true crime

Woman Falsely Accused of Faking Her Gone Girl–Like Kidnapping in 2015 Says She’s Still Being Harassed Online

Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn. Photo: Mike Jory/AP

Early in 2015, Denise Huskins alleged that she was kidnapped for ransom from her home in Vallejo, California, while her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, was left drugged and tied up. After she turned up two days later at her parents’ home near Los Angeles, police said her disappearance was a hoax, citing that Huskins apparently “did not act like a kidnapping victim.”

Later that year, Matthew Muller, a former attorney and Harvard law graduate, pleaded guilty to kidnapping Huskins. However, Huskins says she still faces an onslaught of online abuse from people who continue to believe that she faked her own kidnapping. In a Facebook post from Sunday, Huskins shared a screengrab of a message she received that contained a barrage of insults directed at “that horrible lying woman who faked her own kidnapping.”

“After reading this I went into one of my many PTSD episodes of terror. My jaw and back are sore from the deep powerful shaking and reflexive tension that my whole body goes into,” Huskins wrote. “My eyes are sore and red from uncontrollable tears. I am thoroughly exhausted, every inch of my body is tired from the fit of terror it was battling.”

“All I did was survive, and I was criminalized for it,” she added.

On Monday, she returned to Facebook to thank people for their “warm and powerful responses” to her initial post.

Muller is scheduled to be sentenced in March.

Woman Accused of Faking Her Kidnapping Facing Online Abuse