‘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.
(WASHINGTON) — The family of Austin Tice, the American freelance journalist and Marine Corps veteran who was kidnapped while reporting in Syria in 2012, said it has been in contact with a “significant source” that confirmed he is alive and well.
“We have from a significant source that has already been vetted all over our government that Austin Tice is alive, Austin Tice is treated well, and there is no doubt about that,” said Tice’s mother, Debra.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan met with the family of Tice, who has been missing for more than 12 years after he was abducted on Aug. 13, 2012, at the White House on Friday.
“Jake Sullivan has regularly met with the families of wrongfully detained Americans,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said following the meeting. “We’re going to continue to make sure that we get Americans who are wrongfully detained, Americans home to their families.”
The Biden administration has successfully brought 75 unjustly detained Americans back to the United States.
Although reporters asked for more information about the source, the Tice family said it could not share more, claiming the U.S. government is restricting it from doing so for reasons the family does not understand. ABC News reached out to the family.
However, Tice’s father, Marc, said the family is “working toward” making more information public and that the source is “very different” from others who had given the family false hope in the past.
“We are confident in that this information is fresh,” he said. “It indicates as late as earlier this year that Austin is alive and being cared for.”
The U.S. government has continuously operated under the assumption that, despite his lengthy captivity and limited intelligence about his whereabouts, Tice is still alive. But its belief is primarily founded on a lack of evidence to suggest he is dead rather than evidence proving he is alive, according to multiple sources.
Questions about who exactly is holding Tice have cropped up over the past few years. The Biden administration has been careful with its wording on this, issuing statements saying that “we know with certainty that he has been held by the Government of Syria” because officials believe it is possible Tice is now in the custody of another group. However, the administration still believes the Syrian government has the power to bring about his release.
If the new source does have legitimate insight into Tice’s conditions, it stands to reason the source would likely also have information about whatever entity is holding him in custody, which could provide clues to his exact location.
The Syrian government has never publicly acknowledged playing any part in Tice’s disappearance, but during talks under the Trump administration, Syrian officials said they would provide proof of life in exchange for the United States fulfilling sweeping demands, according to officials familiar with the private negotiations. The Trump administration did not comply, and the Syrian government did not hand over any information about Tice.
The FBI has offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the safe location, recovery and return of Tice.
(WASHINGTON) — A Secret Service agent tasked with protecting former President Barack Obama knowingly and repeatedly breached his duties while trying to woo a love interest — and living a double life, according to a new memoir by the agent’s former girlfriend.
In “Undercover Heartbreak: a Memoir of Trust and Trauma,” Koryeah Dwanyen describes a series of potential security lapses, including a time when she said she was invited to join the senior agent at the Obamas’ beachfront property in Hawaii in 2022 while they were away.
He had already sent her “several photos” of the house a week earlier, and suggested a tour, according to the book.
“No one will know. If anything, I’m the one who could get in trouble,” says the agent in the memoir, where he is given the pseudonym “Dale.”
He then tried to get her to fool around in the first lady’s bathroom, according to Dwanyen.
“We should have sex in Michelle [Obama]’s bathroom, like a mile-high club,” Dwanyen claims he said.
The senior agent’s alleged violations of fundamental regulations prompted an internal investigation by the Secret Service.
The self-published memoir was released on Oct. 28, adding another reputational shiner to the agency after a major security lapse in the summer led to calls for operational reform.
The Secret Service had faced intense scrutiny since a gunman attempted to assassinate Donald Trump while the former president campaigned at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. That incident, which prompted the ouster of the agency’s director, was called a “historic security failure by the Secret Service” in an independent review by the Department of Homeland Security.
“The U.S. Secret Service’s top priority is ensuring the safety and security of our protectees, and any actions that compromise this commitment are addressed with the utmost seriousness,” Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications, told ABC News.
Guglielmi confirmed that an incident matching the book’s Hawaii anecdote had occurred – and that upon finding out, a probe was launched and the agent involved was ultimately fired.
“On Nov. 6, 2022, a Secret Service agent involved in protective functions brought an individual who did not have authorized access into a protectee’s residence without permission,” Guglielmi said. “As soon as the Secret Service became aware of the incident, the agent involved was immediately suspended and after a full investigation, terminated.”
“Although the protectees were not present at the time of the incident, these actions were an unacceptable violation of our protocols, our protectees’ trust and everything we stand for,” he continued.
The former agent and prominent character in the book did not respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
According to her memoir, Dwanyen first met the Secret Service agent while he was assigned to the security detail of the Obama family and while she was vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard in 2022.
He said that he was divorced and had been for nearly a decade, Dwanyen said.
As their relationship developed, the author said, so did her concerns about the man that she had fallen for. She would later come to find out that the agent was still married, according to the book.
“There were major red flags — breaches of trust and of his job,” the author said in a phone interview with ABC News. “One of my friends has joked, ‘You were a walking national security risk.’”
Finally, Dwanyen said, she sent an email to his boss outlining her fears related to the agent’s safety — as well as his family’s and her own.
She wrote that, by then, she had met the agent’s boss “several times” in Hawaii, and she explained that she had his “direct contact information” from emails that the agent had shared with her.
The agent’s boss immediately set up an exhaustive interview with agents in the Inspection Division of the Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility, Dwanyen told ABC. The meeting would last “nearly four hours,” she wrote in her book.
“They realized that not only had ‘Dale’ shared photos of the Obamas’ house, but he had also brought me there,” Dwanyen wrote. She “showed them photos on my phone to corroborate what I was saying,” scrolling through “pictures of Alicia Keys’ house, Steven Spielberg’s boats, Melinda Gates, Tyler Perry and Amal Clooney.”
“He was really oversharing,” Dwanyen recalled one of the agents saying.
The agent told her “personal tidbits he should not have,” Dwanyen said on the phone with ABC News. Those “tidbits” he shared spanned across protectees, she said: ranging from information about background on Mike Pence — whom the agent had been assigned to during his vice presidency under Trump — to details about the Obamas.
“I knew their code names. I knew what day Orange Theory was, what day [Michelle Obama] had private tennis lessons and when her personal trainer came,” Dwanyen said. “Things that I should not have been privy to as a civilian.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Lyle and Erik Menendez may become free men after spending decades behind bars for killing their parents.
Here’s a look at life in prison for the notorious brothers and three paths to potential freedom:
The case
Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted to buying shotguns and firing 16 rounds at Jose and Kitty Menendez inside the family’s Beverly Hills home in 1989.
Prosecutors alleged they killed their wealthy parents for money, but the defense argued they acted in self-defense after enduring years of sexual abuse by their father.
The first trial, which had separate juries for each brother, ended in mistrials. In 1996, after the second trial — during which the judge barred much of the sex abuse evidence — Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted and both sentenced to two consecutive terms of life without parole.
Life in prison
Nery Ynclan, an ABC News freelance producer and an executive producer of “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed,” has visited Lyle Menendez multiple times at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.
She stressed that Lyle and Erik Menendez have spent their decades in prison rehabilitating themselves, as well as helping other inmates.
“[Lyle] and his brother spent their whole adult lives trying to counsel other victims of sexual abuse and start programs at the prison,” she said. “Even though they had no chance of parole, they really felt that the prison system could be improved.”
Erik Menendez has provided hospice care to inmates, their attorney said, while for the last 20 years, Lyle Menendez’s fellow inmates have elected him as their representative with the prison administration, Ynclan said.
“He’s like a soft-spoken CEO who is very busy with multiple projects,” Ynclan said of Lyle.
“He wants to talk about prison reform,” Ynclan said. “He would talk to me about the college courses he was taking. … I was really impressed that someone in their early 50s, in prison without any chance of parole … would want to take calculus and statistics to continue bettering themselves.”
With freedom now a possibility, Ynclan described this as an “emotional and tense time” for Lyle Menendez.
“For the first time in decades, he actually feels like there’s a glimmer of hope that the two of them might get home to their families one day,” Ynclan said.
Path 1: Habeas corpus petition
One track to freedom is the brothers’ habeas corpus petition, which was filed last year for a review of new evidence not presented at trial.
One piece of evidence is allegations from Roy Rosselló, a former member of the boy band Menudo, who revealed in the 2023 docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” that he was raped by music executive Jose Menendez.
The second piece of evidence is a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse. The cousin testified about the alleged abuse at trial, but the letter — which would have corroborated the cousin’s testimony — wasn’t unearthed until several years ago, according to the brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos.
Through this petition, the court could change their convictions. The next hearing is set for Nov. 25.
Path 2: Resentencing recommendation goes before judge, parole board
A second path is through resentencing.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced in an Oct. 25 court filing that he was recommending the brothers’ sentence of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life.
Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, with the new sentence, they would be eligible for parole immediately, Gascón said.
The DA’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account factors including the defendants’ ages, psychological trauma or physical abuse that contributed to carrying out the crime and their rehabilitation in prison.
“We appreciate what they did while they were in prison,” Gascón said at a news conference. “While I disapprove of the way they handled their abuse, we hope that they not only have learned — which appears that they have — but that if they get reintegrated into our community, that they continue to do public good.”
Gascón’s recommendation next goes in front of a Los Angeles Superior Court judge who will weigh factors including the crime, the brothers’ records while incarcerated and the positive impact they’ve had in prison, ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire said.
The judge will also review facts that were not available at the time of the brothers’ 1996 conviction, Buckmire said.
The judge might also consider “the science of young boys and young men being sexually assaulted,” Buckmire said. “How they respond, how they react to that abuse, and how that might not have been information that was readily available at the time of sentencing that could’ve changed the sentence.”
A hearing is set for December. If the judge agrees to resentencing, the case next goes to the parole board.
Even though the judge would have already evaluated the facts and factors, “the parole board is going to do their own investigation,” Buckmire said.
The brothers and their relatives will also get the opportunity to address the parole board, Buckmire said. In this case, the relatives are not just the family of the perpetrators, but also the family of the victims, “so they have their own rights based on both capacities,” Buckmire said.
One relative, their uncle, Milton Andersen, wants the brothers to stay behind bars, stating that he doesn’t believe they were abused and instead killed their parents out of greed.
“They are survivors and deserve a chance to rebuild their lives,” their cousin, Brian Andersen Jr., told reporters in October. “They’re no longer a threat to society.”
“If they were to come to my house, knock on my door, I would answer that door, I would welcome them in with huge hugs, my wife would make them a dinner and I’d give them a pillow and a place to sleep,” Andersen said.
A hearing before the parole board would likely take at least six months to schedule, according to the California Department of Corrections.
If the parole board recommends release, the final decision then goes to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Buckmire said.
If released on parole, the brothers would be subjected to monitoring and check-ins, Buckmire said. Parole often comes with conditions like maintaining a job and avoiding drugs, he said.
The district attorney announced days later that he supports the brothers’ bid for clemency, which would commute their sentence or grant a pardon.
Newsom is first eligible to weigh in on the clemency application on Nov. 7. The governor’s office said this is a confidential process, Newsom is not required to review the application and there is no timeline for the review.
If the governor approves clemency, the case would still likely go before the parole board.
The governor’s office intends to treat this application “like any other case,” an official at the office said. “Nobody is getting special treatment.”
ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Ashley Riegle contributed to this report.
