Netflix’s latest true crime docuseries and current most-watched show, American Nightmare, details the kidnapping of Denise Huskins. Yet the handling of Huskins’ case by the public, the media, and especially by the police, became just as disturbing as the crime itself.
***Content warning: kidnapping, sexual assault***
When Denise Huskins disappeared from her Northern California home in 2015 after intruders broke in, her boyfriend Aaron Quinn reported the invasion and kidnapping to the police. He told them kidnappers woke them up and took Huskins, claiming they would contact Quinn with information about ransom. When Quinn heard nothing, he contacted authorities. Over and over Quinn told police the harrowing story of waking in the middle of the night to intruders and not knowing where Huskins was. After two days, Huskins miraculously appeared in Southern California near the home of her father.
Huskins told authorities the same account as Quinn about how the kidnapping occurred. She then said the kidnapper put her in the trunk of a car that sounded like a Mustang and drove for a long time. The kidnapper took her to a house and kept her blindfolded with blacked-out goggles most of the time so she couldn’t identify him. The man holding her raped her twice, claiming he would release the footage online if she told the police. He let her go near an area familiar to her, but not near her home, since everyone was searching for her.
Instead of believing Quinn and Huskins, the local police immediately decided the couple had made the entire thing up. Police and the media fueled the narrative by dubbing the case the “Gone Girl kidnapping,” a movie (based on Gillian Flynn’s novel) about a woman who frames her spouse for her murder after she caught him cheating, which had come out just the year before.
American Nightmare details how deeply police failed Huskins, and several other victims, by not believing their stories.
The police would rather do nothing than believe a man hurt a woman
Spoilers for American Nightmare ahead.
After another attempted home invasion occurred 40 miles away from where Huskins was taken, Detective Misty Carausu started a journey of discovery. The failed kidnapping led Carausu and other police to a man named Matthew Muller. While investigating Muller, Carausu found a trail of women who had reported attempted sexual assaults as well as suspicious behavior from Muller that the police failed to pursue. One woman alleges Muller broke into her home but the woman talked him out of sexually assaulting her. When the police came to her house, the officer asked her if she had dreamed it. (REALLY?!)
Multiple people reported a “peeping tom” in the neighborhood where Huskins lived right before her kidnapping, yet nothing was done. Carausu kept looking for more victims because she found a pair of blacked-out duct-tapped goggles with long blond hair on them, but none of the people she talked to had similar hair. Until Carausu stumbled on to the “Gone Girl kidnapping.” That’s when everything came together and the police finally believed Huskins and Quinn. If not for Carausu, Muller still might be free and assaulting women. Without Carausu, the only women officer shown in the docuseries, Huskins’ story would still be considered a hoax.
Just believe women
As much as we know that the police system is inherently corrupt and that misogyny runs rampant in our country, it is still devastating to see stories like these. These people went to the police because they needed help only to be dismissed, or worse, made to feel like they are criminals is an utter failure in our society.
From the start of Huskins’ disappearance, authorities made it clear they didn’t care about her and didn’t believe her. One officer disgustingly told Huskins’ mother that many former victims of sexual assault, which Huskins was, like to relive and recreate their trauma for “the thrill” of it. The interrogation room cameras show the led officer badgering Quinn to confess to hurting Huskins. The same officer didn’t believe Huskins when she told her story. (According to American Nightmare, this man also received an “Officer of the Year” award the same year.)
Before Muller’s arrest, the local police publically branded Huskins a liar and said she should apologize to the community for wasting time and resources. People attacked her on social media and in the press. Some claimed she did this for attention, so they harassed Huskins for taking advantage of the legal system and using precious community resources.
So not only was Huskins a victim who wasn’t getting justice for her kidnapping, but the police also turned the mob of public opinion on her. Many felt Huskins didn’t appear upset enough for her claims to be true. Even though body language is a pseudoscience, countless armchair true crime detectives claim it as absolute proof.
Victims don’t subject themselves to this for fun
What Huskins experienced on all fronts is far too common.
In her brilliant YouTube essay “True Crime and the Theater of Safety,” Princess Weekes dove into how the court of public opinion attacked Amber Heard during the case between her and Johnny Depp. Online people actively made fun of and attacked Heard for telling her side of the story. People “trust their gut” to know when others are lying, but as Weekes points out, “What if your gut is wrong?” What if your “gut” is based on racist, misogynist, or homophobic beliefs?
Like Huskins, no one would stand by Heard’s claims if they weren’t true because of how monstrously society acts towards women who speak out. Women constantly speak out, only to be shunned by authorities and the public. Victims wouldn’t go through this trauma for fun, so we should believe them when they say something happened.
(featured image: Netflix)
