state. we want to send along a texas sized thank you. that's it for us. stay tuned for "20/20" which starts right now. police said it was a hoax. >> tonight, inside the bizarre crime that captivated the country this week. denise huskins and aaron quinn of vallejo, california, seemed to have it all. movie star looks, great careers and bright futures together. dating just seven months after meeting at work. where they both worked as physical therapists. what kind of people are they? >> they're just people who want to enjoy a movie and a pizza on the weekend. >> reporter: and that's just what they were doing on the night of march 22nd. they watched tv, drank some

beers and were in bed by 1:00 a.m. but the next day, their world turns upside down. >> this is wild it reads like a movie script. the details are insane. >> reporter: aaron says that around 3:00 in the morning, he and denise were startled awake by a terrifying blast of light. someone was in the house. >> there were red laser beams pointing at them. there were flashes, bright lights. they were told to turn over. they were bound. she's removed to a closet. goggles are placed on their heads that are blacked out, so they can't see. >> and they supposedly put headphones with some instructions that say, they're told that they have to drink this cocktail that's some type of mix of sedative and cough syrup. >> reporter: aaron tells police he's then taken downstairs and left on a couch.

when he finally comes to, he finds himself in the middle of a nightmare. >> it's a psychological form of imprisonment. >> reporter: even when denise is found alive, the police don't believe the story. >> i'm like, what? i was so shocked. >> reporter: they've been branded as hoaxers. >> if anything, it's them that owes the community an apology. >> an orchestrated hoax. >> reporter: but just this week, breaking news. the fbi now says that make-believe kidnapper turns out

to be very real. >> the people that came out and said, this is a hoax, should be embarrassed. they were wrong. >> reporter: tonight, all-new details emerging. tracking and capturing the accused mastermind, matthew muller. why was denise let go? tonight, the caper that everyone is talking about. this is the stuff movies are made of. >> horror movies for that terrified young couple. all-new details tonight in the case police thought was a hoax. tonight, profilers taking us inside his mind. >> and there's no apology from

the police. and tonight, you'll see it all. the most complete play by play in what was said to be a trial run for another abduction down the road. once again, cecelia vega. >> reporter: something scary and strange has happened in the quiet community of mare island in vallejo, california. an old shipyard building town an hour north of san francisco. but what exactly did happen? when aaron quinn calls police on the afternoon of that terrifying home invasion, he says more than ten hours have already passed since his girlfriend denise was snatched by an intruder. so why the wait? >> i think the vallejo police were quite suspicious from the start. >> reporter: henry lee is a reporter at the "san francisco chronicle" who covered the case. >> this ordeal had happened in the predawn hours, yet he didn't come forward until later that afternoon. >> reporter: aaron is taken to the police station and consents to a blood test to determine what drugs he was given. he tells police whoever took denise left behind their cell phones.

aaron says he's already received a message demanding a ransom, two payments of $8,500. >> $8,500 is quite a paltry sum, pretty small amount for a kidnap victim. and certainly the police were very suspicious of that amount from the very start. >> reporter: of course, when any woman vanishes, cops want to take a good look at the man in her life, but nothing in aaron's or denise's background screams trouble. >> he was just a very great kid. if there was a conflict, he'd be the person to kind of straighten it out. never really saw him lose his temper. >> she has a lot of friends and everybody adores her. she's very well-liked. i don't know of anyone who does not like her. >> reporter: but there are no other witnesses to the abduction and no obvious evidence of a break-in. and all that high-tech gadgetry? former fbi profiler and abc news consultant brad garrett says real ransom kidnappings just don't look like this. >> when you listen to the front

end of this case, and from my vantage point some very bizarre details. the tape over the goggles. i mean, it almost sounds like somebody had a movie script and they were reading it. >> it was unbelievable. aaron spent 17 hours with the police without an attorney and we started getting very worried about what was happening. >> reporter: things are getting testy, when aaron agrees to submit to a polygraph administered with the help of the fbi. >> the police and the fbi were doing a very hard interview, as we call it. but unfortunately, he didn't like it and he decided to cut the interview off. >> he submitted to everything. he volunteered dna samples. he did everything. they should've started thinking, and saying, "okay, let's look -- let's forget about classifying this guy as a dirtbag. let's start looking at him as a human being." >> reporter: but to police, aaron is looking less like a victim and more like a menacing mastermind. >> it was made very clear to us

that he was the prime suspect but i didn't think he would be the only suspect. >> reporter: and the next day they turn to the public for help. >> as of this moment ms. huskins' whereabouts are unknown and we are treating this matter as a kidnap for ransom. and anyone who has any information about her whereabouts are encouraged to contact the vallejo police department immediately. >> denise huskins vanished from her boyfriend's home and has been kidnapped and is possibly being held for ransom. >> who takes people for ransom these days? it just gives me the chills just thinking about it. >> it's just bizarre. >> it's kind of a scary thing. i've got a family, i've got young kids, i've got a wife. so it is kind of scary. >> reporter: with the community on edge vallejo police launch a massive search for the missing blonde 29-year-old. >> tonight, denise huskins is still missing and police have no suspects. >> it's like a bad dream and i can't wake up, you know? >> reporter: denise's distraught father, who lives 400 miles south in huntington beach, california, sends a message to his daughter. >> be strong like you always are

'cause you got -- the family's -- sorry. it's just unreal. it doesn't make any sense. why would a guy sneak into the place in the middle of the night and take her? i just don't understand. >> reporter: police were saying the same thing, too. something about the case wasn't adding up. investigators bring aaron back in for more grilling. >> they've questioned her boyfriend, they're continuing to question her boyfriend. >> reporter: but this time, he brought his lawyer daniel russo along. >> at a certain point, i would look at aaron and just go, how is this guy functioning? >> we don't have all of the facts in yet and that's what he's helping us do, to piece the puzzle together. >> reporter: and another piece of this baffling puzzle was about to surface. the day after denise goes missing, reporter henry lee goes from covering the case to being

cast as a main character in it when a mysterious e-mail shows up in his inbox. >> i'm standing outside the vallejo house in the neighborhood where aaron quinn lives and in my e-mail i get an audio file as well as a message. the audio file has the voice of a woman. >> my name is denise huskins. i'm kidnapped, otherwise fine. >> reporter: it's a proof of life recording and to confirm it's really her, denise reveals personal details that only she would know. >> she shared details like the first concert she went to, she says, was a blink-182 concert. >> reporter: and to prove she's actually alive and well it references a story in the news that day, the tragic plane crash in france. >> earlier today there was a plane crash in the alps and 150 people died. >> you can hear what is her voice and she says, i'm okay, but it's to give them the impression that yes, this is really happening, and she's in trouble. >> reporter: but instead of offering proof that denise is

still alive, it only raises more questions about her abduction. >> she gave a proof of life audio file that the kidnappers e-mailed to police in which she doesn't sound distressed at all. >> reporter: that evening, another clue. while the cops had aaron's phone, he received two calls from an unknown number. police later able to track that number to a disposable phone purchased at target with the calls coming from somewhere in lake tahoe. but who was making these calls? when we come back -- with police pressure mounting on aaron, an unexpected twist turns this head-scratcher of a case into a full-blown hollywood-inspired whodunit. >> here he comes. here he comes. >> we're watching tv and all of a sudden, we see lieutenant parks on the tv. >> on today's date, at approximately 10:30 in the morning -- >> -- and we're like, what? >> i will not be taking any questions. >> i was so shocked. >> reporter: stay with us.

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now, back to "20/20"'s stranger than fiction with cecelia vega. >> reporter: it's two days after denise huskins has disappeared. searchers are scouring the vallejo, california, area, beginning to fear the worst, when suddenly, things take a turn for the best. denise shows up, unharmed in the last place anyone would expect to find her, 400 miles away in huntington beach, california, her hometown. >> so the suspect dropped her off on this street just a little further down and once she got out of the car she then walked westbound on utica getting to lake avenue, she made a left and then went to her mother's house. >> she sees a gardener and she asks to borrow a cell phone. >> reporter: police would later track down that gardener who said he remembered denise making

two calls and seeming "normal." >> she seemed calm, like nothing's wrong. she's not crying, she's not freaking out, i've been kidnapped, i'm denise huskins. she's not saying any of those. she just wants to borrow a cell phone. >> and from that phone she calls her dad. >> she said, daddy i'm safe. they let me go and i'm walking to your house. >> when i talked to him, he said, oh my god, oh my god, denise is okay, denise is okay. she's in huntington beach and he hung up the phone with me and immediately called the police in huntington beach, they rushed over there. >> here he comes. >> reporter: word gets back to police up north that denise has suddenly turned up safe. >> on today's date at approximately 10:30 in the morning, the vallejo police department received notification that our victim denise huskins was located safely. we are still treating this as a kidnap for ransom. we have no reason to believe otherwise. >>i was so shocked. i was so shocked because i thought everything is good. everything is good, they found

her, she's alive. what i thought would happen is they would start to try and find the kidnappers. >> the new twist in what some call the real life "gone girl." >> reporter: but the stranger than fiction case now seemed ripped right off the big screen. with many noticing striking similarities to last year's blockbuster "gone girl." a movie about a woman faking her own abduction and watching as her husband takes the fall for it. >> meticulously stage your crime scene. >> she's a very photogenic blonde woman, she magically appears near her parent's house. it was like a scene from a hollywood movie. she's fine, everyone's all happy, they're ecstatic. >> we love you, amy! >> reporter: much like the character in the movie, denise was now in front of police recounting her own harrowing 48 hours. >> our detectives are out here speaking with her and assisting them with their investigation. >> denise told police a very similar story like the one her boyfriend had told them.

that she was accosted, woken up in the middle of the night, had bright lights shining in her face, she was given headphones with a pre-recorded instruction saying you need to come with us. we're kidnapping you. >> reporter: but before fleeing her abductor allows her to gather a few personal belongings to take with her, including her glasses. >> and she's eventually put in the trunk of a car. >> she was taken hours and hours and hours, in the back of a car, ultimately removed, taken out, left on a cold slab of a cement floor, and then removed to a home, where she's placed in a room and left. >> the windows have cardboard duct taped over them, there's a dresser, there's a bed. >> she was still bound with the zip ties and there was also a bike chain that was used to control her and to keep her from escaping. >> based on her description there was at least one suspect that was with her at all times.

she indicates that there were others that were involved. >> initially denise said that her captors treated her fairly well under the circumstances. she was fed, she was given food and water. >> she was allowed to take a shower. she was also allowed to brush her teeth. so, in one way they were caring for her, which is interesting. >> reporter: denise also says she was not sexually assaulted. but that important detail would later change when she told vallejo police that she was raped by her abductor on two different occasions. according to her lawyer, denise told police that in her hours of captivity, she made peace with her possible fate. >> she had come to accept that she was going to be killed and how she said to herself, "i am a good person, i have a great family and a great relationship. and if i'm shot while i'm -- when i'm drugged," which is what she thought would happen, that, "i'm gonna be okay." and -- >> reporter: she was in that room with him thinking this was the end. >> she did. >> reporter: but police weren't buying it.

the inconsistencies in denise's story, her almost nonchalant demeanor. and who ever heard of a kidnapper driving 400 miles to drop their victim off just down the street from her mom's house? >> the questions started becoming accusatory. and to her credit, she had a family member who had just passed the bar. and he advised her, as he was taught in law school, "if you're a suspect, you ask for a lawyer." >> we're confident that we're going to be able to piece together this puzzle and have a better picture of what really occurred, how it occurred and when it occurred once we speak to ms. huskins. >> the fbi arranged a plane to shuttle her back north but before it could take off, denise disappeared again. >> she would not return phone calls, would not respond to messages. but she was nowhere to be found. >> as of right now we have not heard from ms. huskins and we are no longer in contact with any of the family members. >> reporter: the vallejo police had had enough, and we're about

to go public once more, but this time with a very different message. >> it's disappointing. it's disheartening. >> reporter: it was now their turn to shake things up. >> my mouth was open. i just said, "what?" i was dumbstruck. >> reporter: and in a case with more twists and turns than a bestseller, a bold but anonymous author was about to write several new chapters. next, the alleged kidnapper speaks up. revealing why he let denise hutchins go. when stranger than fiction returns. that is confusing. all i want is something unlimited

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sc johnson, a family company . stranger than fiction continues. once again, cecelia vega.

>> we begin with breaking news. a woman who was reportedly kidnapped, has now apparently turned up. she's indeed here in huntington beach. found safe in huntington beach. >> reporter: just hours after the news breaks that denise huskins has been found safe and sound near her mother's house, 400 miles down the california coast in huntington beach, the case takes another stunning turn. lieutenant kenny park of the vallejo police department goes before the cameras to publicly denounce her and her boyfriend aaron quinn, a highly aggressive move. >> we were not able to substantiate any of the things that he was saying. we've had over 40 police detectives working around the clock. that is a tremendous amount of resources that, in my opinion, was wasted. >> that was pretty amazing in a bad way. i was so shocked. >> reporter: the police even suggest the young couple might face criminal charges themselves. >> if we feel that there is

sufficient evidence to move forward, we will be requesting criminal charges. >> can you imagine being rescued from a kidnapping and then the people are on you for committing a crime? >> i think they wanted to sell, they're borderline sociopaths. >> police say the kidnapping was a hoax. denise huskins, reported orchestrator of this possible kidnapping hoax. >> reporter: cue the media pile-on. it was swift and severe. >> there was a certain feeding frenzy on the hoax thing, on the gone girl. >> we're partners in crime. >> it was so sexy. >> reporter: what was that like for them? they walk down the street. they go to work. they go home. people say, "that's the gone girl couple. they lied. they made this up." >> yeah. i think it's unbearable.

>> they were depressed, not eating or sleeping well. >> reporter: now to be fair, the cops were dealing with a story so out there it would strain any skeptic's eyebrows. >> it sounds incredible, the idea that someone is coming in and putting goggles on, headphones, and there's no physical evidence to corroborate it. >> reporter: you must've said, this case is so crazy, i don't even believe it. >> but you need a motive. >> reporter: were police asking that question? >> the police should've thought they should've said, "what is the motive for doing this?" they had successful lives. they're helping health professionals. they had no motive. this is not the kardashian family. >> the vallejo police told aaron during this whole time that they thought it was a hoax so he could be on reality tv. that was their contention. >> reporter: douglas rappapport and daniel russo resolve to vindicate their clients.

>> i was not gonna stop. dan nor i were gonna stop until her name was cleared. >> reporter: but who, aside from their paid attorneys, would champion denise and aaron's sullied reputations? an unlikely defender emerged from the shadows of the internet and into the inbox of the "san francisco chronicle"'s henry lee. >> well, i immediately thought, "what in the heck is this? this is some part of elaborate prank?" >> reporter: less than 24 hours after vallejo police publicly discredited the kidnapping, lee receives this explosive e-mail from an anonymous source, claiming to be one of the kidnappers. >> "ms. huskins was absolutely kidnapped. we did it. we will provide incontrovertible proof of that." >> reporter: the author, at times boastful, at others remorseful, describes the kidnappers as "professional thieves, young adults, fairly recent college graduates who fancied ourselves as a sort of ocean's 11, gentlemen criminals." >> why do this? >> why not do it? >> you know what, tell that to a

jury. it's not like ocean's 11. he's not george clooney. >> they describe themselves as this motley crew who started with car break-ins and home break-ins and elevated themselves to kidnappings and burglaries. >> reporter: the kidnapping of denise huskins, the note explains, was simply a "test of methods to be used later on a higher net worth target." but "the operation went terribly wrong," as the kidnappers apparently developed a soft spot for their victim. "we were very impressed with the strength she showed and who she was as we passed the time talking to her." >> what was stunning was that they actually felt guilty for kidnapping denise. >> they want to create a world where they are in charge, but very professional, articulate, which this person is. >> reporter: abc news consultant and former fbi profiler brad garrett has analyzed the e-mails. >> but they also don't want to harm anybody. they want a world where they can

play at being a bad guy but not in reality be a bad guy. >> reporter: the note even includes an apology to denise, but what truly motivates the author isn't guilt but rage. rage at vallejo police for impugning their victim's character. "we will not stand by and see the life of a good person ruined." >> have you not already ruined the life of someone you kidnapped? >> reporter: two days later a magnum opus arrives. a 9,000-word screed, words pouring out like oil from a ruptured pipeline detailing the group's past auto thefts, specifically mentioning this white mustang. >> i'm reading this, and i'm just thinking, "okay, you've just blown my mind." i mean, how is this for real? >> reporter: then, a meticulous account of the huskins abduction the use of fake guns with laser pointers, the headphones, and the logic behind that quirky ransom figure of $8,500. >> they said, "well, the reason we picked $8,500 is, it's below

the $10,000 threshold, the federal law that immediately triggers a notification." >> reporter: also included several photos of alleged evidence, this shot of that fake gun with lasers attached, and one of a room where denise was allegedly held. >> there's a picture of this room with the cardboard, with the duct tape. and on the dresser, they tell me, are denise's glasses. they're very specific kind of black-rim glasses. they seem to look like hers. >> reporter: but despite those e-mails, the cops aren't convinced. >> they naturally assume that it was quinn and huskins trying to clear their own names. >> reporter: the mystery e-mailer goes silent and for all intents and purposes the case is dropped. >> it's sort of like when you get to the end of the movie, it just stops. >> reporter: it appeared the story would end there. the young couple stuck in the purgatory of their public

humiliation. >> he has basically died and gone to hell. he is in terrible shape, he is exhausted mentally and physically. >> reporter: that is, until june 5th, when the story takes yet another wild turn. an awfully similar, and awfully violent home invasion takes place here, just 40 miles south of vallejo in the town of dublin. >> we got a 911 call, female caller, victim states that somebody came into their residence. >> reporter: these details might ring a bell. a couple confronted by an intruder, shining a bright light in their faces and attempting to restrain them with zip-ties. but unlike denise's abduction, things go awry from the start. the man of the house fights back, suffering this head injury. and the intruder? he leaves empty-handed. >> he went out the residence. down the stairs, out the residence. >> reporter: he gets away, but the self-proclaimed criminal mastermind has made a freshman,

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"20/20" continues with stranger than fiction. here again, cecelia vega. >> reporter: in the quiet community of dublin, california, a violent home invasion. this one, just 40 minutes south of vallejo, the scene of

denise huskins' disputed abduction a couple months earlier. >> suspicious. north terracina. >> reporter: a carbon copy of the vallejo crime. >> one subject in black had a laser. >> reporter: except this time, the victims fight back. >> a husband fighting with a subject. >> reporter: the husband, grappling with the intruder while his wife calls for help. >> responding north terracina. has locked herself in the bedroom. the husband possibly has a head injury. we're having medical started. >> reporter: police come on the double. the failed abductor takes off. >> the subject ran through the back door. >> reporter: leaving behind familiar tools -- zip ties, duct tape, and one more crucial piece of evidence -- a cell phone. >> suspect left his cell phone upstairs. we have his cell phone. >> 10-4. suspect left his cell. >> you might as well leave a business card and put it in the mailbox and say, "okay, here's your clue, police." >> without that piece of evidence, right now i think we'd still be investigating it. >> reporter: lieutenant herb walters and his detectives cracking both cases, even though dublin is half the size of

vallejo and has nowhere near the resources of the fbi. the case goes hopscotching across california. that cell phone forgotten at the dublin crime scene leads police 100 miles north, to an address in orangevale. this house. not exactly a hideout. a pleasant brick and frame home with a beautifully manicured yard. >> our lead detective started doing more research on it, running all the different names associated with the orangevale address. >> reporter: the homeowner tells police the phone belongs to her adult son. he'd misplaced it the day before. police get the son's name. >> our detectives had a name and that name was matt muller. >> reporter: on the surface matthew muller is an unlikely suspect. his attorney tom johnson -- tell me about matthew muller the man. >> mr. muller had some great success in life. >> reporter: he attended this sacramento area high school, played trumpet in jazz band,

joined computer club. a teacher says, "a high achiever, but unmemorable." what do you know about his home life? where was he raised, his parents? what kind of home does he come from? >> he came from a good home. he had two parents that were educators. they're good people. >> reporter: looking to gain maturity, muller joined the marines. stationed in okinawa, japan, travelling the world, eventually returning to california, enrolling at pomona college. alex volberding was a classmate. >> he approached college with a very regimented attitude and vigor that was unlike most of our classmates. >> reporter: he marries this woman, now a lawyer for a drug company. goes to harvard law, then joins this san francisco firm, fighting for clients in court and on tv. >> no, we will not even let you have your day in court. >> reporter: this is a smart guy?

>> the person who went to pomona college, the person who went to harvard -- you can't be that person and not be a smart person. >> reporter: but the shooting star was about to flame out. his lawyer says inside that handsome head, a time bomb was ticking. muller was getting disbarred, his marriage of about ten years ending in divorce. >> its been the past five to eight or so years where we are seeing some difficulty in conducting a normal life. >> reporter: muller's mother tells detectives her son is now living 85 miles away in south lake tahoe, in this house in the woods. sound familiar? it should. remember, when denise was still missing, that's where those mystery phone calls to aaron came from. then, right nearby -- jackpot. a stolen car. >> they found a ford mustang that had been mentioned in the e-mails previously sent so they thought, "wow, we actually found the car that the bad guy mentions in a previous communication." >> reporter: inside the vehicle, cops find one more misplaced

clue -- a driver's license. it belongs to muller, who is quickly arrested. >> we arrived at the house, and it seems like nobody is home. we go up to the residence and once the detectives made entry, they found matt muller coming out of the bathroom. he was calm, he didn't give up any resistance. i believe that muller expected something eventually to catch up with him. >> reporter: investigators say the house and car yield a treasure trove of evidence. a gps still programmed to the huntington beach address where denise was dropped. swim goggles, just as aaron and denise described. a telltale strand of blonde hair snared in the duct tape. and that toy gun -- the one the kidnapper was so proud of, he sent a picture to the newspaper. >> this is a really big find. it showed a direct link back to

the abduction of this couple, and so this entire thing ties the case together. this is absolutely not a hoax. >> wow. none of us thought it would end like this. >> today is a fabulous day. >> reporter: this is what an acquittal in the court of public opinion looks like. >> the vallejo police department owes an apology to ms. huskins and mr. quinn. >> reporter: denise, still shaken, stands in the background. the lawyers do the talking. in the blink of an eye, everything has changed. denise and aaron go from crackpots to credible, hoaxers to heroes. >> a bizarre kidnapping story. >> reality, stranger than fiction. >> reporter: the fbi will charge muller with the original kidnapping, the allegations a far cry from where acquaintances thought their former college classmate would most likely wind up.

>> i imagined him sitting behind the desk in some elected capacity, not sitting in jail right now. >> i don't want to say it was joy. it was relief. i'm not joyful about anything that's happened here. joy would not be the word i would describe. >> reporter: you're still outraged, it sounds like? >> well, i am! to just take these people who've been completely victimized and then just run them over as many times as you can and see what happens, you would expect to see a lot of anger and a lot of hate. >> reporter: are they angry? >> i think they're horribly upset and disappointed. >> what they want are their lives back. >> but when we return, will even more victims now be coming out of the woodwork? will cold cases suddenly start melting? >> who knows what else can result from this.

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stranger than fiction continues. once again, cecelia vega. >> reporter: denise huskins and her boyfriend aaron quinn didn't say a word at their news conference the other day, but it doesn't take a mind reader to know they must be thinking -- i told you so. >> look, you know, this whole freak show, and that's what it is, it's a freak show, they didn't wanna be in this freak show. >> reporter: now, as authorities try to unravel the crazy case, the case the police so publically doubted, there are still lots of questions. >> the key to the mystery, for vallejo police anyway, is

muller. muller is an odd duck. i'm sure his attorneys are going to try to twist his, let's say, eccentricities into a mental defense. i don't think it's going to work. >> reporter: muller's defense attorney tom johnson says his client intends to plead not guilty. >> when i read the e-mail i thought, the writer is insane. this is so bizarre, it's not consistent with a sane individual. >> reporter: does that e-mail read like it was written by matt muller? >> i can't say that. and they haven't proved that. they've just said it in and affidavit. >> reporter: it sounds to me like you are setting yourself up for an insanity defense. >> it's certainly something we are going to think about. >> reporter: muller reported to be saying just a few hours ago,

i'm happy to be in a controlled environment. i feel bad for denise and other victims out there. but it's still a mystery. why were these victims targeted? why denise huskins, why the family in dublin? >> we interviewed the victims and we showed the victims a photo, they've never seen him before. >> reporter: numerous police departments are now eagerly investigating to see if they can link muller to other unsolved crimes in their cities. >> it's amazing. who knows what else can result from this? we don't know if it stops at vallejo. >> reporter: across the bay from vallejo, palo alto police can't wait to talk to muller about a case from 2009. just listen to the eerie details. >> an unknown male suspect broke into a woman's house while she was home alone and asleep in bed. he restrained her, blindfolded her and threatened to rob her and sexually assault her. >> reporter: no ransom was paid and yet denise was released. why? the couple's lawyers speculate

the kidnapper let her go because he got what he really wanted. >> we need to have a psychiatrist tell us what his real motive is, but -- power. >> i think that he is -- smarter than everyone else. >> right. >> that he was so smart that he could manipulate and control people. it's about power. >> there are a few other questions such as co-conspirators. the victims believe other defendants, other perpetrators were involved. who are they? did they exist? or did muller simply say they existed? who else would buy into muller's particular brand of crazy? >> this was all about basically playing out a fantasy. >> reporter: abc news consultant and former fbi profiler brad garrett says the crimes look like the work of someone bringing a sick fantasy to life. >> fantasies, if you can take them to reality, are very powerful.

look what he had done. he controlled the lives of two people. >> reporter: that's why in spite of the e-mail claims that a denise was taken by a band of kidnappers, garrett thinks the perpetrator acted alone. >> if you do them with somebody else then you have to share both the excitement and the fantasies with others. >> reporter: attorneys for denise and aaron are now openly questioning why it took so long to crack the case. >> three days into it, they could've figured out who this character who kidnapped them was, and they didn't follow it. >> reporter: like pursuing the calls to aaron quinn from south lake tahoe, the very place where muller was later found. >> you would've expected the police to have at least established contact with the el dorado sheriff's office and other local law enforcement to see if maybe that's where the suspect is living or was located. >> reporter: and now?

the police to the news flash from the fbi that they were dead wrong? that the kidnapping was not a hoax? sorry, not sorry. not yet anyway. so does the department still stand by the statements that it made so publicly four months ago, that this was a hoax that wasted valuable city resources? >> yes. but, we're also continuing to investigate it. >> reporter: did you drop the ball? >> i don't believe so, no. >> reporter: you're not looking for an apology? >> we're not gonna get one, you know. and if we do, i'll be shopping for unicorns. >> they caused my family much pain, lack of sleep, anxiety, shame. >> reporter: and just for the record, aaron's mother is over the "gone girl" references. >> denise is not a gone girl, she is not a manipulator, she was not seeking attention. >> they don't want any of this, right? they just want to get back to where they were, and they were in a really good place.

they were in a really good, happy place. >> reporter: can they get their reputations back? >> once the perception is there and people accept that they're really victims, i think it's gonna come back. but like i say, there's always gonna be people who look at them sideways. stranger than fict rheumatoid arthritis like me... and you're talking to a rheumatologist about a biologic, this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira helping me reach for more. doctors have been prescribing humira for more than 10 years.

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so, our question for you tonight, do you think the police should apologize for branding that couple as liars? let us know, use #abc2020. i'm elizabeth vargas. >> and i'm david muir. from all of us at abc news, thanks for watching. have a good weekend. >> coming up next police report

a gun nan philadelphia and raging wildfire traps hundreds a gun nan philadelphia and raging wildfire traps hundreds of motorist on a busy freeway >> it happened tonight 8th and fairmount in north philadelphia and police responded to call of a man with a gun and lawmen say when that man started to remove the grun his