Matthew Muller charged in 2009 South Bay home invasion sexual assaults

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 charged in two 2009 home invasion sexual assaults in the South Bay, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office announced Monday.

The district attorney's office said advances in forensic DNA testing link Muller to home invasion sexual assaults that occurred in Mountain View and Palo Alto.

Muller previously pleaded guilty to the March 2015 kidnapping of Denise Huskins, a case that was first dismissed as a hoax by law enforcement and later chronicled in the Netflix true crime series "American Nightmare."

Muller, who is currently serving a 40-year prison term, is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges Monday afternoon at the Hall of Justice in San Jose. He faces two felony counts of committing a sexual assault during a home invasion, according to the district attorney's office.

"The details of this person’s violent crime spree seem scripted for Hollywood, but they are tragically real," Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. "Our goal is to make sure this defendant is held accountable and will never hurt or terrorize anyone ever again. Our hope is that this nightmare is over."

According to the district attorney's office, Muller broke into a Mountain View home on Sept. 29, 2009, attacked a woman in her 30s, tied her up and made her drink a concoction of medications while saying he was going to rape her. The victim persuaded Muller against it, to which he responded by suggesting the woman get a dog. Muller then left the scene.

Less than a month later on Oct. 18, 2009, Muller broke into a Palo Alto home, bound and gagged a woman in her 30s, and made her drink NyQuil. He started to assault her but was persuaded to stop, the district attorney's office said. He then gave the victim crime prevention advice and left.

Authorities investigated both cases, but they went unsolved.

The district attorney's office, following a new lead, worked with the Palo Alto and Mountain View police departments to send all of the evidence back to a crime lab for additional testing. Criminalists found Muller's DNA on straps that he used to bind one of the victims, the district attorney's office said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.