and i can take it from here. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. >> and this is "dateline." >> details were so crazy i couldn't make sense of it. >> a young couple ambushed they said in the dead of night. attacked abducted. >> we are like, wow. where ise she? >> i didn't have a clue what happened. >> but the realha question? was their story even true? >> wey were not able to substantiate any of the things that he was saying. >> they branded the couple as liars. >> could this be some kind of hoax? who was really behind it at all? >> normal people don't do things like this. >> this whole story could take

another turn. >> he said i need to pay for whatee i did. hello. welcome to "dateline." denise huskins and her boyfriend aaron quinn went to sleep and woke up to a living nightmare. an armed stranger in the bedroom and he didn't appear to be alone. what happened next was so odd, it would leave detectives and the public scratching their heads. was thisch real life or fiction? an unexpected break in the case would steer authorities to unlikely truth. here is josh mankiewicz with "twisted tale. >> >> the next thing i knew there was i someone laying on t of me. >> reporter: she was instantly thee. losing player in someone

else's game of power and control. >> their hand was over my mouth. >> reporter: if you'reov wondering, there was no way to fight back. >> i must have been screaming. >> reporter: this would doesn't want us to i don't her real name.'t we are calling her samantha. she is sharing with us things she has told to very few people. this wasew man? >> man. >> reporter: bigger than you? >> felt very big and strong. i couldn't move. >> reporter: september 29th, 2009, the sun wasn't up yet and in samantha's bedroom a masked intruder was holding her down and she had no idea who the man was or what he was planning. >> he said this is going to take asa couple of hours. i think i was just in shock. >> reporter: the details of what happenedls to samantha are gnom frig -- not only frightening but deeply strange. she has come forward because she

believes her b long night of terror may shed light on a case in a different town with victims she has never met. a bizarre mystery in the bay area. and then around the world. march 24th, 2015, a young woman was missing. i'ms is 5'7", 250 pounds and ploned hablond hair e requesting theha public's healt inhe locating her. >> reporter: it happened 30 miles north of san francisco in the city of vallejo. henry lee was then a reporter for the fra"the san francisco chronicl chronicle". >> i was struck you don't see these cases to often and this crime victim didn't strike me as somebody who would be targeted. >> denise huskins had been staying with her boyfriend at

his houseie in vallejo and both were physical therapists at a nearby hospital. aaron was the one who reported denise missing. police dogs and dive teams were soon part of a huge search for denise huskins. across the country, denise's good friend ashleyly saw the news. >> there was an article posted online. someone sent itar to me and sai oh, my god, this is denise. but i started texting everybody. >> reporter: including denise. >> i tried to text her. i figured better than not doing anything. >> reporter: there was no reply. she texted another friend denica. >> i couldn't even believe what i was reading. it didn't even seem real. >> reporter: that was pretty much the react. shunel the vallejo cops had to the story denise's boyfriend was telling them. >> we haveli a lot of informati to sift>> through. we don't have all of the facts in yet. >> reporter: the story aaron tomed the cops that night

eventually spelled out in an fbi affidavit would seem frankly preposterous and someone with too much imagination and too much free time. aaron said denise and he were asleep at his house at 3:00 a.m. he was awakened by a bright light and electrical noise that sounded like a stun gun and a man's voice telling them to lie down face down on the bed. aaron said the man told denise to bind her hands and feet and said his eyes were covered with swim goggles which had been blacked out so he couldn't see. >> he has been blindfolded and zip tied. >> reporter: aaron said the intruder demand his private banking and email information and put headphones on him that played calmingat music along wi instructions to use denise's work and text her work to say

she was out a couple of days and let his work known the same and said he was given nyquil and valium to knock him out and told to say in one spot in his living room that was outlined in red duct tape and monitored by a web cam. then he said the intruders left with denise. his story sounded so implausible police wondered if he made it to hide something more sinister. at first blush a woman is missing and husband or boyfriend said she is abducted the first thing i think maybe baups i do this for a a living he is the one who did this. >> you look at the significant other.at he is a suspect? is he making it up? what is going on here? what is the real story. >> reporter: police treated aaron less as a victim and a murder suspectss and confiscate

his cell phone and read him his rights. they were suspicious why he ratedus 11 hours before calling 911. >> aaron bquinn, it took him hours. it wasn't until that afternoon that the police were able to talk to him after he came forward. >> reporter: aaron's mother later told us police polygraphed him five times. he was put in jail clothing and given little food or water and heldd in a small interrogation room for hours. across the country, denise's friends didn't know any of this. but they knew enough to be worried. >> i mean, someone being kidnapped, to be honest, a lot ofpe those stories don't end we and you don'tri want to think about those things, but you think maybe they are not going to alive. >> reporter: then about 33 hours after denise huskins disappeared, reporter henry lee was standing outside of aaron's home when his phone buzzed opinion anph email. >> what was chilling was that this email became attached with anma audio file and this audio file there was a woman's voice.

>> i'm denise huskins. >> reporter: the soft spoken woman on the recording said she was denise. this very strange tale was about to get much stranger. >> what had happened to denise? was she still alive or was this all an elaborate hoax? coming up. >> we still don't know where denise huskins is. >> that crypted recording. exactly what kind of message was it? >> she sounded absolutely calm. not terrified and not sdredistrd at all. >> then we get a tip that police are holding a news conference. that's when the bombshell came down. >> when "dateline" continues. e e down. >> when "dateline" continues so the whole world looks different. the unbeatable strength and speed of advil liqui-gels. what pain? but since they bought their new house...

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over the last four years. so on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say "thank you, real people." you're welcome. we're gonna need a bigger room. denise huskin's boyfriend said she'd been kidnapped, but his story seemed hard to believe. police wondered if he'd murdered her and was now trying to cover it up. then a day and a half after denise disappeared, reporter henry lee received a mysterious e-mail with an audio file attached. >> this is denise huskins. i've been kidnapped. >> reporter: she talked about the day's biggest news, a german airliner had gone down. >> earlier today, there was a plane crash in the alps. 150 people died.

>> she shared obscure biographical details. >> it's a proof of life audio, trying to prove that, a, she's denise, and b, she's the kidnap victim. >> and she's aware of events that happened that day? >> and she is trying to prove events that happened to prove, in fact, she was alive. >> clearly this wasn't a murder case, but was it a kidnapping as aaron claimed? we found it odd that denise didn't sound at all frightened. >> she sounded absolutely calm. not distressed at all. >> not someone in fear for their life. >> as if she was talking with a friend over coffee. i shared it with my colleagues and editors working the story. i think the subject line was, wtf. what is this? >> we spoke with one of denise's

friends. >> it was sort of reassuring she was making an audio that clearly dated that day, but also still scary because you still have no idea if the person's safe, how they're being treated. you know? and what people are putting her through. >> and if denise isn't sound panicked, her friends say that made perfect sense. after all, the three of them had already lived through what should have been the most traumatic event of their lives. ashley, deneka, and denise went to watch the boston marathon in 2013. they say it was denise who remained calm that day. >> we were all scared and rocked by it, but i think of all of us, she was the best equipped to keep her cool. >> she was the one who was kind of my rock. she grabbed my hand and she was like let's go. >> reporter: but where was denise now? >> this is a bizarre case with a

lot of twists. >> very odd, rod. >> sheryl hurd covered the story for station kntv. >> we still don't know where denise huskins is. we're really not sure what her boyfriend, aaron quinn, is telling police. all we know is they can't find her. >> then the story took another whiplash turn. about 45 hours after denise was reported missing, police made a dramatic announcement. >> approximately 10:30 this morning, ms. denise huskins was located safely. >> it seemed over. denise's cousin told knbc how thrilled everyone was. >> you hear these stories all the time and you watch tv about them and you never know. i was just happy to hear that she was alive and safe and home. >> but to police and reporters, all professional skeptics, this story hadn't smelled right from the start and denise's sudden reappearance did nothing to change that. >> she's alive.

she's well and they found her. that was great, but there was still something funny going on because no one had all the answers. >> for one thing, denise turned up in huntington beach, which was 400 miles south of vallejo and which was also her hometown. she was dropped off right by her mom's house. >> she was not released out of state. she was not released in the desert. she was not released in the middle of california. where did she show up? right near her parents' house. that seemed too convenient. >> reporter: another thing. the ran com the kidnapper demand had never been paid. denise told police in her hometown the same story her boyfriend had told up north about the swim goggles, the nyquil, the threat of electric shock. but then when vallejo police wanted to question her -- >> denise huskins disappeared. she was not cooperate and not fly up in a plane omped ffered e

fbi to talk to police. >> after she was released? >> after she was released. >> suspicion was building. neither denise nor aaron made any public statement, but they did hire separate attorneys. >> everyone's thinking why are they doing that? >> lots of questions and not many answers, but then less than 12 hours after denise reappeared -- >> then we get a tip that police are holding a news conference. so i jump in the car, the photographer and i, and we haul ass back to vallejo to be a part of this news conference and that's when the bombshell came down. coming up -- >> we were not able to substantiate any of the things that he was saying. he was saying. >> was this all some kind of prank? >> was there some chance that denise and her boyfriend were going to be prosecuted? >> it was a very strong possibility. >> e-mails, some photos. some strange new clues are about to emerge from the shadows when "dateline" continues.

i didn't have a clue what happened. >> even denise huskins' friends had to admit her sudden disappearance and reappearance seemed almost unbelievable. >> the details of the story are so crazy. i really couldn't -- i couldn't make sense of it. >> neither could the vallejo police department. a day after denise came home,

spokesman kenny park held a remarkable news conference. first, he spoke about denise's boyfriend aaron quinn. >> the statement that mr. quinn provided was such an incredible story, we initially had a hard time believing it and, upon further investigation, we were not able to substantiate any of the things he was saying. >> reporter: then about denise herself. >> miss huskins indicated she would be able to speak to our department. as of right now, we have not heard from ms. huskins. >> and then finally this. >> mr. quinn and ms. huskins has puned taken valuable resources from our community while instilling fear among our community taken our community while instilling fear among our community members.

it is mr. quinn and ms. huskins that owes this community an apology. >> after a search and about 54 hours of investigation, vallejo police had concluded the whole kidnapping story was phony. this was one of those made for california dramas. not as shakespearean as kardashian. police seemed to think denise and aaron were for some reason only known to them seeking publicity and telling an elaborate lie. left unanswered is why anyone would want to become famous for fooling the police. >> stranger than fiction kidnapping couple involving a young california couple. >> reporter: remember no ransom was ever paid. aaron told police the kidnappers took his bank information, but no one tried to access his accounts. someone did try to call aaron's cell phone a couple of times while denise was missing from a blocked number. according to aaron's mother, police suspected aaron had somehow programmed another phone to call his own cell while he was with investigators. >> was there some chance that denise and her boyfriend were going to be prosecuted? >> it was a very strong

possibility based on those public pronouncements. >> denise's friends didn't know aaron, but they had every confidence denise was telling the truth. >> everyone that knew or knows her personally and cares about her, believed her. >> the day after police branded the kidnapping a hoax, denise finally did show up at vallejo pd to tell the cops they were wrong. she said that not only had she been kidnapped, she had also been raped. that same day, reporter henry lee received another e-mail, a long message soon followed by more supporting denise's claim that this was no hoax from a person claiming to have been one of the kidnappers. >> they were very articulate. clearly written by someone who was extremely intelligent. >> ms. huskins was absolutely kidnapped. we did it. we will provide incontrovertible proof.

the write claimed to be part of a group. more than two and fewer than eight in number. >> they go into extreme length about a series of crimes they say they have pulled including car thefts, break-ins, home invasions, you name it. >> some of us have a tech background. stealing late model cars, according to the e-mail, the group decided to try kidnapping because we wanted something with a high payout that we only had to do once or a few times. >> what is going on? why are you apparently confessing? >> the writer admitted that the reality of the kidnapping was much more upsetting than expected. we fancied ourselves a sort of ocean's 11 gentlemen criminals who only took stuff that was insured for people who could afford it. the horrifying reality of what we had become and what we were

doing did not fit in until being confronted directly with denise's suffering and humanity. >> at least one of the abductors seemed to sympathize with denise. >> and now the e-mail said they were angry that denise was being accused of making the whole thing up. we will not stand by and see the life of a really good person ruined. attached to the e-mails were photos. one showed a water gun spray painted to look more threatening, at least in the dark, with a laser point and flashlight duct taped to it. another showed a room with cardboard partially covering a window where denise was supposedly held. was this visual proof of denise and aaron's story or an elaborate deception? you thought legit or more hoax? >> i thought it was certainly part of a prank. >> in fact, the e-mails were so cleverly written, henry lee wondered if they might have been sent by an attorney for denise and aaron.

>> the so-called gone girl mystery. >> reporter: reporters started referring to the case as "the gone girl" kidnapping. after a book and a movie about a young blond who fakes her own disappearance. that reference infuriated denise's friends. >> when it is not accurate, it makes you mad. it was sort of like a fictional character created out of a good person. so then suddenlily you stopped being denise huskins and you started being labeled as -- >> the gone girl. >> the gone girl. >> that wasn't denise at all they said. but to the rest of the world, denise and aaron were portrayed evencriminals themselves. that is, until the next big twist. coming up -- >> he said we have your daughter. >> another story as strange and eerie as denise and aaron's. >> terrifying? >> yes. they were terrified. >> had the mysterious kidnapper struck again?

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supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg has been hospitalized after experiencing chills and fever. the court says beginburg who has falsed numerous health issues is responding to treatment and could be released as early as sunday. secretary of navy richard spencer is denying that he threatened to reap sign over president trump's flmps in the case of a controversial navy s.e.a.l. nbc has confirmed that spencer threatened to resign. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." the police and the public seemed to have it all figured out. they believed denise huskins and her boyfriend aaron quinn had made up their traumatic home invasion and kidnapping story

for punt. the media even dubbed it "the gone girl" mystery based on a story of a woman who faked her own disappearance. but detectives were about to learn something that would shift the investigation. another attack suspiciously similar to the one denise and aaron had been describing. too similar to ignore. here is josh mankiewicz with "twisted tale." police announced it was really an elaborate hoax. denise huskins and aaron quinn branel branded as liars or retention addicts retreated from sight and that might have been the end of it, until a little over two months later, this story took another unbelievable turn. june 5th, 2015, 3:34 a.m. >> she thinks she possibly have her daughter.

>> reporter: police were called to a house in dublin, california. >> locked herself in a bedroom. >> reporter: an intruder was inside. >> possibly has a head injury. >> reporter: by the time police arrived, the man was gone. leaving behind a shaken family with a frightening story. the woman told police that she and her husband woke up in the early morning hours to find a man standing at the foot of their bed, a flashlight shining in their faces. >> he told them that face down, get face down on your bed and don't look at me. >> terrifying? >> yes, they were terrified. >> the two detectives here led the investigation. >> he said, we have your daughter and she's okay. >> the couple's 22-year-old daughter had been sleeping in the next room. >> he tells the parents, i'm going to tie you up. father jumps on him, says i'm not going to let you tie me up. something's going on with my daughter. a struggle ensues on the ground. >> his wife grabbed her cell

phone and locked herself in the bathroom to call 911. >> the husband yells out at her, honey, go get the gun. go get the gun. this was very smart on the father's part because they have no gun. but he had to say anything to try to scare this guy away. >> the father continued to fight until finally the intruder fled. but in the struggle, he left some things behind. zip ties for run and what turned out to be the key to the case, a cell phone, which led the dublin detectives to a home near sacramento. they called the family there and the woman who answered said the phone belonged to her adult son, a man named matthew muller. >> he told me he lost it this morning. okay. where is he? he'd like to give it to him. >> he's on his way to salt lake to a cab bin. >> the dublin cops knew their next stop was south lake tahoe. first, they put in a call to the local sheriff to ask if there'd

ever been trouble at the cabin. there hadn't but, a stolen car had just been found right near it and in the car was a driver's license for 38-year-old matthew muller. >> i said, okay. you just kind of made my day now. now we have some more information to go on. >> with a search warrant and an arrest warrant, the dublin cops went to find matthew muller. the neighbors watched it happened. >> you know, i'm just peeking out my window, trying to get an idea what's happening. more cars are coming. my whole front area is filled with dark sedans, like something out of the movies! >> the neighbors were surprised, but maybe matthew muller was not. >> when we broke down the front door, it didn't open all the way because it was barricaded with chairs and just various household items. upon entry, i could hear my detectives screaming, get on the ground, get on the ground.

your heart rate kind of jumps up. okay, he's there. >> this is muller just after he was arrested. he did not put up a fight. in the house, the detectives found a room with cardboard on the windows blocking out the light. they searched that stolen car and found a few more items of interest. >> one was a bebe gun. one was a super soaker that was painted black with a flashlight duct taped to it with the laser pointer. >> reporter: it made it like like real guns? >> if you were in the dark and all you saw was the shape and bulkness of it, absolutely. >> there were also swim goggles with tape covering the lenses. a long blonde hair stuck to the tape. when they traced the stolen car -- >> that vehicle comes back stolen out of vallejo. >> so the dublin cops called vallejo pd and started comparing notes. >> we're showing them pictures of everything we recovered in the search warrant and they're showing us the pictures they had.

>> reporter: those would be the photos emailed to reporter henry lee from that anonymous address. the spray paint and cardboard on the windows. >> that's kind of when the light really clicked on and we all kind of went, uh-oh. here we go. coming up -- >>y league former marine, respected attorney. >> i would much more have suspected matt to be sitting behind the desk in some elected capacity. >> who was this guy? when "dateline" continues. who ? when "dateline" continues. phones down. we need a solution. introducing... smartdogs. the first dogs trained to train humans. stopping drivers from: liking. selfie-ing. and whatever this is. available to the public... never. smartdogs are not the answer. but geico has a simple tip. turn on "do not disturb while driving" mode. brought to you by geico.

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when the strange tale of denise husk iins and aaron quin first made public, the detectives found it puzzling as everyone else did. >> a lot of reasons to think the vallejo story at first blush was a very strange story. >> it was. >> it does sound like it could be refabricated.

>> but now they found themselves working a home invasion that seemed to link the man they arrested, matthew muller, to the alleged kidnapping of denise huskins. not just the photos of toy guns painted to look real or the photo of the suspect's home they saw during the arrest, but photos that matched henry lee. window screens at aaron's house had been slit. the window locks drilled. and the missed calls made to aaron quinn's cell phone while he was being interrogated that first night, calls that vallejo cops suspected aaron had somehow faked. turns out, they were made from this cabin right in southern lake tahoe. where they found the stolen car. when law enforcement hacked into the car's navigation history, they found this address in huntington beach, the exact spot denise said she had been left by her kidnapper. as they continued to investigate, detectives learned their suspect was just as unusual as the crimes he was implicated in.

maybe more so. >> having dealt with somebody like him, you know, this is the type of stuff you typically see in movies. >> mueller served in the u.s. marine corps where he was a trumpet player. he then attended college. here is one of his classmates. >> i would much more have suspected matt to be sitting behind the desk in some elected capacity as opposed to sitting in a jail cell right now. >> mueller married in 2002 and graduated from pomona suma couple laude a year later. he then went on to law school. he graduated in 2006. then stayed on as a teaching fellow. andrea was a student of muller's. >> matt, as i remember him at harvard, was incredibly intelligent, hard working, and someone who was really dedicated to the work we were doing.

>> after harvard, muller moved back to california and practiced immigration law in san francisco, but soon muller's life seemed to go off the rails. in 2013, he lost his privileges to practice law. eventually he was disbarred. he got divorced. stopped paying rent. in 2014, he filed for bankruptcy. it's not clear what went wrong. his defense lawyer says muller suffers from bipolar disorder. he is unimposing and certainly forgettable. certainly someone not to fear. certainly not someone to fear. >> doesn't fit the profile of your typical guy that's doing home invasions. >> when you look at home invasions, it doesn't. but when you look at the crimes he's committing, it does fit more for the profile. >> it seems to be it was done for the thrill of the crime, the thrill of the game.

>> he has read those e-mails that were sent to reporter henry lee, e-mails that lee suspected at the time were written by a lawyer, a lawyer police now believe was matthew muller. >> what emerges from the e-mails is a complex picture of someone who needs attention, who needs to be perceived a certain way. >> for example, the way the writer of the e-mails was outraged when denise was accused of a hoax. so when he says, how dare you not believe ms. huskins, that she was kidnapped, what he's really saying is how dare you not believe i committed this crime and pulled it off? >> you could see my handiwork because you lack talent, because the police here are failing miserably and they need to recognize how flawed they are and how wonderful i am. >> he is a master criminal? >> he is a master criminal, and he's running circles around everyone else. >> reporter: maybe he was. remember, from the beginning,

vallejo police just couldn't believe the elaborate details of the kidnapping. when aaron told them he took so long to call 911 because he was drugged and confined to a square of red tape and monitored by a webcam, they didn't buy it. and when denise wouldn't get on that plane to talk to vallejo pd, they thought it was because she had something to hide. she says it was because she was afraid the cops would treat her as they treated her boyfriend aaron, like a suspect. now everything was about to change. three months after vallejo police accused denise and aaron of concocting a hoax, the fbi announced that matthew muller was the prime suspect in denise's very real kidnapping. easeme easement. >> i was glad, you know? i never doubted there was someone who kidnapped her.

>> neither was the woman we are calling samantha. to her, denise's story was very real. >> coming up. >> my hands were handcuffed behind my back. my feet were zip tied. >> could matthew mueller be behind this crime too? we are about to ask him. >> he opened his eyes really wide. i couldn't believe i was bringing this up. >> when "dateline" continues. >> when "dateline" continues i saw you eating poop earlier. hey! my focus is on the road, and that's saving me cash with drivewise. who's the dummy now? whoof! whoof! so get allstate where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. sorry! he's a baby! have a skincare routine. but what about a lip care routine? pay your lips some attention. the chapstick total hydration collection. exfoliate

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welcome back. matthew mullor the harvard educated former lawyer was now

the main suspect in the meticulous home invasion and kidnapping of denise husk i'ms. there are similar crimes and was mullor responsible for those two? we went behind bars and asked him and what was found out was surprising and disturbing. here is the conclusion of "twisted tale" with josh mankiewicz. mountain view, california, the heart of silicon valley. the headquarters of google and in september 2009 the scene of a strange and terrifying crime. >> i was asleep in bed and the next thing i knew i -- there was someone laying on top of me. their hand was over my mouth. >> the woman we're calling samantha hadn't heard the names denise huskins or matthew muller until we contacted her. but as you'll see, the details of what happened to her seem frighteningly familiar.

>> my hands were handcuffed behind my back. my feet were zip tied. he put blacked out swim googles on that were blacked out. i couldn't see. >> zip tie ties' blacked out sw goggles. he said he was part of a group and it was all for money. >> her captor claimed he was part of a group and the point was money. >> i gave him my social security, mother's maiden name, account numbers, my bank account number, my pin. >> as with denise and aaron, the intruder made sure no help would be coming anytime soon. >> he figured out who my boss was from my e-mails and he e-mailed my boss that i was sick and i couldn't come into work that day. you're thinking, wow, this is getting more hopeless. >> she says just as denise and aaron did that she was sedated. in her case it was just nyquil. she became drowsy, but never passed out. she was completely helpless,

completely in his control when it got even worse, when he told her -- >> i have some bad news for you. now i'm going to have to rape you. >> tied up. blindfolded. she pleaded with her captor not to do it. >> his response? >> he got very quiet and he kind of muttered, i can't do this. >> and then the man who had terrorized her for hours suddenly seemed remorseful. >> he said, i'm sorry about this. you know, i've been through this too. >> he even offered some helpful home security advice. >> he recommended i get a dog so that i could have protection in the future. >> reporter: so he's advising you how to keep this from happening again? >> yes. i know, it's incredible. >> it is.

and it's hard to believe. >> i agree. >> the man soon left without letting samantha see his face. when she called the police, the response she received might sound familiar to denise huskins. did police believe you? >> i don't think so. what they told me was they thought maybe i just had a bad dream and i called 911 after my bad dream. >> but less than a month later, a similar case in nearby palo alto. a man broke into his house and restrained the woman with zip ties and swim goggles. then the threatened to rape her. was the same case? police aren't sure. lieutenant zach perron of palo alto police believes the same person is responsible for both crimes. >> we were able to identify one suspect in the case and he's our prime suspect, matthew muller.

>> muller has never been charged in either case. we wanted to hear from muller himself. his attorney did not want muller to do an interview. however, muller agreed to see a visitor. "dateline" associate producer kayla ward spent 30 minutes talking with muller in jail through glass on the phone. no cameras, no recordings, no note taking allowed. what is your initial impression of him? >> we were joking about the books he was reading. >> what's his answer as to whether or not he's guilty of the crimes he's accused of? >> he wouldn't say. he wouldn't deny anything, but he wouldn't say he was guilty of anything. >> she asked him about samantha. >> recently interviewed a woman and her case matches denise huskins and the other case. he couldn't believe that i was bringing this up. >> but he denied knowing anything about samantha's case or the one in palo alto.

then kayla asked about denise huskins. >> he looked at me intensely and said can you imagine being woken up in the middle of the night, taken from your home, sexually assaulted and then you're brave and then it is used against you by the police? there was tears in his eyes. he was very emotional about it. >> putting on a show? >> he might have been putting on a show. he's very smart. very, very smart. >> and very eager to talk about his own troubles. >> he wanted to be very clear that the last six years of his life have been spent in depression. he's had a few suicide attempts. he said he's in jail now and he's happy to be there because it's a safe place for him, a safe place for the community. >> muller did say in his professional life, he'd always wanted to do good for others. >> he told me my hope for my life was that my primary identifier would be helping people. i wanted to be the guy that

helped people. >> so what went wrong? >> i asked him how do you feel now sitting here because you've done the opposite, you've hurt people? he kind of stared at me for a minute in silence and he said, i don't even know where to begin with that. then he kind of put his head down and started to cry and he said i'm so sorry. >> exactly what he was sorry for he didn't say, but muller did say he thought he was exactly where he belonged. >> he said the facts are pretty clear. i think i'll spend a few decades in jail, and i'm fine with that. >> about a year after he spoke with "dateline," mullor pleaded guilty to kidnapping denise huski huskins.

>> denise may not have been the target of the kidnapping. the email sent to henry lee were fiancee who lived with him and grabbed up denise instead. they will live with the scars and then public humiliation. their lawyer is jim waxstaff.

>> the department did send denise and aaron each a letter of apology but, so far, has made no public statement to correct the impression of these two as liars and publicity hounds. denise and aaron sued the city of have lay hoe and in march of 2018 they settled that case for $2.5 million. still no one from vallejo pd has ever explained why the case went so wrong. the official department answer is only no comment. he said to you right at the end i'm sorry about this, this is going to mess you up. >> yes. >> he was right about that, wasn't he? >> yeah. yeah, it definitely messed me up for quite frankly. >> sometime the truest story is the one that sounds like a lie. why did you want to talk to us? >> if i can contribute in any way to making sure that this is taken seriously and this basically saying this is not a hoax, i lived firsthand through

this and i know for a fact that it's true. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. you can lose a child, without knowing it, in a second. it wasn't an if. it was a when are they going to tell us that she's not coming home.he this is not what was supposed to happen. the note was under her blanket. >> i saw it sticking out, and i grabbed it. >> their daughter was a runaway. >> i am frantic because i didn't know how to find her.au >> they called police.ca they searched. and then a jogger found a red shoe and a pool of blood. j >> here they are, three people at the door. >> i just started sobb