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She-played-his-PSYCHOTIC-game-and-no-one · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: At around two pm on March twenty third, twenty fifteen,
0:03
Speaker 1: a nine to one to one call came into the Vallejo,
0:05
Speaker 1: California Police Department from this man who sounded totally drunk
0:10
Speaker 1: or high on a drug or something, claiming that his
0:13
Speaker 1: girlfriend was missing and she had been kidnapped. But his
0:16
Speaker 1: story just didn't make any sense. When the officers got
0:19
Speaker 1: to this man's house, immediately they see this guy when
0:22
Speaker 1: he opens the door, and he looks deranged, and his
0:25
Speaker 1: house looks totally off and has this weird smell that's
0:28
Speaker 1: almost like a chemical smell. And then when they asked him,
0:30
Speaker 1: you know, to give them some information, you know, what's
0:32
Speaker 1: going on here? Where's your girlfriend? He would launch into
0:35
Speaker 1: this bizarre story about men wearing wetsuits with lasers on
0:39
Speaker 1: their hands, and so police are like, what is this?
0:42
Speaker 1: But the police would follow up and actually launch an
0:45
Speaker 1: investigation because this guy's girlfriend really was missing, and they
0:49
Speaker 1: would uncover a story that was even more bizarre and
0:52
Speaker 1: more weird than the nine to one to one Collars
0:55
Speaker 1: story had been. But before we get into that story,
0:58
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, darken Mysterious delivered
1:01
Speaker 1: in story format and You've come to the right place,
1:03
Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload once a week.
1:06
Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, the next time
1:08
Speaker 1: the like button is out of town, go into their
1:10
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1:15
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Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's
1:25
Speaker 1: get into today's story. Late on the afternoon of March
1:41
Speaker 1: twenty second, twenty fifteen, twenty nine year old Denise Hoskins
1:45
Speaker 1: reached for her buzzing cell phone and when she saw
1:47
Speaker 1: who was texting her, she immediately felt this not of
1:50
Speaker 1: anxiety in her stomach. It was her on again, off
1:53
Speaker 1: again boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, and right now, at least according
1:57
Speaker 1: to Denise, they were off and likely it was going
1:59
Speaker 1: to stay that way. But now Aarin was texting Denise
2:02
Speaker 1: saying he really wanted to talk to her and would
2:04
Speaker 1: she please come over. It was a Sunday and Denise
2:07
Speaker 1: was home alone in her little apartment in Vallejo, California,
2:11
Speaker 1: which is inside the San Francisco Bay area, and Denise
2:14
Speaker 1: really just did not have it in her to go
2:17
Speaker 1: talk to her ex boyfriend. Really, she didn't have plans
2:20
Speaker 1: to go out anywhere. She just wanted to stay in,
2:22
Speaker 1: and so she typed back that she was in for
2:24
Speaker 1: the night and this would have to wait. But as
2:27
Speaker 1: soon as she sent that text, immediately she got another
2:30
Speaker 1: text from Erin. For a long minute, Denise just sat
2:33
Speaker 1: there on the couch, looking at her phone, wondering what
2:35
Speaker 1: she was going to do. Denise and Aaron had met
2:38
Speaker 1: the previous summer after Denise had moved to Vallejo from Boston, Massachusetts,
2:43
Speaker 1: to work at a hospital in Vallejo called Kaiser Hospital.
2:46
Speaker 1: Denise had her PhD In physical therapy, and Kaiser Hospital
2:50
Speaker 1: had a great physical therapy program, especially for people with
2:53
Speaker 1: brain and spinal cord injuries, and Kaiser Hospital was also
2:57
Speaker 1: where Erin worked. She and Aaron had been a immediately
3:00
Speaker 1: attracted to each other. Aarin was tall and fit, with
3:03
Speaker 1: dark hair and piercing eyes, and he loved to cook,
3:07
Speaker 1: and Denise she was blonde and blue eyed and very
3:10
Speaker 1: outdoorsy and driven, and so pretty much right away, Aarin
3:13
Speaker 1: and Denise would get into these intense conversations where they
3:16
Speaker 1: each would kind of dive into the other person's life.
3:19
Speaker 1: I mean, they were really connecting on a deep level.
3:22
Speaker 1: But even though they both clearly got along great and
3:25
Speaker 1: they were really connecting, their relationship got off to kind
3:28
Speaker 1: of a rocky start. Aarin had actually been engaged to
3:31
Speaker 1: be married before he met Denise, but Aaron's fiance had
3:35
Speaker 1: cheated on him, and so he had ended the relationship.
3:38
Speaker 1: And it was during that time, right after this relationship
3:41
Speaker 1: had ended, that he met Denise, and so Denise was
3:44
Speaker 1: kind of like a rebound, and she kind of felt
3:46
Speaker 1: like a rebound. But again, they're getting along great, and
3:49
Speaker 1: so both were optimistic that it was more than that.
3:51
Speaker 1: And so Aarin and Denise had officially begun dating in
3:54
Speaker 1: the fall of twenty fourteen, but seven months later, so
3:58
Speaker 1: in March of twenty fifteen, when Denise was getting these
4:00
Speaker 1: text messages from Erin, at least in Denise's mind, their
4:04
Speaker 1: relationship really was done because Denise had caught Arin texting
4:09
Speaker 1: his ex fiance basically begging her to get back together
4:12
Speaker 1: with him, and so Denise felt really hurt, you know,
4:15
Speaker 1: she understood that that was a really intense relationship, and
4:18
Speaker 1: of course Aaron would still have feelings for his ex
4:21
Speaker 1: to some degree, but she felt really betrayed and so
4:24
Speaker 1: she told Arin that that was it. But it was
4:27
Speaker 1: really painful for Denise because she did love Erin even
4:30
Speaker 1: though she knew, you know, this relationship likely wasn't going
4:33
Speaker 1: to work. And now here Erin was blowing up her
4:36
Speaker 1: cell phone with text messages to meet up and talk,
4:39
Speaker 1: and he just wasn't taking no for an answer, and
4:41
Speaker 1: so Denise finally typed out this long message back to Erin,
4:45
Speaker 1: basically saying, look, I don't feel comfortable come into your house.
4:48
Speaker 1: It's the house that you shared with your ex. I
4:50
Speaker 1: don't want to go there. You know, we can talk
4:52
Speaker 1: another time. I think for right now, what you need
4:55
Speaker 1: to focus on, Arin is kind of like recording me,
4:58
Speaker 1: take me out on dates, and show that you really
5:00
Speaker 1: want to be with me, because right now there's no trust.
5:03
Speaker 1: And Erin, to his credit, wrote back to Denise and
5:06
Speaker 1: basically said, yes, I'm definitely willing to do that. I
5:09
Speaker 1: want to put in the work to win you back.
5:11
Speaker 1: I care about you, Denise, But he said, you know,
5:13
Speaker 1: I really have something important to tell you, and I
5:16
Speaker 1: just don't feel comfortable talking about it anywhere else besides
5:20
Speaker 1: at my house, So please, can you just come over tonight.
5:23
Speaker 1: It's really important that I see you. And at first
5:26
Speaker 1: Denise really did just kind of hold the line and
5:28
Speaker 1: she told Erin that no, I'm not going to come
5:31
Speaker 1: to your house. But again, Erin he just would not
5:34
Speaker 1: let it go, and he really seemed actually very eager
5:37
Speaker 1: to see Denise, and it made Denise feel special, and
5:40
Speaker 1: so eventually she kind of gave it up and said,
5:42
Speaker 1: you know what, Okay, I'll come by. And after that,
5:45
Speaker 1: Denise got up off the couch, she got dressed. She
5:48
Speaker 1: called their favorite pizza place and ordered some pizza that
5:50
Speaker 1: she would pick up and bring to his house for
5:52
Speaker 1: them to eat that night, and then she headed out
5:54
Speaker 1: to her car and pulled out of her driveway. At
5:56
Speaker 1: about five thirty pm that night, Denise arrived at Aaron's
6:00
Speaker 1: two story home on Mayor Island, which is actually just
6:03
Speaker 1: a little peninsula in Vallejo, California, and Denise she grabbed
6:07
Speaker 1: the pizzas off the passenger seat. She grabbed her overnight
6:09
Speaker 1: bag because she was optimistic that they're about to have
6:12
Speaker 1: a great talk and maybe rekindle and maybe she'll stay
6:15
Speaker 1: the night. And so with her things and her pizza,
6:18
Speaker 1: she walked up to the front door and knocked. The
6:20
Speaker 1: next day was a Monday, and Aarin and Denise were
6:23
Speaker 1: both scheduled to work at the hospital that day. But
6:26
Speaker 1: at around seven am that morning, Aaron called into the
6:29
Speaker 1: hospital sick and said he couldn't come in, and Denise
6:31
Speaker 1: sent a text message to her boss saying that a
6:34
Speaker 1: family emergency had just come up and she would not
6:36
Speaker 1: be at work all week. When Denise's boss got this
6:39
Speaker 1: text message, immediately he was like, this doesn't make any sense.
6:43
Speaker 1: First of all, Denise never missed work, so this was
6:46
Speaker 1: totally anomalous. And he also knew that Denise was applying
6:49
Speaker 1: for this very prestigious orthopedic fellowship that she needed to
6:53
Speaker 1: submit the paperwork for by Friday, and he knew she
6:56
Speaker 1: had a lot of work to do on this paperwork
6:58
Speaker 1: that basically required her to be at work that week
7:01
Speaker 1: to get it all done, and so she was missing
7:03
Speaker 1: the week, then it looked like she would not be
7:05
Speaker 1: applying for this fellowship, and that just seemed totally unusual
7:08
Speaker 1: because Denise was really serious about this fellowship. And so
7:12
Speaker 1: Denise's boss wrote back to her and just said, you know,
7:15
Speaker 1: I understand you have an emergency. You know, we're here
7:17
Speaker 1: if you need us, you know, take whatever time you need.
7:20
Speaker 1: And then a few hours later, her boss checked his
7:22
Speaker 1: phone again and he saw that she had not written
7:24
Speaker 1: him back, and so Denise's boss was like, wow, I
7:27
Speaker 1: guess you know, she really must be dealing with some
7:30
Speaker 1: serious family emergency that's keeping her from using her phone.
7:34
Speaker 1: About seven hours later, at around two pm on this Monday,
7:37
Speaker 1: where Aaron and Denise had not shown up for work,
7:40
Speaker 1: there was a nine to one one call that came
7:42
Speaker 1: into the Vallejo Police Department, and the person making the
7:45
Speaker 1: nine to one one call was Aaron, and Aaron's voice
7:48
Speaker 1: was totally slurred, and then he told this very confusing
7:51
Speaker 1: story about some sort of kidnapping, and then he begged
7:55
Speaker 1: police for help. Two police officers happened to be near
7:58
Speaker 1: Mare Island, where Aaron lived, and so within two minutes
8:02
Speaker 1: of this nine to one one call coming in, those
8:04
Speaker 1: two officers were knocking on Aaron's front door, and when
8:07
Speaker 1: Aaron let them inside, these officers noticed three things in
8:11
Speaker 1: quick succession. The first was Arin was obviously drunk or high.
8:16
Speaker 1: He was under the influence of some substance. He just
8:19
Speaker 1: did not seem right. Two there were at least a
8:22
Speaker 1: dozen empty beer bottles lining a back wall in the kitchen,
8:26
Speaker 1: and three the entire house reeked of cleaning chemicals. One
8:30
Speaker 1: of the officers immediately turned to Erin and said, are
8:34
Speaker 1: you on drugs? And Aaron would say, yes, I am
8:36
Speaker 1: on drugs, but these drugs were given to me by
8:40
Speaker 1: the kidnappers. The officers immediately exchanged confused glances, looked back
8:44
Speaker 1: at Erin, and then just said, okay, well, we're going
8:47
Speaker 1: to take a look around. And so the officers wound
8:49
Speaker 1: up going upstairs, and as they went upstairs, that cleaning
8:53
Speaker 1: chemical smell got stronger and stronger. And they made their
8:56
Speaker 1: way into the master bedroom, and they saw the ground
8:59
Speaker 1: had obviously been recently vacuumed, and that cleaning smell was
9:02
Speaker 1: really strong in here. The sheets on the bed were
9:05
Speaker 1: all gone, except for the fitted sheet that sat over
9:08
Speaker 1: the mattress. And so the officers were about to leave
9:11
Speaker 1: the master bedroom and keep looking when one of the
9:13
Speaker 1: officers stopped and he noticed something on the bed, and
9:16
Speaker 1: he called the other officer over, and they walked over
9:19
Speaker 1: and they looked down, and sure enough, on the bed
9:22
Speaker 1: was about a quarter sized drop of blood. The police
9:25
Speaker 1: officers left the master bedroom and they went back downstairs
9:28
Speaker 1: where Aaron was, and they walked up to him and said, okay,
9:31
Speaker 1: tell us again what happened with these kidnappers and what's
9:34
Speaker 1: going on here? And Aaron would launch into a totally
9:37
Speaker 1: bizarre story through slurred speech. Aaron would say, twelve hours earlier,
9:43
Speaker 1: so around three in the morning that morning, so early
9:46
Speaker 1: early Monday morning, Aaron said he was in his house
9:49
Speaker 1: with his girlfriend Denise, when suddenly these men wearing wetsuits
9:54
Speaker 1: broke into the house and they immediately tied up Aaron
9:57
Speaker 1: and Denise and then made them wear these goggles that
9:59
Speaker 1: had been and all taped up, so once they were
10:01
Speaker 1: on your face, you couldn't see anything. Aaron would tell
10:04
Speaker 1: the police that the intruders, in addition to wearing wetsuits,
10:07
Speaker 1: they also were carrying guns, tasers, also laser pointers, and
10:12
Speaker 1: also very high powered flashlights, and so when they came
10:16
Speaker 1: in there were all these lights and beams everywhere. I mean,
10:18
Speaker 1: it was totally chaotic. Aaron then explained to police that
10:22
Speaker 1: after he and Denise had been tied up and had
10:24
Speaker 1: these goggles on, the men in wetsuits came over to
10:27
Speaker 1: them and put headphones on each of them, and then
10:30
Speaker 1: they played this recording which had this weird, soothing music,
10:33
Speaker 1: and then somebody narrating, telling Aaron and Denise that they
10:37
Speaker 1: were not in any danger, that this was just a
10:39
Speaker 1: robbery and to stay calm and nothing would happen to them,
10:42
Speaker 1: and so Aarin and Denise had done just that. They
10:44
Speaker 1: tried to follow orders, and then at some point the
10:47
Speaker 1: headphones came off and both Aaron and Denise were told
10:50
Speaker 1: to go to separate rooms, and they kind of fumbled
10:52
Speaker 1: their way into the separate rooms, at which point the
10:55
Speaker 1: men demanded they give up their banking information and passwords,
10:58
Speaker 1: and Aaron and Denise did that. They gave up all
11:01
Speaker 1: their banking info and then Aarin and Denise were brought
11:04
Speaker 1: back into the living room. They were tied back up again,
11:07
Speaker 1: and then even though Aarin and Denise couldn't actually see this,
11:10
Speaker 1: they heard the sound of somebody apparently coming in that
11:13
Speaker 1: sounded like a doctor who then took Arin and Denise's
11:17
Speaker 1: blood pressure before administering this drug to them that made
11:20
Speaker 1: them both very sleepy, and then before Aaron and Denise
11:24
Speaker 1: passed out from this drug, Denise was taken by the intruders,
11:29
Speaker 1: and the intruders told Erin that they had rigged a
11:31
Speaker 1: camera system inside of his house to watch him, so
11:34
Speaker 1: he couldn't leave to go save Denise, and so Erin
11:37
Speaker 1: basically just stayed in the house until he fell asleep
11:40
Speaker 1: from the drug. And then when he woke up again
11:42
Speaker 1: and managed to get his restraints off, he saw that
11:44
Speaker 1: Denise really was gone, and so Denise had to be
11:47
Speaker 1: with the kidnappers. After Aarin was done telling this totally
11:50
Speaker 1: weird story, which again you got to remember, as he's talking,
11:54
Speaker 1: he sounds totally drunk, and so they kept having to
11:57
Speaker 1: ask him to say again what he was saying, and
11:59
Speaker 1: you know, Aarin and just kind of loopy, and so
12:01
Speaker 1: the whole thing is just so weird. And so when
12:04
Speaker 1: Aarin was finally done telling the story, the two officers
12:07
Speaker 1: just stared at him in silence, and then the officers
12:10
Speaker 1: looked at each other and without even saying anything, they
12:13
Speaker 1: both were thinking the same thing. Probably, this guy has
12:17
Speaker 1: killed his girlfriend, Denise, and after he killed her, he
12:21
Speaker 1: must have spent time cleaning the house, which is why
12:24
Speaker 1: they smelled all the cleaning chemicals. And then maybe when
12:26
Speaker 1: he was done, you know, he felt bad about what
12:29
Speaker 1: he had done, and so he began drinking veers to
12:31
Speaker 1: kind of cope with what he had done. And that's
12:33
Speaker 1: why all those empty bottles were there, and that's why
12:36
Speaker 1: he was acting so drunk right now. And then at
12:38
Speaker 1: some point he had worked up the courage to call
12:40
Speaker 1: nine to one one and pretend that he didn't know
12:43
Speaker 1: where his girlfriend was and make up this whole alibi
12:46
Speaker 1: about these weird kidnappers that came in and did this stuff.
12:49
Speaker 1: But obviously it was just a ruse. This guy killed
12:51
Speaker 1: his girlfriend, That's what happened. And so finally one of
12:54
Speaker 1: these officers spoke to Erin, and they said, you're gonna
12:57
Speaker 1: need to come to the station with us and explain yourself.
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14:52
Speaker 1: take long for the police in Vallejo to launch this
14:55
Speaker 1: massive search all over Mare Island to look for Denise.
14:59
Speaker 1: And at this point they were kind of looking for
15:01
Speaker 1: a body because based on what was going on in
15:04
Speaker 1: Aaron's house and the story he told, it did seem
15:06
Speaker 1: like very likely she had been murdered and disposed of somewhere,
15:09
Speaker 1: and so they had dogs out and dive teams out
15:11
Speaker 1: in the water. They had hundreds of volunteers looking everywhere.
15:15
Speaker 1: And at the same time, Aaron was brought to the
15:17
Speaker 1: police station and they began going over every single detail
15:21
Speaker 1: of his story, trying to get more information about these kidnappers,
15:25
Speaker 1: because as much as they didn't believe him, they did
15:28
Speaker 1: need to officially rule out that there was no kidnapping,
15:31
Speaker 1: and so they needed all the information about these kidnappers,
15:33
Speaker 1: who they were, what they looked like, what they sounded like, everything.
15:36
Speaker 1: And at the same time police were talking to Erin.
15:39
Speaker 1: Police also brought in Denise's roommate and they asked the roommate,
15:43
Speaker 1: do you know anything about Denise's relationship with Arin, and
15:46
Speaker 1: the roommate would say, you know, those two have had
15:48
Speaker 1: a very troubled relationship. And the roommate would say that,
15:51
Speaker 1: you know, as far as they understood, Aaron and Denise
15:54
Speaker 1: were not a couple anymore. And so police would actually
15:57
Speaker 1: go over to Aarin in the police station and they
15:59
Speaker 1: would say, hey, you know, we have people saying that
16:01
Speaker 1: you and Denise, who you called your girlfriend. You know,
16:04
Speaker 1: you guys were not dating, you had broken up, you know,
16:07
Speaker 1: Explain yourself. And Aaron would say, well, actually, you know,
16:10
Speaker 1: that's why Denise was coming over before all this kidnapping happened.
16:13
Speaker 1: She was coming over so we could reconcile, and we did.
16:16
Speaker 1: We had reconciled. We were back together when the kidnappers
16:20
Speaker 1: in wetsuits came inside the house. But the more police
16:24
Speaker 1: looked into Aaron's kidnapping story, the less it made sense.
16:27
Speaker 1: And it really didn't make sense to begin with, and
16:29
Speaker 1: so really it just got weirder and weirder and weirder.
16:32
Speaker 1: Like for one, Aaron said that he and Denise had
16:35
Speaker 1: been kind of forced to give up their banking information
16:38
Speaker 1: and their passwords, and they did that. They gave that
16:41
Speaker 1: up to the kidnappers, but when police looked into Aaron
16:45
Speaker 1: and Denise's banking records, there was no money withdrawn. The
16:48
Speaker 1: only activity on either of those accounts was on Aaron's account.
16:53
Speaker 1: Two hours before Aaron called nine to one one, he
16:56
Speaker 1: called his credit card holder and attempted to get them
16:59
Speaker 1: to give him a large cash advance so he could
17:02
Speaker 1: buy a boat. When police asked Aarin about the strong
17:05
Speaker 1: cleaning chemical smell in his house, Aaron absolutely denied doing
17:09
Speaker 1: anything to clean his house. He didn't know how that happened. Also,
17:13
Speaker 1: Aarin would tell police that these kidnappers had actually wanted
17:16
Speaker 1: a ransom to be paid to them, but he said
17:18
Speaker 1: it was only for eighty five hundred dollars. And so
17:21
Speaker 1: police are like, why would these kidnappers take Denise and
17:25
Speaker 1: run away with her and risk very serious jail time
17:29
Speaker 1: for eighty five hundred dollars. It just seemed way too
17:32
Speaker 1: low for what they were doing. And then there was
17:34
Speaker 1: another weird detail that came out of interviewing Aarin at
17:38
Speaker 1: the police station. One of the police officers had noticed
17:41
Speaker 1: that Aaron's eyes were totally dilated, his pupils were huge,
17:45
Speaker 1: and for a little while police had thought maybe that
17:47
Speaker 1: was because he was on some drug or something which
17:49
Speaker 1: can cause your pupils to dilate, but based on the
17:52
Speaker 1: weirdness of the story that Aarin was relaying to them,
17:55
Speaker 1: they actually began to suspect that Aaron was having a
17:58
Speaker 1: schizophrenic break. Is a symptom of a schizophrenic break. Schizophrenia
18:03
Speaker 1: is a very serious mental illness that often begins to
18:06
Speaker 1: appear in young adults, and Aaron was only thirty years old,
18:09
Speaker 1: so he's at the right age for this to happen.
18:11
Speaker 1: And while schizophrenia does not make people violent, it does
18:14
Speaker 1: make people very paranoid, and it also can cause hallucinations
18:18
Speaker 1: and mental disturbances. And so when police were looking at
18:22
Speaker 1: the details of Aaron's story about men in wetsuits breaking
18:25
Speaker 1: into his house and taking his blood pressure before stealing
18:28
Speaker 1: his girlfriend, but also cleaning his house at some point,
18:32
Speaker 1: that just seemed so weird and kind of crazy that
18:35
Speaker 1: it did seem to kind of line up with schizophrenia.
18:38
Speaker 1: By nine pm on March twenty third, so seven hours
18:42
Speaker 1: after Aaron had called nine to one one to report
18:44
Speaker 1: Denis missing, the Valejo police decided they needed to call
18:47
Speaker 1: in the FBI. Because this was just so weird and
18:50
Speaker 1: we have this missing person who could have been kidnapped
18:52
Speaker 1: or maybe they're dead or heard or something. I mean,
18:55
Speaker 1: there was just so much going on with this case.
18:57
Speaker 1: They needed back up. And when the FBI arrived in Vallejo,
19:01
Speaker 1: the first thing they did is they took erin and
19:03
Speaker 1: they gave him a lie detector test and he failed
19:06
Speaker 1: it completely. And after finding out he had failed it completely,
19:10
Speaker 1: he immediately lawyered up. By the next day, March twenty fourth,
19:14
Speaker 1: there were over one hundred different search teams all across
19:18
Speaker 1: Mare Island and around Vallejo, California looking for Denise. Police
19:22
Speaker 1: sonar had also picked up a body sized mass out
19:26
Speaker 1: in the bay, but so far the divers had not
19:28
Speaker 1: been able to find it. Arin by this point had
19:30
Speaker 1: gotten his lawyer and left the police station, and by
19:33
Speaker 1: now Denise's picture was all over the news and newspapers.
19:37
Speaker 1: It was up on posters, on telephone polls all over town,
19:40
Speaker 1: and TV news channels were parked outside of Aaron's house,
19:43
Speaker 1: just waiting for him to come out or waiting for
19:46
Speaker 1: any activity. But despite all this activity, the detectives and
19:50
Speaker 1: the FBI agents that were working this case had really
19:53
Speaker 1: not made any significant progress. All they thought was Aaron's
19:57
Speaker 1: definitely hiding something. But then something changed. A little bit
20:01
Speaker 1: afternoon on March twenty fourth, a reporter for the San
20:05
Speaker 1: Francisco Chronicle who was camped outside of Aaron's home got
20:09
Speaker 1: a very weird email. The email was from the kidnappers,
20:13
Speaker 1: the wetsuit wearing blood pressure taking kidnappers who broke into
20:16
Speaker 1: Aaron's home and took Denise, and in this email to
20:19
Speaker 1: the reporter, it said that Denise was fine, and there
20:22
Speaker 1: actually was a recording of Denise's voice reading that day's news,
20:26
Speaker 1: which confirmed that she was alive at least as recently
20:29
Speaker 1: as that morning. But there were two very suspicious things
20:33
Speaker 1: about this email. The first one was the recording of
20:37
Speaker 1: Denise's voice, the proof of life recording. Well, she did
20:40
Speaker 1: not sound in any way stressed. She sounded utterly calm,
20:44
Speaker 1: like she was reading the news like it was completely
20:46
Speaker 1: no big deal earlier crash ups. And the second thing
20:52
Speaker 1: that was very suspicious was the email address the kidnappers
20:56
Speaker 1: had used to message this reporter was an email address
21:00
Speaker 1: that belonged to Aaron. When this reporter told police about this,
21:05
Speaker 1: investigators were like, you know what. This actually doesn't make
21:07
Speaker 1: this any more clear. This makes things exponentially more confusing.
21:11
Speaker 1: Denise did appear to be alive, which was a good thing,
21:15
Speaker 1: but it now really appeared that Aaron was involved in
21:18
Speaker 1: whatever was going on here, and based on how calmed
21:21
Speaker 1: and he sounded on this recording, she could be involved
21:24
Speaker 1: in it too. And investigator's suspicions only grew when they
21:28
Speaker 1: went to Erin and they asked him, you know, have
21:30
Speaker 1: the kidnappers tried calling you at any point, and Aaron
21:34
Speaker 1: would say, yes, they have, and he showed them his phone. Well,
21:36
Speaker 1: the police would trace the phone calls that Aaron claimed
21:40
Speaker 1: had come into his cell phone from the kidnappers, and
21:43
Speaker 1: when they traced the kidnappers number, they found it was
21:46
Speaker 1: connected to a burner phone. A burner phone is something
21:49
Speaker 1: that like drug dealers will use because it's totally anonymous.
21:52
Speaker 1: It's like a one time you cell phone that you
21:54
Speaker 1: used temporarily. You have this number temporarily, and then when
21:58
Speaker 1: you're done with the phone, there's no history that you
22:00
Speaker 1: personally had that cell phone. But police were clever and
22:04
Speaker 1: they figured out where this burner phone was actually purchased from,
22:08
Speaker 1: and it was purchased from a nearby target, and they
22:11
Speaker 1: looked at the security footage of around the time when
22:13
Speaker 1: this phone, this burner phone was purchased from this target,
22:17
Speaker 1: and they saw the person who had bought it walk
22:19
Speaker 1: out of the store. And the person who had bought
22:21
Speaker 1: this burner phone was this white man who was tall
22:24
Speaker 1: and fit with dark hair, and it basically looked exactly
22:28
Speaker 1: like Aaron. And then two days later, on March twenty fifth,
22:32
Speaker 1: Denise herself walked up to her mother's home in Huntington Beach, California,
22:37
Speaker 1: which is roughly four hundred miles south of Vallejo, California,
22:41
Speaker 1: where she went missing, and so Denise's mother was not
22:44
Speaker 1: home when Denise showed up on her doorstep, and so
22:47
Speaker 1: Denise wound up going to the next door neighbor and
22:49
Speaker 1: using their phone to call her father. And Denise's story
22:53
Speaker 1: that she would tell her dad was even more bizarre
22:55
Speaker 1: than Aaron's story. She said she had been held captive
22:59
Speaker 1: by four men in the small room, and these men
23:02
Speaker 1: would tell her that they were simply doing a task
23:05
Speaker 1: for a client and what they were doing now with
23:07
Speaker 1: her was just following their protocol. Denise would tell police
23:11
Speaker 1: that she was well taken care of while she was
23:13
Speaker 1: in captivity. They let her eat food, they gave her water,
23:16
Speaker 1: they even let her shower and brush her teeth. Denise
23:19
Speaker 1: initially was very open to speaking to Vallejo Police detectives
23:22
Speaker 1: about what happened to her, but when they said the
23:25
Speaker 1: FBI really wanted to talk to her and they would
23:28
Speaker 1: literally send a jet to her in Huntington Beach and
23:31
Speaker 1: fly her back to Palletjo, she refused, and then like aarin,
23:35
Speaker 1: she immediately lawyered up and stopped talking. And so by
23:38
Speaker 1: this point all the investigators are like, there's no way
23:42
Speaker 1: these two actually got kidnapped. This whole thing is some weird,
23:46
Speaker 1: elaborate hoax, and now they know they've been caught, and
23:48
Speaker 1: so they're going quiet. And so that night that Denise
23:51
Speaker 1: was found, on March twenty fifth, the Vallejo Police held
23:54
Speaker 1: a press conference and told the public that they do
23:57
Speaker 1: not believe these two were ever kidnapped. They don't really
24:00
Speaker 1: know what happened, but at this point they are not
24:03
Speaker 1: pursuing kidnappers and the public should not be worried about
24:06
Speaker 1: rogue kidnappers in the area. But after this press conference,
24:10
Speaker 1: the police couldn't help, But think to themselves, why would
24:13
Speaker 1: these two people who are successful, you know, they come
24:16
Speaker 1: from good families, They have loads of future prospects. I mean,
24:20
Speaker 1: their lives were good. Why would they stage this hoax?
24:23
Speaker 1: What do they stand to gain? It really just didn't
24:25
Speaker 1: make any sense. For weeks, the investigation into whatever happened
24:30
Speaker 1: to Aaron and Denise continued, but there was virtually no progress.
24:34
Speaker 1: The media was still very interested in this case. It
24:37
Speaker 1: was totally salacious, and they had dubbed this case the
24:40
Speaker 1: Gone Girl case, in reference to a movie about a
24:43
Speaker 1: woman who fakes her own kidnapping. As for Denise and Aaron,
24:46
Speaker 1: they stayed lawyered up and the only message they put
24:49
Speaker 1: out to the public was that they were telling the truth.
24:52
Speaker 1: And so really this case just didn't make sense to
24:55
Speaker 1: anybody until about two and a half months later, on
24:58
Speaker 1: June fifth, twenty fifth, Early that morning, a police officer
25:02
Speaker 1: in a town called Dublin, which is just south of Vallejo, California,
25:06
Speaker 1: found a piece of evidence that basically broke the Gone
25:09
Speaker 1: Girl case wide open. The evidence this police officer found
25:13
Speaker 1: was a cell phone, not a burner phone that's totally anonymous,
25:16
Speaker 1: but a real cell phone. That is registered with a
25:18
Speaker 1: phone company and therefore is registered with an individual person,
25:23
Speaker 1: and police were able to trace this cell phone back
25:25
Speaker 1: to its owner, and this discovery would lead investigators two
25:29
Speaker 1: hundred miles to the northeast of Vallejo to the small
25:33
Speaker 1: remote cabin in South Lake Tahoe, California. And at this
25:37
Speaker 1: cabin police would find a stolen car, a white Mustang,
25:41
Speaker 1: and the white Mustang actually belonged to someone who lived
25:44
Speaker 1: in Vallejo. And so, with their guns drawn and their
25:47
Speaker 1: dogs at the ready to be released, the police and
25:50
Speaker 1: the FBI, they opened up the door of this cabin
25:53
Speaker 1: and inside was a tall, fit and slender white man
25:56
Speaker 1: with dark hair. The cabin was a total mess, with
25:59
Speaker 1: discarded food and trash and piles of clothes everywhere, but
26:03
Speaker 1: none of that really stood out to the police. Instead,
26:06
Speaker 1: what stood out to them as they're yelling at the
26:08
Speaker 1: sky to stay where he is is all around the cabin,
26:11
Speaker 1: all over the ground kind of on top of all
26:13
Speaker 1: the trash and mess were things like laser pointers and
26:17
Speaker 1: high powered flashlights and zip ties and goggles like swim
26:22
Speaker 1: goggles with tape all across the front of them blocking
26:24
Speaker 1: out your view. The police had finally found one of
26:27
Speaker 1: the kidnappers. And while this kidnapper looked exactly like Aarin,
26:32
Speaker 1: he was a tall, fit, slender white man with dark hair,
26:35
Speaker 1: it wasn't Aaron. In fact, neither Aaron nor Denise had
26:39
Speaker 1: ever met this person, and this person, this kidnapper, had
26:43
Speaker 1: never met Denise or Aaron. There was absolutely no connection
26:46
Speaker 1: between them. This kidnapper's name was Matthew Muller, and he
26:50
Speaker 1: was a thirty eight year old Harvard trained lawyer and
26:53
Speaker 1: former marine who had totally just crashed and burned out
26:57
Speaker 1: of his law practice and then took up this light
27:00
Speaker 1: of committing all these totally bizarre crimes. It would turn
27:03
Speaker 1: out the totally weird stories that Aaron and Denise had
27:07
Speaker 1: told police about what had happened to them was all true.
27:10
Speaker 1: The only thing they got wrong was there wasn't multiple
27:14
Speaker 1: people breaking into the house in wetsuits. It was only
27:17
Speaker 1: ever one person. It was Matthew Muller, the guy behind
27:20
Speaker 1: all this, and maybe just kind of in their panic
27:22
Speaker 1: and not knowing what's going on, Aaron and Denise had
27:25
Speaker 1: kind of thought, oh, there's multiple people here, but there wasn't.
27:28
Speaker 1: It was just Matthew. Also, it would turn out, Aaron
27:31
Speaker 1: and Denise were not the first people that Matthew had
27:34
Speaker 1: done this to the reason that police officer in Dublin,
27:37
Speaker 1: California had found that cell phone, which broke the case
27:41
Speaker 1: wide open and led police to this cabin in South
27:44
Speaker 1: Lake Tahoe was because on the night that officer found
27:48
Speaker 1: the cell phone, so June fifth, Matthew Muller had attacked
27:52
Speaker 1: another couple in the middle of the night in their home,
27:55
Speaker 1: but that couple had been able to fight Matthew Muller off,
27:58
Speaker 1: and Matthew had dropped his cell phone in their home
28:00
Speaker 1: before he fled, and so when this couple had reported
28:03
Speaker 1: this to police, that was how they got that cell phone.
28:06
Speaker 1: In terms of Muller's motivation for doing what he was doing, well,
28:10
Speaker 1: Muller was absolutely brilliant, like borderline genius, super smart guy,
28:15
Speaker 1: but he was extremely mentally unwell. He had severe psychosis
28:20
Speaker 1: and he was also bipolar, and so basically he wasn't
28:23
Speaker 1: seeing reality for what it was. And at some point,
28:26
Speaker 1: in one of his kind of psychotic fits, he had
28:29
Speaker 1: somehow came across Aaron and Denise and become absolutely obsessed
28:34
Speaker 1: with them. He began surveilling them NonStop with a drone
28:38
Speaker 1: for three weeks before he attacked them, learning their patterns
28:42
Speaker 1: and who they talked to and what they did. And
28:44
Speaker 1: in fact, Aaron, when he found out that was what
28:47
Speaker 1: Matthew was doing watching him and Denise with a drone,
28:50
Speaker 1: Aaron would tell police, oh my goodness, I actually remember
28:53
Speaker 1: one night before the kidnapping looking up and seeing this
28:56
Speaker 1: glinting light in the sky and he thought, that looks
28:59
Speaker 1: like a druh, why is it out here? But Aaron
29:02
Speaker 1: was a normal person and didn't suspect that somebody who
29:05
Speaker 1: was totally unhinged was spying on him with a drone,
29:08
Speaker 1: and so he had forgotten about it. And so after
29:11
Speaker 1: Muller had surveiled Aaron and Denise for three weeks using
29:14
Speaker 1: his drone, he was ready, and so in the middle
29:17
Speaker 1: of the night he broke into Aaron's house wearing a wetsuit.
29:21
Speaker 1: He tied up Aaron and Denise, and he put those
29:23
Speaker 1: goggles on both of them so they couldn't see anything,
29:25
Speaker 1: and then he put on those headphones on both of
29:28
Speaker 1: them that played the soothing music and also had that
29:30
Speaker 1: narration where it was telling them, Hey, you're gonna be fine.
29:33
Speaker 1: This is a robbery. Just stay calm and do what
29:35
Speaker 1: you're told. But after these headphones went on both of them,
29:39
Speaker 1: Matthew would sexually assault Denise. And in fact, at least
29:42
Speaker 1: one other victim of Matthew Muller, has come forward since
29:46
Speaker 1: his arrest to say that she too was sexually assaulted
29:48
Speaker 1: by matt And so after matt had taken Denise and
29:51
Speaker 1: left Aaron's house with her, you know, erin he did
29:54
Speaker 1: fall asleep from the drug he was given from Matthew,
29:57
Speaker 1: and then when he woke up the next morning, he
29:59
Speaker 1: managed to get out of his restraints, and you know,
30:01
Speaker 1: he's still affected by the drug that was in his system,
30:04
Speaker 1: and he sees that Denise is gone, and so the
30:06
Speaker 1: first thing he does is, oh, my god, I need
30:09
Speaker 1: to find a way to pay the ransom to this kidnapper.
30:12
Speaker 1: Because again the kidnapper, Matthew, had said around Aaron that
30:16
Speaker 1: he wanted eighty five hundred dollars, and so Aaron thought
30:19
Speaker 1: he could get that money, and so he called his
30:21
Speaker 1: credit card company and asked for that cash advance for
30:24
Speaker 1: eighty five hundred dollars to pay this ransom. But when
30:27
Speaker 1: they asked Aaron why he needed this money, he didn't
30:30
Speaker 1: want to give up that it was for a ransom
30:32
Speaker 1: because he didn't want the kidnapper to know that he
30:34
Speaker 1: had talked to authorities. He was worried about Denise, and
30:37
Speaker 1: so kind of in a panic, Aaron just told the
30:39
Speaker 1: credit card company that he was buying a boat, but
30:42
Speaker 1: really it was for the ransom. Also, Aaron was the
30:45
Speaker 1: one who called in to Kaiser Hospital for both him
30:47
Speaker 1: and Denise, saying they were missing work. He did this
30:50
Speaker 1: because Matthew at some point had instructed Aaron that he
30:53
Speaker 1: would have to do that or something would happen to Denise.
30:56
Speaker 1: And so again he's just kind of following the instructions
30:59
Speaker 1: hoping that he can get Denise back. As for the
31:02
Speaker 1: email that the San Francisco Chronicle reporter got that apparently
31:05
Speaker 1: was from the kidnappers but was sent from Aaron's email account,
31:09
Speaker 1: well that really was the kidnapper, Matthew Muller sending this
31:12
Speaker 1: email to the reporter. He just used a special program
31:16
Speaker 1: to basically hijack Aaron's email address. And as for Denise
31:19
Speaker 1: sounding very calm in her proof of life recording that
31:22
Speaker 1: was attached to that email, while the thought is Denise
31:26
Speaker 1: was very likely in shock at the time she was
31:28
Speaker 1: asked to record this, and so it sounded like she
31:31
Speaker 1: was relaxed, but really she wasn't. Also, just a random
31:35
Speaker 1: side note that I'm sure some of you will have
31:36
Speaker 1: questions about. We don't know why Aaron's house smelled like chemicals.
31:41
Speaker 1: It's assumed that, you know, maybe when Aaron and Denise
31:44
Speaker 1: were all tied up and couldn't see anything because of
31:46
Speaker 1: their goggles, that Matthew Muller, I guess walked around their
31:49
Speaker 1: house and cleaned it, but we don't know for sure.
31:52
Speaker 1: Matthew Muller is currently serving a forty year sentence in
31:55
Speaker 1: prison for federal crimes, and just recently he was sentenced
31:59
Speaker 1: to an a daytional thirty one years in prison for
32:02
Speaker 1: state crimes that were in connection to the kidnappings of
32:05
Speaker 1: Aaron and Denise. Aaron and Denise would go on to
32:09
Speaker 1: sue the city of Vallejo, California, for basically mistreating them.
32:13
Speaker 1: You know, they had been telling the truth the whole time,
32:15
Speaker 1: but nobody took them seriously, and they would win two
32:18
Speaker 1: and a half million dollars. Aaron and Denise would go
32:20
Speaker 1: on to get married, they would have a baby, and
32:23
Speaker 1: they would read a book together about their experience, which
32:26
Speaker 1: is called victim f from Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors.
32:35
Speaker 1: Just after one thirty in the morning on May twelfth,
32:38
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, a young girl ran out the front
32:41
Speaker 1: door of her home in rural Maine, out into the
32:44
Speaker 1: rainy night. Barefoot and terrified, the girl went door to
32:47
Speaker 1: door screaming for help, but no one heard her. Finally,
32:51
Speaker 1: after running nearly two miles in the dead of night,
32:54
Speaker 1: she arrived in her little downtown and managed to flag
32:57
Speaker 1: down a restaurant owner. The owner would help the girl
33:00
Speaker 1: call nine one one, and within minutes the police would
33:02
Speaker 1: arrive at that young girl's home and what they would
33:05
Speaker 1: discover there was one of the most horrific crimes ever
33:08
Speaker 1: committed in that small town, not only because of its
33:11
Speaker 1: sheer brutality, but also because of who committed it and why.
33:16
Speaker 1: We tried to make this story make sense, but sometimes
33:20
Speaker 1: the truth is stranger than fiction, so that's going to
33:28
Speaker 1: do it. If you enjoyed today's story, be sure to
33:30
Speaker 1: check out our podcast called The Mister ball In Podcast,
33:33
Speaker 1: where we have literally hundreds more stories just like this one,
33:37
Speaker 1: many of which are only available on the podcast again.
33:41
Speaker 1: It's called The Mister ball In Podcast and it's available
33:43
Speaker 1: on Amazon Music.