Where Is Aaron Quinn Now? He’s ‘Sharing His Trauma’ After His Wife Was Kidnapped

Lea Veloso
·5 min read
10

After watching the Netflix documentary American Nightmare, you might be wondering where Aaron Quinn is now after his wife was kidnapped.

The documentary’s synopsis is as follows: “After a home invasion and abduction, a young couple’s recounting of the events is too far fetched for the police to believe. Why did the victims seem so calm? Was it all a hoax? From the filmmakers behind The Tinder Swindler, this three-part docuseries unravels the consequences of our cultural rush to judgment, and the damage done when law enforcement decides the truth can’t possibly be true.”

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In 2015, Huskins was kidnapped for a period of time while her boyfriend-now-husband Aaron Quinn was tied up by robbers. “I remember being asleep and hearing a voice and thinking it was a dream,” she told ABC 7. “But the voice kept talking and I just remember my eyes shot open and I could see the walls illuminated with a white light that was flashing and I could see a couple of red laser dots crossing the wall, and I could hear, ‘Wake up, this is a robbery. We’re not here to hurt you,'” Huskins said. “And in that moment, I just thought, ‘Oh my God. This is not a dream.'”

She continued, “I heard him drive off. I slowly counted to 10. I peeled the tape off my eyes and I was by myself in this alleyway,” she said. The kidnapper, who had taken Huskins’ bags when he abducted her, had removed them from the car and placed them on the ground. “I grabbed my bags and started walking down that alley … and I looked at the corner street name and I saw Utica, which is the street that I grew up on.” She was held hostage was sexually assaulted in Lake Tahoe before being returned to her hometown of Huntington Beach, California.

While she was kidnapped, Quinn contacted the police even though the kidnappers told him that they would kill her if he did. The case happened while Gone Girl was on its way to becoming a cultural phenomenon—which made police think that Quinn was making the story up and questioned him for more than a week as well as Huskins when she returned.

“It was maddening,” Huskins told The Independent. “Two days of being questioned by police and the FBI, and all I could do was tell them the truth over and over again. And they just refused to believe it. At times, you start to question yourself and your own sanity. It’s a really scary place to be in.”

However, Matthew Muller, a Gulf War veteran and Harvard-educated attorney was behind the kidnapping. Authorities said they found a cellphone that they traced to Muller and a subsequent search of a car and home turned up evidence, including a computer Muller stole from Quinn. However, it did not account for the amount of damage and trauma that Quinn and Huskins endured during their time with officials.

Vallejo police apologized for initially discounting the couple’s story. In 2018, Huskins and Quinn reached a $2.5 million settlement with the city. Muller pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping charges and was sentenced in 2017 to 40 years in prison.

Where is Aaron Quinn now?

Where is Aaron Quinn now? Aaron Quinn currently lives with his wife Denise Huskins and their two children Naomi and Olivia. He works as a physical therapist who trains athletes.

In anticipation of their Netflix documentary coming out, Quinn posted on Instagram, “For years I’ve debated how much to share about my experience as a crime victim on IG. On one side, I want to be known as a good therapist because I’ve dedicated my professional life to that goal. On the other side, I cannot separate the trauma because it shapes me as a practitioner and a person. Compartmentalizing it was helpful for a while but it’s no longer a useful strategy.”

He continued, “Going forward I plan on sharing how this trauma has impacted me personally, and how I use it to help my clients because as physical therapist we need to address the whole person to be truly effective. I’ll still be sharing movement stuff, I’m just giving myself permission to do more.”

In an interview with The Independent, he also shared that his work as a physical therapist “A big part of our job is helping people. That in itself can be healing because after something this traumatic happens to you, you almost feel like you’re incapable of contributing more, [because] you’re too broken,” he says. “Finding something where you can help people on a small scale can give you a sense of purpose.”

Both Huskins and Quinn have been very vocal about their experiences, with the two writing a book called Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors. “There were things that happened that we saw, that we heard. It just would have been impossible to have been done by one guy,” Huskins said to ABC 7. “There are other people out there. That’s something that we’ve had to live with and somehow make peace with.”

American Nightmare is now available to stream on Netflix.

Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors

Victim F

$16.90

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In Victim F, Aaron and Denise recount the horrific ordeal that almost cost them everything. Like too many victims of sexual violence, they were dismissed, disbelieved, and dragged through the mud. With no one to rely on except each other, they took on the victim blaming, harassment, misogyny, and abuse of power running rife in the criminal justice system. Their story is, in the end, a love story, but one that sheds necessary light on sexual assault and the abuse by law enforcement that all too frequently compounds crime victims’ suffering.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, free and confidential help is available. Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline on 1-800-656-4673.

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