What happened in this episode?
Alex Cooper interviews physical therapist Denise Huskins about her 2015 abduction from her then-boyfriend Aaron Quinn’s home in Vallejo, California, and the aftermath in which police and media publicly alleged the kidnapping was a hoax. Huskins describes waking to a home invasion involving bright lights and laser pointers, being forced to tie Quinn up, and being drugged, blindfolded and transported in car boots to a remote location where she says she was raped. She recounts adopting a strategy of staying calm and building rapport to survive, and alleges her captor threatened to release recorded assault footage if she went to police.
Huskins then focuses on what she describes as institutional failures after her release: she says Quinn was treated as a murder suspect during prolonged interrogation; she was offered a legal ‘proffer’ agreement she understood as immunity; and police publicly dismissed the case. She further alleges an FBI agent told her lawyer he was ‘99% sure’ she was lying, invoking Gone Girl.
She says that when her attacker was later arrested after an attack on another family, she and Quinn learned from an FBI affidavit that traceable calls had been placed during her captivity, which she believes could have led to an earlier rescue or arrest. Huskins also claims the lead Vallejo detective later received ‘officer of the year’ despite being named in their civil lawsuit. The episode closes with Huskins discussing trauma recovery, therapy (including considering EMDR), parenting, and efforts she says she and Quinn want to undertake with law enforcement to improve victim treatment.
