Denise Huskins: My Kidnapping Story (FBF)

Episode of Call Her Daddy · October 16, 2026 · 1 h 33 min

Alex Cooper interviews Denise Huskins about her 2015 kidnapping and assault, police and media claims that it was a hoax, and her recovery.

Summary

In this rebroadcast interview, Alex Cooper spoke with Denise Huskins, whose 2015 abduction from her boyfriend Aaron Quinn's home in Vallejo, California, was later depicted in the Netflix docuseries American Nightmare. Huskins described her life as a physical therapist before the crime, the emotional conversation she and Quinn had the night of the home invasion, and being woken by intruders with lights and laser pointers who had her bind Quinn before drugging both of them and taking her away in a car trunk.

Huskins recounted two days of captivity in a remote cabin, during which her captor, who claimed to belong to a black-market group and to have military PTSD, raped her twice under the pretext of filming blackmail footage. She said she deliberately stayed calm, built rapport and treated him with care as her only available defense, and described the psychological conditioning of rewards for compliance. She was eventually released near her mother's home in Huntington Beach.

Huskins said the aftermath was the hardest part: Vallejo police accused Quinn of murder after an 18-hour interrogation, then publicly declared the kidnapping a hoax, with media comparing her to Gone Girl, and an FBI agent told her attorney he was 99% sure she was lying. She argued that law enforcement judged victims by fiction and by expectations of how they should behave, citing Laura Richards's explanation of the fawn response. Cooper argued that women are routinely disbelieved because believing them would disrupt male-dominated power structures.

Huskins said the case turned when a female detective, Misty, linked a later home invasion to her abduction, and criticized the lack of accountability, noting the lead detective was named officer of the year. She discussed therapy, plans to try EMDR, her marriage to Quinn, how she will tell her two children, and urged survivors to believe in themselves.

Chapters

0:00
Introduction and the Netflix documentary
Cooper sets up the story and Huskins describes the overwhelming experience of millions watching American Nightmare.
5:15
Life before and meeting Aaron
Huskins describes her physical therapy career, meeting Aaron Quinn, and the emotional conversation they had the night of the crime.
12:50
The home invasion
Huskins recounts waking to lights and lasers, being made to tie up Quinn, being drugged, and being taken in a car trunk.
22:45
Captivity in the cabin
Huskins describes her strategy of staying calm, the captor's manipulation and claims, the sexual assaults, and what kept her going.
43:09
Release
Huskins explains how her captor drove her to Huntington Beach and threatened her about what she could tell police.
46:33
Police disbelief and hoax accusations
Huskins describes the immunity offer, Quinn's interrogation, the press conference calling it a hoax, and the Gone Girl comparisons.
55:54
Judging victim behavior
Huskins and Cooper discuss criticism that she was too calm, FBI questioning about screaming, and the fawn response.
1:04:34
Social fallout and the lowest point
Huskins discusses support from family, betrayal online, and an FBI agent saying he was 99% sure she was lying.
1:13:00
Arrest of the kidnapper
Huskins explains how a female detective linked another attack to her case and criticizes the lack of police accountability.
1:16:16
Healing and advice to survivors
Huskins urges disbelieved women to believe in themselves and describes therapy, journaling, boxing, and plans for EMDR.
1:21:09
Marriage, children, and change
Huskins discusses staying with Quinn, ongoing hypervigilance, telling her children, and how she has changed.
1:27:44
Women supporting women
Cooper and Huskins close on the need for survivors and women to listen to and believe one another.

Key points

What was said, by whom, with the exact words. Timestamps jump to the moment.

Denise Huskins
Huskins says public exposure from the documentary is so tied in her body to the fear of being killed that she struggles to separate them.
“the exposure, the public exposure is so intertwined with the thought of being killed that it's like really hard for my body to differentiate the two”
Listen from 4:50 · American Nightmare (Netflix docuseries)
Denise Huskins
Huskins says realizing the intruders were patient, controlled and methodical was more horrifying than the violent chaos portrayed in fiction.
“realizing that criminals can be patient and in control and planned out was even more horrifying to process”
Listen from 14:22 · Home invasion
Denise Huskins
Huskins says that, isolated and drugged, she decided the only thing she could control was her own reaction.
“I told myself like the only thing I can control is how I react and respond”
Listen from 24:24 · Kidnapping of Denise Huskins
Denise Huskins
Huskins says she connected with her captor and discussed therapy and childhood trauma, believing humanizing herself was her only defense.
“I just thought really like my only defense is to show him the human being in front of him and hope maybe he would decide not to kill me”
Listen from 26:58 · Kidnapping of Denise Huskins
Denise Huskins
Huskins says her captor rewarded compliance with privileges such as removing the blindfold, food and toiletries, which she recognized as conditioning.
“And so it's like I could see all of this It was a way to try to condition me”
Listen from 30:26 · Kidnapping of Denise Huskins
Denise Huskins
Huskins says the lead Vallejo detective offered her a proffer agreement, which confused and frightened her as a crime victim.
“he had said that he was going to be offering a proffer of agreement, which is basically immunity”
Listen from 47:19 · Police interrogation techniques
Denise Huskins
Huskins says Aaron Quinn was accused of murdering her and endured a long interrogation rather than confess to something he did not do.
“he just endured 18 hours of interrogation because he thought, I can't admit to something I didn't do”
Listen from 52:02 · Police interrogation techniques
Denise Huskins
Huskins says her attorney told her that Vallejo police had publicly declared her account a lie within hours of her release.
“the Vallejo police just held a press conference and completely threw you under the bus. and said it was all a lie”
Listen from 53:56 · Vallejo Police Department
Denise Huskins
Huskins argues that military-trained people teach building rapport as a hostage survival strategy, yet investigators faulted her for doing exactly that.
“They teach us, if you are ever kidnapped or taken hostage, that you build a report”
Listen from 57:02 · Victim blaming
Alex Cooper
Cooper argues that men judge women for not fighting back because men can rely on physical force in ways women cannot.
“because men are so privileged in those type of moments to just use their like brute force like we don't we can't rely on that”
Listen from 59:50 · Victim blaming
Denise Huskins
Huskins cites Laura Richards in arguing that the fawn response of pleasing and appeasing is a primary defense for women that investigators fail to recognize.
“there's also fawn and that's the woman's primarily more innate defense of like the please and appease”
Listen from 1:00:39 · Fight-or-flight response
Denise Huskins
Huskins says the public disbelief after the kidnapping has been harder to process than the crime itself.
“what happened after the kidnapping absolutely has been the hardest part to deal with”
Listen from 1:02:01 · Victim blaming
Denise Huskins
Huskins says an FBI agent told her attorney he was almost certain she was lying and recommended watching Gone Girl.
“he was 99% sure I was lying and that my attorney should watch Gone Girl”
Listen from 1:07:58 · Gone Girl (film)
Denise Huskins
Huskins argues it is dangerous when law enforcement uses fiction as a yardstick for judging real victims.
“when law enforcement goes to fiction and uses that as a measure to judge people, that's where it's really terrifying”
Listen from 1:10:59 · Gone Girl (film)
Alex Cooper
Cooper argues women are disbelieved because taking them at face value would threaten those who hold power.
“if we actually start listening to women and we start taking what they're saying at face value”
Listen from 1:12:39 · Feminism
Linked moment · 1:12:53Skip to 1:12:53 using a listen link in the info box.
Denise Huskins
Huskins argues people avoid acknowledging how bad the problem is because doing so would make inaction complicity.
“if you know how bad it is and you're not doing anything about it, then you're complicit”
Listen from 1:12:53 · Victim blaming
Denise Huskins
Huskins says the FBI affidavit showed calls on her first night in captivity could have been traced to her location.
“There were calls that were placed the first night I was in captivity that the police could have traced back to the location I was in captivity in”
Listen from 1:13:42 · Federal Bureau of Investigation
Denise Huskins
Huskins credits a female detective who noticed a blonde hair on goggles in her own case with linking the crimes.
“She noticed there was a blonde hair on goggles and her victims all had dark hair”
Listen from 1:14:24 · Kidnapping of Denise Huskins
Denise Huskins
Huskins criticizes the lack of accountability, noting the lead detective was named officer of the year despite being named in their civil lawsuit.
“The lead detective got officer of the year. It's like that year. And we named him in a civil lawsuit”
Listen from 1:15:12 · Vallejo Police Department
Denise Huskins
Huskins says she is exploring further therapy, including EMDR, to reconnect what she knows logically with what her body feels.
“i'm looking into emdr because i hear great things about it”
Listen from 1:18:32 · Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
Denise Huskins
Huskins says she plans to teach her children about consent and bodily boundaries as building blocks toward eventually telling them what happened.
“even just little things of like teaching them consent and boundaries and, you you know, respecting their body and other people's bodies”
Listen from 1:24:16

People

In the conversation

Alex CooperAmerican podcaster and media entrepreneur, host of Call Her Daddy
Denise HuskinsAmerican physical therapist and survivor of the 2015 Vallejo kidnapping, subject of the Netflix series American Nightmare

Discussed

Aaron QuinnPhysical therapist, Huskins's boyfriend at the time of the kidnapping and later her husband
Misty CarausuDetective who linked a later home invasion to the Huskins kidnapping
Laura RichardsCoercive control expert and host of the podcast Real Crime Profile
Megan FoxContent creator who traveled to Phoenix to cover the trial
Amanda KnoxAmerican woman wrongfully convicted in Italy, whom Cooper had interviewed
Nancy GraceAmerican TV legal commentator whose coverage Huskins briefly watched

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From the publisher

Join Alex in the studio for a powerful interview with kidnapping and assault survivor Denise Huskins. In 2015, Denise was taken from her boyfriend’s house in the middle of the night. She was held for days, drugged, and assaulted before finally being released by her captors. But when Denise told the police what had happened to her, nobody believed her. In fact, they attacked her. They called her a liar, hoaxster, fraud, and the real life “Gone Girl.” They claimed she’d made it all up for fame and attention. Today, Denise is here to tell her incredible story of overcoming trauma, staying calm in the midst of chaos, and fighting for the truth. This is an important conversation about what it takes for women to be believed, the problem with victim blaming, and how Denise was finally able to reclaim her name and her life.

Summary, chapters and key points were generated from the episode transcript on October 24, 2026. Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript.

Categories: True Crime·Society & Culture·Mental Health