8 Questions American Nightmare Left Unanswered

Thank you, 2024. So far just in January, you’ve given us some great true crime docuseries, including Natalia Speaks and now American Nightmare.

All I knew about the case covered in American Nightmare prior to watching was how Netflix described it:

After a home invasion and abduction, a young couple’s recounting of the events is too far fetched for the police to believe. Why did the victims seem so calm? Was it all a hoax? From the filmmakers behind The Tinder Swindler, this three-part docuseries unravels the consequences of our cultural rush to judgment, and the damage done when law enforcement decides the truth can’t possibly be true.

“From the filmmakers behind The Tinder Swindler,” was the hook that caught me. They did a great job with that. What would they have to offer in this one?

Wow. A lot of crazy.

But for as good as it was, there were things they left unanswered. We’ll examine those, but let’s first review the case that started when Denise Huskins was abducted from her then-boyfriend (now husband) Aaron Quinn’s Vallejo, California, home early in the morning on March 23, 2015.

The Vallejo Gone Girl Case

Episode 1 tells Quinn’s side of events and how an intruder (or intruders) surprised him and Huskins while they slept. She was instructed to zip-tie Quinn’s hands behind his back, and a pair of blacked-out swim goggles were put over his eyes. He’d also later tell police a curious detail about the intruder(s) clothing: he (or they) were wearing a wet suit. Both Quinn and Huskins were also drugged.

Quinn woke up hours later with instructions not to leave a marked-off section of his living room or call the cops. If he did, they’d know, thanks to a camera that had been installed on his ceiling and was pointed at him.

He received a ransom request and set about trying to come up with the cash. But then he also decided to call 911. Police came, took him in for questioning, and did not believe his story. They were immediately convinced Huskins was dead and Quinn had killed her. Especially when Quinn admitted Huskins had caught him texting with his former fiance, Andrea.

Plot Twist 1: Denise Huskins Returns

But then there were a couple of plot twists. Someone sent Henry K. Lee, a then-reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle, an audio file named “Denise Huskins.” It turned out to be a proof of life statement. But she sounded so calm that it instantly raised red flags.

Then, 48 hours after her abduction, Huskins turned up 400 miles south down in Huntington Beach. A surveillance camera captured the moment she casually strolled up to a building carrying a purse, a duffle bag, and a backpack. Like her proof of life recording, she was so calm. She didn’t exhibit any of the panic you might expect from someone who was just released from captivity.

What was going on? Was the whole thing a hoax? Had she gotten the idea from the movie Gone Girl, which was released the year before, to get some kind of revenge on Aaron for staying in touch with his ex?

That’s what the police assumed and then accused her of. The media ran with it. Suddenly, Huskins and Quinn both found their previously private lives made very public and their reputations and credibility shredded.

In episode 2, Huskins shares her side of the story, including how she was put in a trunk, taken to a remote cabin, mentally tormented and then raped twice before she was ultimately driven to Huntington Beach and released. She also talks about the humiliation and shock at the police not believing her.

Plot Twist 2: The Mare Island Creeper

Both Quinn and Huskins seemed genuine and authentic as they recounted their nightmarish memories of events. But I kept wondering about what Huskins was carrying when she showed back up. That’s one of the questions, so I’ll hold off on saying more about that for now.

And some of the things her abductor did, like show her the news footage of her dad offering her encouragement if she happened to watch, seemed off. Why would he want to offer her a glimmer of hope and encouragement like that? It was easy to see why Vallejo police leaped to the conclusions they had.

But then, in a fortuitous twist of fate, a new detective, Sgt. Misty Carausu of the Dublin Police Department, found her way to the case. She connected dots others had missed and persisted in looking for a matching victim to a strand of blond hair she’d discovered on a pair of blacked-out goggles one of her cases led her to.

That’s how she discovered the case of the peeping Tom in the community of Mare Island, California. Between that, a stolen Mustang, and a cell phone left behind at the scene of another crime, she tied Matthew Muller to Denise Huskins’ case.

Boom. Just like that, Carausu’s determination and good detective work annihilated the Gone Girl copycat assumption. She not only ended up catching a serial rapist, but she also proved Quinn and Huskins had been telling the truth all along.

The Questions

For all the hell Quinn and Huskins went through and endured, their story does have a happy ending. This was a relationship-defining experience. Either it was going to make them or break them. It made them. They got married and now have two beautiful young children.

As you might imagine, with the spectacularly public way the police labeled the couple hoaxsters, a lawsuit was filed. Rather than taking it to court, the city of Vallejo and the police department settled for $2.5 million. This leads to one of the questions I had later in the documentary, but I’ll start with it.

What will happen to Det. Mat Mustard or FBI agent David Sesma after this documentary?

American Nightmare shows a lot of footage of both men in action questioning Quinn and Huskins. Mustard comes off particularly insensitive and vile when questioning Huskins, but Sesma’s actions are also pretty contemptible.

Now, in their defense, maybe their tactics normally work in solving cases. Maybe they just failed spectacularly in this one. But if this indicates their typical work style and mindsets, how can anyone trust any results they’ve gotten solving cases since or prior? Will this documentary bring a sort of karmic retribution to their reputations?

Why didn’t evidence corroborate Aaron’s story?

It became clear pretty quick that Det. Mustard was struggling to believe Aaron’s story, which he called “far-fetched.”

To his credit, odds are, when a woman goes missing, usually the boyfriend or husband had something to do with it. And Aaron’s story really was an “elaborate” one, starting with the wetsuits and blackout goggles. But there was also no sign of forced entry. And why would someone only ask $15,000-$20,000 for ransom? Aren’t ransoms usually more? The comforter from Aaron’s bed was also missing. Presumably, wrapped with his girlfriend in it.

Yeah. It didn’t look good for Aaron. And Det. Mustard, the self-professed “puzzle maker”—and who freely admitted he’s determined to make Quinn the monster—is clearly struggling with Quinn’s story.

In a press conference, Lt. Kenny Park, spokesperson for the Vallejo Police Department, summed up Mustard’s doubt best.

“The statement that Mr. Quinn provided was such an incredible story,” Park said, “we initially had a hard time believing it. And upon further investigation, we were not able to substantiate any of the things that he was saying.”

Huh? Why not? Was his car not missing? He told the agents he heard it start up and drive away. And what about the camera? Did they not find that in his house where he told them the intruder had installed it? Quinn also gave blood samples. Could they not test his blood to see if drugs were in his system like he said they were?

FBI agent Sesma didn’t graduate very high up in his class, did he?

After he gives Quinn the polygraph, Agent Sesma says, “You’re going to lose the respect of your family. You’re going to destroy them ’cause they’re going to defend you, and everything that they’ve worked hard for will get flushed down the toilet. You’re going to be that cold, calculated, brutal serial killing monster that strangled the life out of her, killed her, and then callously dumped her body somewhere where we’ll never find it.”

Um, it takes more than one murder to make a serial killer. In fact, from the FBI’s own site, it takes three or more.

There wasn’t even one confirmed body in Quinn’s case, so why did Sesma jump right to him being a serial killer?

What was up with all the bags Huskins was carrying upon her return?

A crossbody was slung across her torso and she carried a duffel in one arm and a backpack on her back. It looked like she was coming home from a weekend getaway.

They never addressed that during the doc. Did her abductor let her gather up things, or had he already done that for her? Was the duffel and backpack hers or his? And what was in them?

Did any of the nasty Internet trolls ever apologize to Huskins?

As they’re apt to do, many Internet armchair detectives drew conclusions about the case from what they believed was a reliable source: the media. Technically, they should’ve been able to trust that since the media’s info came straight from the Vallejo PD.

Sadly, however, the Vallejo PD’s conclusions were biased, ill-investigated and wrong. As a result, Internet trolls had a lot of awful things to say about and to Huskins. Well, “say” in the form of vicious comments and messages via social media.

It’s funny how quickly people will hop on the Nasty Bus, but did any of them take the time to offer apologies once the truth came out?

How did Muller get in and know the victims’ names?

American Nightmare never did reveal how Muller gained access to Quinn’s home. But it also didn’t specify how he entered the homes of other victims talked about in the series.

Did he pick locks? Somehow get a copy of their keys? Did he stalk them prior to his attacks? He seemed to know his victims, including their names, which he’d addressed them by during their attacks. Just how calculated and planned were his attacks?

Was Andrea really the target?

In her testimony, Huskins said that at one point during her captivity, Muller apologized that she’d been abducted. It was actually Andrea, Quinn’s ex, who was supposed to be targeted. What? How did he know about her? Again, it makes me wonder how much planning went into his crimes.

Was there really more than one intruder?

Quinn and Huskins suggested there was another intruder with Muller when he broke into their home. Denise said she heard other voices at the cabin Muller took her to, even though he was the only one who interacted with her.

He never admitted to one when he pleaded guilty to kidnapping Huskins, but did Muller have an accomplice? Let’s hope not.

Check-In

Did American Nightmare leave you with any unanswered questions?