have a heck of a weekend, and good night. ♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, under suspicion. a young couple attacked at home. >> i was mentally preparing myself for a fight, and it would have to be a fight to the death. >> he was tied up. she was taken captive. >> a bizarre kidnapping case that looked like a real-life gone girl. >> why did the police wrongly think it was a hoax? >> the story you're telling here? i ain't buying it at all. >> and connecting the crimes. what cracked the case wide open? >> when we showed them the pictures of the evidence, they were shocked. >> from suspects to survivors. the stunning vindication. >> did they ever say i'm sorry?

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♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. i'm stephanie ramos. tonight, the crimes that baffled the survivors, the police, and the country. a case that appeared to have come straight from a hollywood movie. but this one with a much happier ending. here is "20/20" coanchor amy robach.

>> reporter: it was a story so astonishing, few would believe what happened. >> i feel like i am some character in this crime drama, like in a movie. >> reporter: a crime forever changing the lives of two people. >> i was mentally preparing myself for a fight, and it would have to be a fight to the death. >> i'm telling the truth. >> reporter: denise huskins and aaron quinn were both working as physical therapists in vallejo, california, when they met. >> i could see who aaron was, the man he was, and the good in him. >> reporter: aaron had just broken up with his fiancee, and even though denise worried he may still have feelings with his ex, they started dating. >> when i went to visit and met up with aaron and her, wow. >> reporter: but seven months into the relationship, his exfiancee was a force of

tension. denise found out aaron was texting her, saying he wanted to get back together. >> i finally put my foot down and said, look, i don't deserve this. it was a couple of weeks of kind of going back and forth. i wasn't sure what i wanted to do, but i wanted to hear him out. >> reporter: denise and aaron talked it over for hours at his house. >> we had to rebuild trust, but as long as he was willing to really give this a full shot, then we could try again. >> reporter: emotionally drained, the couple went upstairs to go to sleep around midnight. at 3:00 a.m., a voice says "wake up, this is a robbery." an intruder wearing a wet suit was in the bedroom, laying zip ties on the bed. the intruder told denise to bind aaron's feet together and his hands behind his back, then ordered her to walk to the bedroom closet. >> he got my laptop and then forced me to give up my social security number, my bank accounts.

>> reporter: he covered their eyes with swimming goggles that had been covered in duct tape to block their sight and put headphones on them, then drugged them with a sedative. >> take all my money, that's fine, get out. obviously i was wrong about that. >> reporter: the intruder told aaron he was going to communicate with him very text and email. >> told me to stay there till morning, call in sick to work. give denise's passcodes, text her boss, family emergency and she'd be gone for a week. >> reporter: aaron would have to withdraw money and a camera would monitor his moves. >> if i went to the police, he would kill her. >> reporter: the intruder put denise in the trunk of aaron's car, alone and drugged. aaron tried to stay awake but couldn't. >> my alarm went off. i called in sick. was able to wiggle my hands free. then i texted my manager.

trying to stay awake, i passed out again. i didn't wake up until 11:30. >> reporter: concerned the camera that the intruder installed was tracking him, aaron hesitated to call 911 but eventually did. >> the police are summoned to his home, and phase two of the nightmare gains. >> reporter: aaron said the two police officers who arrived were immediately suspicious of his story. >> from the police perspective, what they're confronted with is a man who said his girlfriend was kidnapped in the middle of the night. there is a crazy story about this home invasion. they see all the components of what you might expect to see objectively in a domestic violence murder. >> reporter: aaron agreed to go to the station to give a statement. but the police began focusing on his relationship with denise. >> is there tension in the relationship? is she mad? is she concerned? because you cheated?

>> she felt emotionally concerned. >> at what point do you realize you're in trouble, big trouble? >> about 45 minutes in, he leans back in his chair, and he tells me, i on't think you're being truthful. i don't think anybody came into your house. >> you listen to me, there ain't no frogman came into your house, nobody dressed in wet suits or -- it didn't happen. >> not only do they tell you they don't believe you, they say, we think you killed her. >> yes. >> reporter: with no sign of denise, police notify her parents. >> the detective told me to expect the worst. he did not have one nice thing to say about aaron. he thought everything that was coming out of his mouth was a lie. >> at one point i actually started doubting my own sanity. i thought maybe, maybe i did have a schizophrenic breakdown. >> reporter: aaron, traumatized, thinking he was about to be arrested, hired a lawyer. >> i know the police officers, and i say, okay, is he under

arrest? well, if he's not under arrest, it's time to say good night, gracie. >> reporter: aaron and his attorney knew they needed proof that denise was still alive. in a twist, "the san francisco chronicle" got a proof of life message from the kidnapper that same day. >> she is clearly still alive. and rather than entertain the possibility that, oh my gosh, maybe this story is true? they immediately shift into, well, this must be a hoax. >> this morning, a shocking twist. denies huskins found safe in huntington beach. >> wednesday, march 25th, news breaks that denise huskins, who's been missing for 48 hours, reappears in huntington beach, 400 miles away from where she was kidnapped. >> the bizarre kidnapping case that looked like a real-life "gone girl." >> the movie is about a woman who fakes her own kidnapping.

pins it on her husband, who's cheating on her. leaves, and allows the media to hone in on her husband. >> reporter: for denise, her kidnapping was a terrifying reality. being released on a street in her childhood hometown made it even more surreal. >> i heard him drive off. i slowly counted to ten. i peel the tape off my eyes. and i was by myself in this alley. and i looked at the corner street name, and i saw utica, which is the street that i grew up on. i thought, oh my god. >> reporter: she told the huntington police the same details aaron had told the vallejo police, but remember, police in vallejo were already suspicious of the story. >> and it becomes very clear to her very quickly that she is actually in a legally precarious situation. >> it was obvious that i needed to get a defense attorney. >> reporter: she hired doug rappaport, who told her to come back to vallejo and go directly

to his office. >> meanwhile, what's being portrayed to the media is denies isn't cooperating. >> reporter: while denise was flying back to the bay area, vallejo police gave a press conference. >> we have not heard from miss huskins, we are no longer in contact with any family members. >> it was clear the only people being investigated were aaron and denise. >> from this point forward i would not refer to them as victim or witness. >> i'd gone from a murderer to now committing a hoax. >> lieutenant park never outright called aaron quinn or denise huskins liars. he never used the word hoax. but if you listen to the entire press conference, the whole premise of it is that the two of them were lying and that this kidnapping never happened. >> the fact that we've essentially wasted all of these resources for really nothing is upsetting. >> reporter: denise would spend the entire night at her attorney's office recounting the

ordeal she just survived. >> when she was going through the story, the emotion was so real. not only were the facts consistent, but i remember the most telling fact was when she was taken to the house, and she was bound. she had been in the trunk for hours. >> reporter: she also shared information with her lawyer that she didn't tell police. she said her kidnapper had threatened her not to reveal that he had been in the marines and that she had been raped. >> during the course of those two days, he did rape her and videotape it. >> and not just once? >> no. >> after two days of denise feeling her life is being held in the balance every moment, her kidnapper comes to her and says, i'm going to release you. >> reporter: denise's attorney told her that the best way to find whoever did this was go speak with the vallejo police and the fbi who questioned her. >> it seemed like that fbi

agent's main goal was only to trip me up. and he made me go through the assaults again. what position i was put in. what his body felt like. >> the fbi agent told me after we concluded denise's interview that he was 99% certain that she was lying. >> and he had told me attorney, you should watch the movie "gone girl," it would explain a lot. >> reporter: even when the "san francisco chronicle" received another email filled with details about the kidnapping, saying it isn't a hoax, vallejo police did not change their assumption that aaron and denise's story was too unbelievable to be true. >> while all of this is going on, you two haven't seen each other yet? >> in captivity i kept -- picturing him. i kept just visualizing what that feeling must be like, to finally feel safe in his arms again. and so when he knocked on that

door and i open it -- oh god. i mean, we just embraced, and like were just crying and holding each other. up next, denise and aaron still under a cloud of suspicion until one police officer makes a startling connection. >> there was just no denying that this wasn't his first time committing a crime. i just had to figure out where these other crimes occurred. age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. we do it every night.

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♪ weeks passed without a break in the so-called gone girl case.

denies huskins and aaron quinn were still the prime suspects in their own home invasion and kidnapping. >> i was about to get fired from my job. they were looking for, i believe, any reason to fire me because they didn't want my bad reputation tainting them. >> i became this vision of everything that people want to hate. i was an object to throw stones at. >> on june 5th, 2015, police in dublin, california, a city an hour south, responded to a report of a home robbery. >> county emergency. >> i have a break-in, they are out there, my husband's fighting with them, i just broke loose. >> reporter: after a struggle, the assailant fled but left his phone in the house. dublin police were able to trace the phone to a man named matthew mueller, a former marine and graduate of harvard law school, claimed he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and his life had fallen apart. he was living in a family cabin in south lake tahoe.

officers miguel compo and misty carusu, armed with a search warrant, went to question him. >> we kick down the door. as we make our way across debris, we see him coming out from one of the bedrooms. then we ask him, do you know why we're here? he said yes. >> reporter: the officers found laptops, cell phones, a lot of ski masks, some stun guns, and they also discovered mueller was driving a stolen car. >> there were several swim goggles that were duct tape black. one in particular had a blond hair strand attached to the duct tape. the dublin home invasion, none of them had blond hair. looking back at all the evidence, there was just no denying that this wasn't his first time committing a crime. i just had to figure out where these other crimes occurred. >> reporter: carusu did a search of mueller's name and found although he had never been charged, he had been a person of stint in several incidents. she tracked down the owner of

the stolen car. >> he mentioned that there was a kidnapping that had occurred at the same time that his vehicle was stolen. a kidnapping case that was labeled a hoax by vallejo pd. it came back to me, and i thought, this is beyond crazy. >> reporter: two fbi agents and a representative from the vallejo police department came to dublin to review the evidence. >> and when we showed them the pictures of the evidence we had, they were shocked. they were shocked. >> reporter: lo and behold, all of these details aaron and denise had told them happened, are now being corroborated. and it turns out it's not so bizarre. that this is, in fact, what happened. >> good afternoon, everyone. today is a fabulous day. >> i remember they were squeezing each other's hands so tightly throughout the entire press conference.

the attorneys taking turns back and forth, pummeling the police department. >> had you asked important basic questions, which the police department, it went completely over their head -- >> there were so many factors they could have looked to, to determine, geez, maybe denise and aaron are telling the truth. but no. they were so stuck in supporting their snap judgment. >> absolutely, 100%, positively, unequivocally not just not guilty, but innocent. >> that moment was vindication. >> reporter: on march 16th, 2017, matt mueller pled guilty to federal kidnapping charges and received a 40-year sentence. he now faces charges in state court for kidnapping and sexual assault and has pled not guilty. >> the vallejo police department publicly threw you under the bus. so when the truth comes out, did

they ever say i'm sorry? >> the city attorneys wrote a letter of apology that the chief of police signed. >> the letter in part says, it is now clear that there was a kidnapping on march 23rd, 2015. that it was not a hoax or orchestrated event. it also admits that the words that lieutenant kenny park spoke during that press conference were harsh and offensive. >> a private apology, though? >> yes. >> not a public one? >> yes. >> reporter: when we asked about that apology, the city of vallejo sent a statement. it says in part, the case was not publicly handled with the type of sensitivity a case of this nature should have been handled with. and now, six years later, the current police chief, shawnee williams, writing, i would like to extend my deepest apology to miss huskins and mr. quinn for how they were treated during this ordeal. in 2016, aaron and denise filed a civil lawsuit against the city of vallejo, its police department, detective mustard,

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having survived the unimaginable, aaron quinn and denies huskins grew closer. they got married in 2016. >> our wedding was a perfect thing. everyone who supported us the last few years were there, all our attorneys were there. >> including the detective who linked him to our case. >> reporter: and a daughter was born five years to the day of denise's release from her kidnapping. the couple chronicled their story in a book, "victim f: from crime victims to suspects to survivors." >> have you thought about what you'll tell your daughter about any of this? >> i'll tell her everything. although a lot of what we wrote in the book is tragic and sad, it is actually really our love story. and there is a happy ending. and it's her. >> our thanks to amy. that's "nightline" for tonight.

you can watch all of our episodes on hulu. we'll see you same time next week. thank you so much for watching. i'm stephanie ramos. hope you have a wonderful weekend. good night. ♪ ♪ ♪