‘Gone Girl’ kidnapper charged in home invasions from years earlier
Dublin Police Services, FILE
(CALIFORNIA) — The man who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Northern California woman in a case that became known nationwide as the “Gone Girl” kidnapping has now been charged with other break-ins and assaults from years earlier, prosecutors announced on Monday.
Matthew Muller — who pleaded guilty in the 2015 kidnapping and sexual assault of Denise Huskins — has now been charged in connection with two other home invasions from 2009, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office said.
In the first attack, on Sept. 29, 2009, Muller allegedly broke into a woman’s home in Mountain View, tied her up, forced her drink a mix of medications and told her he was going to rape her, prosecutors said. The woman “persuaded him against it,” and Muller then allegedly suggested she get a dog and fled the scene, prosecutors said.
Weeks later, on Oct. 18, 2009, Muller allegedly broke into a home in Palo Alto, bound and gagged a woman and forced her to drink NyQuil, prosecutors said. “He then began to assault her, before being persuaded to stop,” prosecutors said. “Muller gave the victim crime prevention advice, then fled.”
Muller faces two felony counts of committing a sexual assault during a home invasion, prosecutors said.
Muller, who is currently in a federal prison in Arizona, is expected to be arraigned Monday.
On March 23, 2015, Muller broke into a home in Vallejo, where he drugged and tied up Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, prosecutors said.
He kidnapped Huskins and took her to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, where he sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.
Quinn went to the police, who started to consider him a suspect.
After two days held captive, Muller drove Huskins to Southern California and released her.
Once Huskins was freed, the couple was then accused of a hoax, and the case set off a media firestorm fueled by suggestions that the case mirrored the book and movie “Gone Girl.”
Muller was arrested for Huskins’ kidnapping in June 2015 when he was identified as a suspect in a home invasion in Dublin, California.
Muller pleaded guilty in 2016 to Huskins’ kidnapping and in 2022 to her sexual assaults, prosecutors said.
The case became the subject of the Netflix documentary “American Nightmare” released earlier this year.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) –Luigi Mangione’s mother filed a missing persons report about her son in San Francisco on Nov. 18 — 16 days before he allegedly shot dead UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City — law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Mangione appeared in court in Pennsylvania on Monday, shortly after his arrest at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, following a five-day manhunt across multiple states. Mangione told a judge he was in touch with his family “until recently.”
Law enforcement sources told ABC News that Mangione’s mother spoke with a task force of FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives one day before her son’s arrest on Dec. 9.
That conversation followed a tip the FBI received from the police in San Francisco, where Mangione’s mother filed the missing persons report.
The tip from SFPD was based on physical appearance and Mangione’s mother, in her conversation with the Joint Violent Crimes Task Force last Sunday, indicated the person in the surveillance photos circulated by the NYPD could be her son, the sources said.
The task force was still working on the information the mother and San Francisco Police Department provided when Mangione, 26, was arrested in Altoona.
The Mangione family released a statement saying they were “shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest” and offered “our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.”
Mangione is currently in custody at a Pennsylvania state prison after a judge denied bail on Tuesday. Mangione faces charges in Pennsylvania including allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun. In New York, he faces charges including second-degree murder.
Mangione’s new attorney
Mangione has now hired veteran former New York City prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo to defend him, according to a statement from her law firm Agnifilo Intrater LLP.
Friedman Agnifilo served as the second-in-command in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office from 2014 to 2021 under former District Attorney Cyrus Vance. A biography on her law firm website says she played a lead role in prosecuting “high-profile violent crime cases,” including those involving mental health and cold case homicides.
“Karen Friedman Agnifilo has a three-decade background in criminal justice, litigation and trials. Her practice focuses on criminal defense in state and federal courts, leveraging her extensive experience prosecuting serious violent crimes, including complex homicide cases, from accusation to investigation to arrest and trial,” the biography said.
“While serving in the Manhattan DA’s office, Ms. Friedman Agnifilo was also integral to creating the office’s Human Trafficking Unit, Hate Crimes Unit, Antiquities Trafficking Unit, Terrorism Unit, its Cybercrimes and Identity Theft Bureau, as well as working on the creation of Manhattan’s first Mental Health Court,” the biography continued.
Friedman Agnifilo is also a frequent television news guest and commentator and is a former legal analyst for CNN.
She is the co-host of a weekly podcast on the Meidas Touch Network where she discusses emerging legal issues and litigation strategy, and serves as a legal adviser for the television show “Law and Order.”
Writings analyzed
Law enforcement sources told ABC News that writings seized from the suspect indicate he developed a fixation and increasing malice toward UnitedHealthcare and allegedly talked about harming its leader for months.
Some entries in the notebook seized from Mangione upon his arrest were dated as far back as mid-2024, the sources said.
That fixation eventually evolved into the alleged plan to shoot executive Thompson, the sources said.
Some of the writings were diary-style, documenting how he felt and what he did that day. They also documented a desire to focus on his health and find his purpose, the sources said.
But as time went on — and as Mangione allegedly fell out of contact with friends and family and grew increasingly isolated — some writings indicated a deterioration in his state of mind, illustrating a gradual build towards the alleged plan to kill Thompson at what the writings described as UnitedHealthcare’s “annual parasitic bean-counter convention,” sources said.
Mangione’s writings, obtained by ABC News, claimed that the U.S. has the most expensive health care system in the world but ranks around 42nd in life expectancy.
He said UnitedHealthcare “has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit.”
“I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done,” he allegedly wrote. “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
Neither Mangione nor his parents received insurance through UnitedHealthcare, according to UnitedHealth Group.
(PHOENIX) — All charges were dropped Thursday against Tyron McAlpin, a disabled Black man in Arizona who had been facing charges of felony assault and resisting arrest after a pair of Phoenix police officers punched him and shocked him with a stun gun. McAlpin is deaf and has cerebral palsy.
The incident, which took place on Aug. 19, was captured on both surveillance video and police body-worn camera. The officers said they were investigating an assault at a nearby Circle K, and McAlpin fit the description of the suspect given by a bystander. However, the original description of the suspect was for a white man who had been creating a disturbance in the store. They also claimed that McAlpin became combative and tried to run when they approached him.
McAlpin’s lawyers said the video shows otherwise.
In the video, police are seen pulling up to McAlpin and ordering him down to the ground. He doesn’t appear to immediately comply. The video then shows the officers punching him 10 times in the head and shocking him with a stun gun four times while yelling: “Get your hands behind your back.” McAlpin’s attorney said he didn’t know what was going on and could not hear the commands.
A union for the department’s officers argued that people should know what to do if a police car comes up and uniformed officers approach and that the officers had to force McAlpin to comply, not knowing he was deaf at the time. The union also said McAlpin took a fighting stance and bit the officers.
“After reviewing all evidence presented, Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Nick Saccone determined there was sufficient evidence for the felony charges against the suspect due to his actions against the officers,” Phoenix Law Enforcement Association President Darrell Kriplean said in the weeks after the incident. A Maricopa County judge ruled that there was probable cause for the arrest and that there was cause for the charges.
The Phoenix Police Department said it stood behind its officers and suggested people avoid making judgments about the incident until all the evidence was reviewed. The police department also said that it is investigating the arrest.
On Thursday, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell made an announcement that all charges against McAlpin had been dismissed.
“I promised I would personally review the case including a large volume of video recordings, police reports, and other materials that have been forwarded to my office,” she said.
With the support of senior attorneys and after hearing from members of the community, Mitchell said, “I have now completed my review and have made the decision to dismiss all remaining charges against Mr. McAlpin.”
The incident came after the Department of Justice in June released a report concluding that the Phoenix Police Department engaged in civil rights violations including racial discrimination and bias against the disabled. Their investigation found “systemic problems” within the department’s policies, training, supervision and accountability systems that were “perpetuated” for years.
The DOJ opened its investigation in August 2021 after complaints about use of excessive force among Phoenix police. The department said it welcomed this inquiry to help them understand how they can better serve the community.
(FLORIDA KEYS, Fla.) — Hurricane Rafael strengthened to a major Category 3 hurricane as it neared the coast of Cuba on Wednesday afternoon.
Rafael is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, hurricane-force winds and flash flooding to the western part of the island.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Florida Keys, where heavy rain, gusty winds and even tornadoes are possible on Wednesday and into Thursday morning.
Rafael will move into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday and start weakening.
Rafael isn’t posing a major threat to the U.S. Gulf Coast, but some of the tropical moisture could move toward the coast and add to the rain from an approaching cold front.
Most models predict Rafael sitting in the Gulf into next week and possibly moving southwest toward Mexico.
