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SAN FRANCISCO (TNND) — The man known as the “Gone Girl” kidnapper was recently linked to two “violent” crimes committed in California 15 years ago, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
Matthew Muller, 47, a former attorney and U.S. Marine who was previously convicted for the 2015 abduction of Denise Huskins, is now facing two felony counts of committing a sexual assault during a home invasion in 2009.
“The details of this person’s violent crime spree seem scripted for Hollywood, but they are tragically real,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said Monday in a news release. “Our goal is to make sure this defendant is held accountable and will never hurt or terrorize anyone ever again. Our hope is that this nightmare is over.”
Prosecutors said Muller broke into a woman’s Mountain View home Sept. 29, 2009. He allegedly attacked the woman before tying her up and making her drink “a concoction of medications.”
He also alleged told her 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,” according to the release.
Less than a month later, on Oct. 18, prosecutors said Muller broke into a house in Palo Alto. There, he allegedly bound and gagged another woman in her 30s and forced her to drink Nyquil.
“He then began to assault her, before being persuaded to stop. Muller gave the victim crime prevention advice, then fled,” the release noted.
Prosecutors said the crimes remained unsolved for 15 years, but credited recent advances in forensic DNA testing for connecting them to Muller.
“Following a new lead, the District Attorney’s Office coordinated with the Palo Alto and Mountain View police departments to send all evidence back to the DA Crime lab for further testing. District Attorney Criminalists found Muller’s DNA on straps he used to bind one of the victims,” prosecutors said. “The police agencies and the District Attorney’s Office then conducted follow up investigation that resulted in the current charges.”
In 2017, Muller was sentenced to 40 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to kidnapping Huskins, as well as sexually assaulting her.
Prosecutors said Muller broke into Huskins’ house, where she lived with her boyfriend, In 2015. Muller, said prosecutors, drugged them both and tied them up before taking Huskins to a cabin and sexually assaulting her.
“Two days later, Muller drove his victim to Southern California and released her,” prosecutors noted. “Police initially believed the invasion and kidnapping was a hoax perpetrated by the boyfriend, a twist that the media called a ‘real life ‘Gone Girl’,’ referring to the hit film and novel ‘Gone Girl.'”
Muller, however, was arrested for kidnapping Huskins following what prosecutors described as “a violent Dublin home invasion.”
If Muller is convicted on the news charges, he faces life in prison.
