Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn.Photo:Courtesy of Netflix
Courtesy of Netflix
Had police responded properly to Aaron Quinn’s pleas to help track down his kidnapped girlfriend,Denise Huskins, the California couple’s life might have been very different than it is today.
Police questioned him for 18 hours, pressuring him to confess to a crime he not only didn’t commit, but didn’t happen.
“I didn’t do anything,” Quinn tells an investigator, in a tense moment caught on police security cameras and re-aired in the documentary. The officer quickly shuts him down: “Yeah, you did.”
Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn.Mike Jory/The Times-Herald via AP
Mike Jory/The Times-Herald via AP
Miraculously, she would reappear two days later outside of her family’s home in Orange County – a moment that in many cases would’ve been a time of relief. However, her sudden reappearance at her mother’s house only made investigators even more suspicious and they began to cast their doubt publicly.
For three months, police would continue to doubt on Huskins and Quinn – a public pressure that Quinn told PEOPLE this month had severely impacted their attempt to return to their normal lives again. The couple, both physical therapists in the Southern California area, struggled to even go back to work.
“Those months in between were unsustainable and we weren’t able to go back to work,” Quinn said. “Partly because of trauma and partly because they wouldn’t let us. Who wants to hire a hoaxer?”
Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn.Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty
Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty
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To this day, the couple still doesn’t understand why they were targeted.
“Like many victims, or many people who have gone through tragedy, you don’t get all the answers,” Quinn said. “And that can be a sticking point to recovery. So for us, we don’t rely on finding those answers, but what we have to do is move forward in the unknown and focus on things that matter the most to us, like our family, our kids, our work. Those are sustainable things. And having the answers of why they targeted us doesn’t change what we do as far as moving forward.”
The couple’s traumatic three months navigating the public’s perception of them is recounted in Netflix’sAmerican Nightmareseries.
“I hope people come away from after they see the film, that this isn’t a bizarre kidnapping,” Quinn said. “What’s quite bizarre is just the absolute lack of any sort of investigation. All the evidence was there to catch Muller and the other perpetrators within the first 24 hours, but the police put their head in the sand and said there was no sky. So that is the scary part, is that the confirmation bias and tunnel vision will just lead them to do nothing.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go torainn.org.
source: people.com
