48 Hours, Part 1

0:28Amazon has everything for everyone on your list. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Please use discretion. In June of 2014, a woman named Denise Huskins moved to Northern California. She was a physical therapist and had decided to do her residency at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo, not far from San Francisco. During the first month she was there, she started noticing another physical therapist who worked at the hospital. His name was Erin Quinn. And we always would gravitate to each other and have these really easy conversations. And at the end of July, he said that he was interested in hanging out with me a little bit more.

1:17And he let me know what was going on in his life. He had recently broken up with his ex-fiancee because of her infidelity. So he wasn't, you know, necessarily in the best position to start dating, but our connection was undeniable. I mean, I think two weeks in, we were just supposed to go to the baseball game, and we're sitting in the parking lot talking instead. And we'd said, you know, it feels like we've known each other our whole lives. The conversations were just so easy. There was just a warmth and empathy and honesty about her. And so we gave it a shot and we quickly fell in love. After they had been dating for about seven months, Denise learned that Aaron had been in communication with his ex-fiance.

2:09She knew that he'd struggled to get over the end of that relationship and to deal with being cheated on. But by this point, Denise needed him to make a decision about what he wanted. Our relationship came to a head when she found out I was still texting my ex-fiance. And from there, Denise rightfully demanded a change. And so I actually thought I had ruined things with Denise, but I needed to make changes for myself. If I was ever going to find someone like her, I was hoping that we could still work out things together. Aaron and Denise planned to meet to talk about what they should do about their relationship.

2:51They decided to meet at Aaron's house, which was on a peninsula called Mare Island in Vallejo. I wasn't quite sure where the conversation was going to go and if this was going to be us moving forward as committing to each other or if this was going to be the end. It was an emotional talk, but it was actually a new beginning. And so although it was a long, emotional evening, we were in a good place, and we fell asleep around midnight. And we're in a really deep sleep. I think it was around 3 a.m., and that's when I heard a strange man's voice waking me from sleep. At first, I thought it was a nightmare.

3:40I guess I hoped it was a nightmare, but I couldn't deny it any longer. And my eyes shot open and I froze in fear. Seeing a flashing white light against the wall and red laser dots scanning the walls and then disappearing as it went over our bodies. The man who spoke said, this is a robbery. We are not here to hurt you. and so I mean when I first realized the situation I I mean I froze and there was nothing to really do because I didn't know I mean when you're awakened to a situation like that I mean you can't even imagine it you only hear about it in movies and and and maybe bad news reports, but you don't think it's ever going to happen to you.

4:30So, you know, just thinking that the best thing for us to do is listen. And, and I mean, that's a thing they woke us up saying it's a robbery. And so you're hoping that that's actually true. My eyes popped open. I was staring at the ceiling. I could see the white light flooding the room and the red laser dots crossing over that I assumed were sights to a gun, but my body froze. And I could hear the voice saying something, but I just couldn't move until he finally said, Aaron, lie face down. They knew my name, and that broke me out of that frozen moment. So I rolled onto my stomach. I mean, it was just, I mean, the fact that they knew Aaron's name made me wonder what they were really here for.

5:33I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. The man who spoke, he then instructed me to tie Aaron up. He put zip ties at the edge of the bed and quickly backed away. I reached behind to get the zip ties. I never looked back, afraid that we would be hurt if I did. As I was tying Aaron's hands together and his feet together, I couldn't see Aaron's eyes, but I saw him take a deep breath in. And on his exhale out, he just said, oh, my God. And even though we couldn't speak to each other, I think there was this understanding that it was in our best interest to not fight and to comply, considering the situation, the fact that they were armed and there was multiple people.

6:26I mean, this was really pretty quick. It was obvious how planned it was. I was then instructed to go to the bedroom closet, keep my head down, do not look up. I did that, but as I passed the foot of the bed, I could see two people standing at the edge. They were dressed in all black. I saw from their feet to waist level, it looked like they were holding something at their waist. One of them followed behind me, and I was zip-tied in the same way I tied up Aaron in the closet. And then Aaron was escorted to the closet, too. We were both given blacked-out swim goggles and headphones over our ears to listen to these pre-recorded messages with instruction.

7:18It was a really odd recording with wind chime-like music and this really auto-tuned voice saying, be calm, you know, this is not your fault. And it eventually said that they were going to drug us. We were going to take it orally, but if we refused, they would inject it. And so we did. And I was still somewhat hopeful that it was just a robbery, thinking, okay, they'll knock us out. So we really, there is really no chance of us fighting back or trying to escape and they'll clear out Aaron's belongings and eventually we'll wake up, but we'll be okay. But each moment that passed, I just, it just got worse and worse.

8:14The recordings eventually said that they were going to ask personal and financial questions and they would ask me and Aaron, So I thought, okay, maybe they're going to wipe out our bank accounts. But then they moved me to a different room, and then they moved me downstairs, and they never asked me any personal questions or financial questions. And eventually when I was downstairs, the voice that was speaking came down, and he said, we have a problem. This wasn't meant for you. This was meant for, and he named Aaron's ex-fiancee by her first and last name. And he said, we need to figure out what to do.

8:52And not long later, he came back in and said, this is what we're going to do. We're going to take you 48 hours. We're going to put you in the trunk of Aaron's car, transfer you to another trunk, drive you hours away. And Aaron's going to have to complete some tasks for your release. The man that we call the voice comes back, and he asks me, do Denise and my ex look alike? and I just gave out this deep guttural sigh. I said, yes, they both have long blonde hair. He said, we have the wrong intel. This was meant for my ex and we have to figure out what we're going to do next. During that point, there was another probably 20, 30 minutes of lack of interaction with him.

9:38And I hoped that maybe because it wasn't intended for Denise that they would leave. Maybe they did leave, but he eventually came back and told me that they're going to take Denise for 48 hours. I would have to pay money. I can get her back. We can move on with our lives. How much money did he say you'd have to pay? So they knew I had at the time$20 ,000 in my checking account. They demanded$17 ,000, two payments of$8 ,500 to avoid the mandated federal reporting limit. And they ended up playing this long 10-minute recording for me. I'd say that they're a black market group that people get hired for personal or financial debts.

10:24And in turn, they were going to make my home a prison. They were going to put a mirroring app on my phone so they could see if I was calling or texting anyone. They were installing a camera, which required me to stay in my living room area until I left for the bank. So basically I needed to follow their rules and stay inside the camera. I needed to always be available by my phone. If I didn't do that, they would hurt Denise. If I didn't do that, they would hurt my family. If I went to the police, they would kill Denise.

11:00Denise, when you heard that they were going to take you, what happened next? What was your first thought? What happened?

11:12I mean, I think I was in shock and just felt deeply defeated and defenseless. I thought, you know, maybe I can hop to the door. Maybe I can scream, but, you know, we're separated now. Aaron's upstairs. So anything I do could provoke them to hurt him. and, you know, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did anything that would cause him more harm.

11:51So, I mean, my response to him was just okay. And from that point on, I just heard a lot of commotion going on in the house. I could hear the doors open to the driveway and someone moved my car to the front of the street. and someone in the garage opening and closing doors of Aaron's car and just a lot of moving parts until he eventually said he was ready to put me in the trunk. And before he did, I asked to go to the bathroom and he allowed me privacy is how he put it, which was odd. There was many points along that night of the home invasion of this odd politeness. When I was tying up Aaron, it was, you're doing a good job, you know, over and over again.

12:46And when he placed me on the couch, are you comfortable? He asks and places a blanket over me because I said I was cold, you know, and he, I mean, more or less handled me with care. So all of these things, even that prerecorded message with that music playing that you would describe as soothing, but in a situation of such extreme life-threatening tactics, it was all the more chilling and disorienting, which obviously was by design. And because it was clear that all of this was by design, it just made it even more like, what is all of this? And what is their true motivation and their endgame? And what are they really in this for?

13:34And they had given you drugs. They had given you some cocktail of drugs that must have been making you kind of out of it. I wasn't out of it in the fact that I, you know, that fight or flight response where you're everything, you need to pay attention to every single thing. Your senses are on hypervigilant alert because anything, any bit of information can save your life. So there was this mix between in my body of needing to stay hyperaware and hyperalert. And also the effects of the sedatives were kicking in and that I couldn't move quickly or I wouldn't be able to react quickly or do anything physically.

14:25And then what happened when he just said, we're ready, and carried you outside? And then he placed me in the trunk where he lined a comforter so it would be more comfortable. And I had waited some time. And then actually before he left, I asked if I could get the blanket from the couch because I was shaking so much. And he said something like, oh, yeah, you know, I forget how cold it is because we're all wearing wetsuits here. I mean, that statement for me, I just was like, what? Okay. I mean, for me, I couldn't make sense of it. Aaron, this voice said to Aaron at a different spot, and Aaron actually thought that that made sense.

15:14I assume they were wearing wetsuits to limit any hair gained in my house or DNA. Also, Mare Island's part of the city of Vallejo, but it's actually a small island connected to it, and there's basically waterways to escape or a marsh. So to me, it showed that they had even thought about potentially escape routes or how to limit any sort of tracking to them. And when you came downstairs, what happened at that point when you were brought downstairs? When I came down, there was a camera that was mounted in my living room. It made this electronic dung sound. three times, like, dung, dung, dung. I asked him if it would be making that sound the entire time.

16:05And the voice told me that they weren't able to get into my router, so they were loading it through Wi-Fi, and the sound should stop in the morning. And then he instructed me to stay on the couch until the morning time. I would call in sick to work. I would use Denise's phone to text our manager that she had a family emergency, would be gone for the week. and I would need to wait for further instruction. He eventually, he left, and I could hear my car in my driveway, and I heard the voice say to Denise, I'm going to close the trunk now, and I heard Denise say okay, and I was afraid that was the last time I was going to hear her voice.

16:55so he closed the trunk um and at first i'm i i could feel that it was going to be really difficult to breathe as soon as he closed the trunk um and i was trying not to hyperventilate i was trying to keep myself calm and not long after we were driving he stops the car comes out opens the trunk, puts his hand on me forcefully and says, do not speak, do not scream. You're going to make this a lot harder on yourself. And I pleaded, you know, I didn't say anything. And so, I mean, that, it concerned me to really what might provoke him, even the slightest thing that I didn't do. And then we were driving maybe about 20, 30 minutes.

17:41We stopped somewhere. He takes me from that trunk to another trunk. He had cut my hands free for this longer ride to make it more comfortable is what he said. And we drove for hours and I was trying to pay attention to where we were turning and what was going on, but the effects of the sedatives were really starting to take over and I was in and out of consciousness for the next several hours. But the car started slowing down and turning and eventually stopped. And he, you know, said we're here and tried pulling me out of the trunk, and it was awkward. And so I kind of pushed to help him get me out of there.

18:28He awkwardly stumbles with me, and his arms falls, and I drop to the ground. He lands on top of me, and he's frantic, and he just ends up dragging me across the floor. and I'm left on this cold concrete floor and he says he needs to go inside to clean. And, you know, that's where I could hear him scrubbing and I just kept picturing just like the bloody remains of prior victims that he might be cleaning up just to prepare for his next victim. And you cycle through all the different horror films that you've gone through and how extreme this could actually be. And wondering, is this what they really are motivated to do?

19:19And they just said all that stuff just to keep me calm. And so right then and there, I told myself, it doesn't matter what they do to me. I'm not going to beg and scream. If that's what they want, if that's what they're in this for, I'm not going to give them that satisfaction. I'm just going to, if I can, I'm just going to stay as calm and quiet as possible. And he eventually comes back out and he cuts the zip ties off my feet and says he needs me to shower. And he, again, allows me privacy. He says because he doesn't want to dehumanize me any more than he already has to. And he had to get the room ready.

20:04I mean, I was still blindfolded, and I was to knock when I was done. It was quicker than he anticipated, and so he put me on a couch, and I could hear him. I could hear cardboard, duct tape, and eventually he puts me in a bedroom and places me on a bed and says, this is where I'll be staying. And he says he needs to leave for a little bit. There's someone else going to be watching over me while he's gone, and it's in my best interest to not talk to this person. And, I mean, I was, you know, as soon as I heard that car leave, I passed out again from the sedatives that they gave. And I think some hours went by, and he said he was back, and it was just going to be him.

21:02And, Aaron, you were back at your house, and you've been told, you know, whatever you do, don't tell anyone what's happened and don't call 911. Tell me about what you decided to do and what you needed to do. Yeah, so when the kidnappers had taken Denise, I was able to push the goggles off my eyes by using an armrest on my couch. And I saw a digital clock, and it was exactly 5 a.m. I tried to stay awake, but without the threats right there and the commotions, the sedatives took over. And eventually I was able to wake up and stay awake around 1130. I started receiving text messages and emails giving instructions of the exact payments and that Denise is being well taken care of.

21:56eventually they tell me that I will need to drop the money off Tuesday night and they will return to these Wednesday morning. And during that time, the camera kept on making a dung, dung, dung sound. I mean, I was panicking, trying to stay calm, my mind spinning. But after I received the email that they were telling me to drop off the money and they would return to these at a different time, I realized that I can't trust these guys. If I show up with the money, they can take me as well and kill us both to get away with it. Because they said they had put a monitoring app on my phone, I believe 911 was an option.

22:44But my brother is an FBI special agent. And so I took the risk of calling him, thinking that he could alert the authorities, and if the kidnappers did see my phone call, I would lie and say that my brother was going to come over. I reached my brother. He told me I needed to call 911 because we need a full force of law enforcement behind us. And I agreed with him. So I remember putting the numbers in and not hitting the call button yet and just really thinking that I could be killing Denise with this phone call because the police would show up. I would be okay, but the kidnappers, if they see that I went to the authorities, they would kill her.

23:33That was the hardest decision I've ever made. And the police made everything worse.

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24:41Aaron called 911 at 1.54 p.m., almost 11 hours after he and Denise had been woken up by the intruders and told the dispatcher that his girlfriend had been kidnapped. Two Vallejo police officers arrived at his house. They asked me if I was drugged. I said yes. I told them that the kidnappers had drugged me. But they repeated asking me if I'd been partying, if multiple times, even when they came into my living room, the camera made a dung sound when officers went over and immediately unplugged it without wearing gloves, didn't ask me anything about it, and they asked me to go down to the station to give a statement, which I agreed, and I signed up for them to search my house.

25:26I told them anything they need to find Denise. I'll do it. When I went down to the police station, two detectives take my initial statement, but during that time they tell me that they need to take my clothes for evidence. so I agree not knowing that they were going to have me stand up and take pictures with my arms spread they'd take a picture of my front my side, my back and my other side and then you would take a piece of clothing off and you would repeat that all the way down to where I was naked and they were taking pictures of me in turn they'd give me prison clothes to wear it literally says Solano County Prison on the side and then they take my statement and they leave me alone for hours until another detective comes in uh detective matt mustard and he asked me go through his statement again at this point i don't know exactly what the time is because i'm in a small room without a window with no clock isolated from everyone but I assumed it was around 7.30 because I could kind of tell the sun was going down when Mustard opened the door.

26:47But he asked me to go through the statement again even though I had told him everything. He's not taking notes. He asks me more about my relationship with Denise than actual kidnapping. Eventually he stops and goes, the story you're telling is extraordinary. I agreed with him. He said, I don't think that happened. Something bad happened. But there's only one guy. It's just you. And then he, for the next 45 minutes or so, told me that I killed Denise. She was dead. He's already accepted that. I need to accept it. And if I keep telling this crazy story, they'll paint me as a cold, calculated monster.

27:32And Denise, what's going on at this point in the house, in the room that you're in? Yeah, so later, sometime that maybe late afternoon or evening, well, he'd come in to tell me a little bit more about the organization that he and his associates were involved in. And so it was a black market startup company to be hired to fulfill these personal or financial debts. And they were hired specifically for Aaron and his ex, but he got the wrong intel. If only he would have checked my purse and seen my identification, then this never would have happened. You know, I was like, okay, what am I supposed to do with that information being here now?

28:23And I had asked him to just stop telling me because I was afraid of anything more that I knew that it would put me at more risk and it'd be more likely that they would end up killing me. And he said that, you know, that wasn't the plan. And so it was strange in the fact that he spent a lot of time talking to me and sharing things with me. And then it just felt like he was trying to force this rapport with me to get me to trust him. And I just kind of had to play along. And then a little bit later, he came back into the room to say, we have a problem. And at first, I was just afraid that something happened to Aaron.

29:07But then he said, you know, because we didn't have any information on you, we have nothing to use against you. And so one of us is going to have to have sex with you. We're going to record it. And so that way, if we think that you ever are going to go to the police, we will use it and put it on the Internet.

29:33and he leaves for a little bit to say, you know, I have to figure out exactly how we're going to do this and then comes back and says, you know, can I lay down with you and talk with you a little bit? And he starts telling me about how he's had psychological difficulties. He was in the military and has PTSD And I sat there and listened to make it seem like this was an open space because, you know, I'm still being drugged. I don't know where I'm at. I'm just absolutely defenseless. And so my only defense is to really show him the human that was in front of him and hope that it'd be less likely that he would kill me.

30:18He eventually then leaves and comes back and says that he's going to have to do it. And I mean, during it, I still had these blacked out swim goggles on. I'm like, this is just going to look like a rape. I mean, I don't, you know, because I think he said something like it should look consensual.

30:46and I just try to detach. And at the same time, this is going on to Denise. You're at the police station, and they've just told you, Aaron, well, it's clear you're lying. What happens next? What do they tell you to do? war? After Detective Muster went after me, I kind of gave a more forceful answer than I had prior to. And I told him, I'm not going to say I did anything because I didn't do it. And where do we go from here? You guys need to find her. And he tells me, we'll figure out what we're going to do next and leaves the room. Again, I'm left alone for hours in this cold room in prison clothes.