'Gone Girl' Kidnapper Charged with Calif. Home Invasions from Years Before Denise Huskins Case: Prosecutors 

• Matthew Muller, who is behind bars over the infamous “Gone Girl kidnapping” case, is now facing charges for a series of home invasions from years earlier, prosecutors have confirmed
• The charges relate to cases in California dating back to 2009, a release from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office stated
• “The details of this person’s violent crime spree seem scripted for Hollywood, but they are tragically real,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said of the update, per the release

The man who pleaded guilty to the infamous 2015 “Gone Girl kidnapping” case is now facing charges over a series of other Calif. home invasions, authorities have said.

On Monday, Dec. 30, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Matthew Muller, 47 — who was the subject of the 2024 Netflix docuseries American Nightmare, which chronicled the kidnapping of Denise Huskins from Vallejo — had been charged over “a series of home invasion sexual assaults in Mountain View and Palo Alto 15 years ago,” per a release.

Prosecutors said “notorious kidnapping convict” Muller had been charged after authorities were able to use “advances in forensic DNA testing” following a new lead regarding the 2009 crimes, the release added.

“The District Attorney’s Office coordinated with the Palo Alto and Mountain View police departments to send all evidence back to the DA Crime lab for further testing,” authorities said in the post.

“District Attorney Criminalists found Muller’s DNA on straps he used to bind one of the victims. The police agencies and the District Attorney’s Office then conducted [a] follow-up investigation that resulted in the current charges,” it added.

Muller — a former Marine and a Harvard-educated lawyer who was later disbarred — is now facing “two felony counts of committing a sexual assault.” He faces life in prison if convicted, per the release.

The DA’s Office alleged Muller — who PEOPLE reported had been sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2017 for the 2015 abduction of Huskins — “broke into a woman’s Mountain View home, attacked her, tied her up, made her drink a concoction of medications, and said he was going to rape her” in the early hours of Sept. 29, 2009, per the release. 

“After the victim, in her 30s, persuaded him against it, he suggested the victim get a dog, then fled,” the post alleged.

Muller is also accused of breaking into a Palo Alto home on Oct. 18, 2009, where he allegedly “bound and gagged a woman in her 30s and made her drink Nyquil.”

“He then began to assault her, before being persuaded to stop. Muller gave the victim crime prevention advice, then fled,” prosecutors alleged in the release.

“The details of this person’s violent crime spree seem scripted for Hollywood, but they are tragically real,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, per the post. 

“Our goal is to make sure this defendant is held accountable and will never hurt or terrorize anyone ever again. Our hope is that this nightmare is over,” Rosen added.

The DA’s Office recalled how Muller “gained national infamy” six years after the Huskins kidnapping case, which has been compared to the plot of the 2014 movie Gone Girl, starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck. The film followed the release of the 2012 book about a deceitful disappearance by Gillian Flynn.

“On March 23, 2015, Muller broke into a Vallejo home, where he drugged, and tied up a young couple. He kidnapped Ms. Huskins, brought her to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, and sexually assaulted her. Two days later, Muller drove his victim to Southern California and released her,” the DA’s Office recalled of the kidnapping in the Dec. 30 release.

Police initially thought the invasion and kidnapping was a hoax perpetrated by Huskins’ boyfriend, Aaron Quinn. However, authorities eventually apologized and Muller was arrested in June 2015.

Following Muller’s sentencing, Quinn said he “strategically destroyed our lives,” the San Francisco Chronicle previously reported.

“I cannot and will not ever be the same,” he said at the time, per the outlet. “My family will not ever be the same.”

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“Muller, who pleaded guilty in 2016 to the kidnapping and in 2022 to the sexual assaults of Ms. Huskins, is currently incarcerated in federal prison in Tucson, Arizona,” the DA’s Office said in the Dec. 30 release.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.