to bind one of the 2009 victims, according to Rosen.
Authorities allege that the early hours of Sept. 29, 2009, Muller broke into a woman’s Mountain View home, attacked her and tied her up, made her drink a concoction of medications, and said he was going to rape her.
“After the victim, in her 30s, persuaded him against it, he suggested the victim get a dog, then fled,” the district attorney’s office said.
In the second attack, on Oct. 18, 2009, Muller allegedly “broke into a Palo Alto home, bound and gagged a woman in her 30s and made her drink Nyquil,” prosecutors said. Muller allegedly started to assault her but was persuaded by the victim to stop. “Muller gave the victim crime prevention advice, then fled,” the district attorney’s office said.
Muller was identified as a suspect in the Oct. 18, 2009, attack, but there wasn’t enough evidence to make an arrest at the time, according to previous Post reporting. Police took a fresh look at Mueller after his 2015 arrest.
Muller was convicted in 2016 for breaking into a Vallejo home in 2015, drugging a couple and kidnapping one of them, Denise Huskins.
He then brought her to his cabin in Tahoe and sexually assaulted her for two days, asking for a ransom and then freeing her in Huntington Beach. Vallejo police initially believed the invasion and kidnapping was a hoax perpetrated by Huskins’ boyfriend, generating the reference to the novel and film “Gone Girl.”
Muller was eventually arrested for both the Vallejo kidnapping and a violent Dublin home invasion.
Rosen said today that Huskin has been working with the police chief in Seaside, a town in Monterey County, that kicked the renewed investigation into motion.
“(Huskins) spoke to the Seaside police chief, which set up a chain of events in motion, which let us being able to solve these two cases that happened in Palo Alto,” Rosen said.
Rosen said his office is charging Muller with the Mountain View assault as well because they occurred weeks after each other and had the same MO.
“We are extremely proud of the dogged efforts of our investigators, who never let this case go and worked collaboratively with our partners at the Mountain View Police Department and the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office to re-interview the suspect and bring him back to California to face these charges,” Palo Alto Police Capt. James Reifschneider said.
Muller is set to be back in court on Jan. 17 and enter a plea to two felony counts related to the 2009 home invasions. He remains in jail on no bail status.
-Bay City News contributed to this report
Kudos to survivor Denise Huskins and DA Jeff Rosen for tracking this guy down 15 years later. Statewide statute is 10 years, but DAs have 12 mos to file charges on newly ID’d DNA matches like this.
Every Vallejo police officer who thought this was a hoax should’ve been fired. This guy needs to spend the rest of his life in prison with no parole. Kudos to the two women who talked him out of raping them.
According to the documentary Mountain View police did not believe the victim.