‘American Nightmare’ kidnapper Matthew Muller pleads guilty to crimes committed as teen

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Matthew Muller, the notorious kidnapper who held Denise Huskins captive and broke into several San Francisco Bay Area women’s homes, began his criminal career when he was just 16 years old.

On Wednesday, Muller pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young girl who was camping in a tent near Folsom Lake in 1993, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said. Then-16-year-old Muller ordered two young campers out of their tent at gunpoint. “He tied up the male and carried the female away to sexually assault her,” SCDAO wrote.

Muller, 48, was featured in a Netflix documentary, “American Nightmare,” that chronicled Huskins’ harrowing story of survival.

On March 23, 2015, Muller broke into a Vallejo home where he tied up Huskins and her boyfriend. He kidnapped Huskins, brought her to his cabin in South Lake Tahoe, and recorded videos of rapes. Two days later, Muller drove Huskins to Southern California and released her.

The Folsom Lake sex assault went unsolved for 32 years. During that time, Muller joined the U.S. Marines, graduated from Harvard University, and became an attorney.

Investigators described him as an “exceptionally intelligent” predator who meticulously planned and practiced. Between 1993 and when he was finally caught and jailed in 2015 — Muller left behind “a trail of traumatized and terrified victims,” prosecutors said.

The Vallejo Police Department initially accused Huskins of faking her own kidnapping in a “Gone Girl” inspired hoax.

Following the release of “American Nightmare,” Huskins and Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges teamed up and found new evidence to reopen cold cases in Santa Clara County, Contra Costa County, and El Dorado County dating back to the early 1990s.

Muller was serving prison time for the Huskins case when he began exchanging letters with Borges in 2024, court documents show. In his letters, Muller admitted to committing more crimes across Northern California. The inmate explained in detail how he broke into women’s homes in Mountain View and Palo Alto in 2009, tied victims up, sexually assaulted them, and eluded investigators, according to court documents.

He also confessed to the 1993 Folsom Lake crime, prosecutors said.

The serial predator was first arrested in the summer of 2015 after Dublin police found enough evidence to connect him to the Huskins case and a violent Dublin home invasion. 

This week, Sacramento County prosecutors wrote, “The 32-year cold case was recently filed after evidence linked Muller, now age 48, to the crime.”

Muller was sentenced Wednesday to serve 11 years to life for the Folsom Lake sex assault. He will serve the sentence consecutively with a life sentence ordered by a judge of the Santa Clara County home invasions, as well as a 40-year federal prison sentence for crimes committed against Huskins.

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho said, “This case is a powerful reminder that the pursuit of justice never ends. Matthew Muller’s admission to the horrific kidnapping and sexual assault of a young girl in 1993 brings long-overdue justice for the victims. A dangerous sex offender is being held responsible for his crimes in our community.”