The man convicted in a bizarre Vallejo kidnapping in 2015 is now accused in other abductions and assaults in and near the Bay Area.
Matthew Muller, the kidnapper at the center of the notorious 2015 Vallejo "Gone Girl" case that later became the focus of a Netflix documentary series, has been linked to crimes in San Ramon, via an investigation by authorities in Monterey County, and another similar case in Dublin.
The alleged kidnappings for ransom in the East Bay happened just months after Muller kidnapped and sexually assaulted Denise Huskins in March 2015 in a case that Vallejo police initially called a hoax.
Muller pleaded guilty in the kidnapping of Huskins, a case that was later chronicled in the Netflix true crime series "American Nightmare."
After watching the series and talking with a victim, Seaside police Chief Nick Borges wrote to Muller, who is serving time in a federal prison in Arizona.
"The interactions that I had in writing him, I just spoke to him as a human," Borges said. "There was no training or skill or trickery. It was just authentic who I am, reaching out."
Muller wrote back and provided critical information that led to him being charged in connection with home invasions in Mountain View and Palo Alto.
New evidence also shows Muller may have started his crime spree more than two decades earlier.
"We now know that as far back as when he was 16 years old that Mueller had committed his first kidnapping and sexual assault. That was in 1993," El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said.
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Pierson said that alleged crime is under investigation but did not reveal where it happened .
After Muller terrorized Huskins in 2015, she said she feared there were more victims.
"Muller was 16 years old when he attacked his first victims," she said. "He was 38 years old by the time he got to us. That’s two decades of this mindset that he was living in. By the time our case came about, they found storage units full of equipment to help him facilitate terrorizing people."
Huskins said she’s glad to see law enforcement re-investigate Muller and is hoping he’ll be sentenced to life in prison if convicted on the new charges.
