Prosecutors have announced new charges against a man who kidnapped and sexually assaulted a Northern California woman in an incident that was initially thought to be a hoax and later dubbed a “hoax.” “Gone Girl” kidnapping case.

Matthew Muller, 47, kidnapped Denise Huskins in Vallejo in 2015 and is currently charged in connection with two burglaries from 15 years ago.

According to the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, Mueller broke into the homes of women in Palo Alto and Mountain View in 2009 with the intent to rape them.

Thanks to new leads and advances in forensic DNA testing, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, along with Palo Alto and Mountain View police, identified Mueller in the case.

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Matthew Muller, a disbarred Harvard-educated immigration lawyer who was involved in a similar burglary over a forgotten cellphone, was eventually arrested in the Heskins kidnapping. (Solan County Sheriff’s Department)

The District Attorney’s Office said Mueller’s DNA was found on a tape Mueller used to bind a victim in a 2009 case.

Mueller now faces two felony counts of sexual assault stemming from a 2009 burglary. If convicted, Officials said he faces life in prison.

“The details of this man’s violent crime spree may seem like they were written for Hollywood, but they are tragically true,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen. “Our goal is to ensure that this defendant is held accountable and forever No more harm or terror will be done to anyone. We want this nightmare to be over.”

In the early morning hours of Sept. 29, 2009, officials said Mueller broke into a woman’s Mountain View home, attacked her, tied her up, made her drink a cocktail of drugs and said he wanted to rape her. Officials said the victim was in his thirties and after convincing him against it, he suggested the victim get a dog and then ran away.

Less than a month later, on Oct. 18, officials said Mueller broke into a Palo Alto home where he bound and gagged a woman in her 30s in the same manner. He then made her drink Nyquil and began assaulting her before being persuaded to stop. Mueller gave the victim crime prevention advice and then fled.

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Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn attend with attorney Doug Rappaport (left) on Thursday, September 29, 2016 in San Francisco, California press conference held. Haskins and Quinn were the victims of a bizarre Vallejo kidnapping in March 2015. Matthew Muller admitted to kidnapping Heskins. (Paul Chinn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

Both cases were investigated at the time but have not yet been solved.

Six years later, Mueller came to national attention as the subject of the Netflix documentary series “American Nightmare,” which chronicled Mueller’s 2015 “Gone Girl hoax” kidnapping of Dennis Heskins from Vallejo, and the traumatic 48 hours she spent in captivity.

On March 23, 2015, Mueller broke into a Vallejo home. where he took drugs and tied up Haskins and her boyfriend. He kidnapped Heskins, took her to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe and sexually assaulted her. Two days later, Mueller drove the victim to Southern California and released her.

Vallejo police initially believed the invasion and kidnapping was a hoax orchestrated by her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, and the media deemed it a “real-life ‘Gone Girl,'” referring to Ben Affleck ’s hit thriller and novel Gone Girl. ” A small-town wife plots her own murder to get revenge on her cheating husband.

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Tuesday, July 14, 2015, at the Vallejo Police Department Headquarters in Vallejo, California. (Paul Chinn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

According to KRON4, the Vallejo Police Department suspects Quinn of murdering his girlfriend, although they said in a press conference that they are treating the case as a kidnapping. fake his account. According to the documentary series, he endured 18 hours of interrogation.

The couple sued the Vallejo Police Department for $2.5 million, but not before enduring months of public scrutiny.

Heskins and Quinn told filmmaker Misty Carausu, a rookie detective who cracked the case, their hero. On June 5, 2015, a couple woke up in the middle of the night to discover an almost identical home invasion.

After contacting Bay Area police departments, Carousu learned that Mueller was a suspect in a 2009 Palo Alto burglary, NBC Bay Area reported. There was also a pair of swimming goggles blackened with tape, with blond hair stuck to them.

While his wife hid in the bathroom and called the police, her husband managed to fight off the attacker. But he left behind important evidence: zip ties, tape, gloves and a cell phone.

Carausu tracked down the stepfather of Matthew Muller, a Harvard-educated immigration lawyer and Marine Corps veteran, by phone.

At this moment, Carosu Contacted the FBIMueller was arrested for a June 8 burglary in Dublin, California.

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Dennis Haskins and Aaron Quinn pose for a photo during the press conference. After being publicly accused of faking a burglary, they both hired defense attorneys and feared losing their jobs as physical therapists. (Mike Jory/The Times Herald via Associated Press)

Evidence at his home, including Quinn’s laptop, eventually linked him to Heskins’ kidnapping. Mueller’s confession was perfectly matched to Quinn and Haskins’ stories, complete with audio recordings, blackout goggles and liquid sedatives.

Mueller pleaded guilty to a federal kidnapping charge in September 2016 and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Mueller also faces burglary, robbery, kidnapping and two counts of rape with force.

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The Vallejo Police Department publicly accused Dennis and Aaron of staging their ordeal and welcomed a flurry of negative media coverage, followed by the attacker’s arrest for a similar burglary. (Associated Press)

But he was deemed incompetent stand trial According to the documentary, the charges will take place in November 2020. It is said that Muller suffered from “Gulf War Sickness” after retiring. military service, His attorney claimed he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, NBC News reported.

Mueller pleaded no contest to two counts of forcibly raping Heskins and was subsequently sentenced in 2022 to 31 years in state prison.

He is currently being held in a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona.

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Heskins and Quinn previously told People magazine they had no idea why Mueller targeted them.

“Like many victims, or many people who have suffered experienced tragedyyou don’t have all the answers,” Quinn told the magazine. “That’s probably the crux of recovery. So, for us, we’re not dependent on finding those answers, but what we’re trying to do is move forward in the unknown and focus on the things that matter most to us, like our families, our kids, our jobs. These are sustainable things. Knowing the answer to why they’re targeting us doesn’t change the direction we go forward. “

The two married in 2018, published a book about their ordeal in 2021, and welcomed daughters in 2020 and 2022.

Fox News Digital’s Christina Coulter and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Stepheny Price is a contributor for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected]