HPP: Following his confession to a small-town police chief who had no prior connection to any of the investigations, California prosecutors have brought new charges against a convicted kidnapper and rapist in connection with a 2015 abduction and ransom case involving three victims in the Bay Area.
For the 2015 kidnapping and rape of a Vallejo lady, 47-year-old Matthew Muller is currently serving a 40-year sentence. Cynically nicknamed the “Gone Girl” kidnapping after the novel and film, her kidnapping was first believed to be a hoax.
Muller allegedly abducted two unnamed men and a woman in San Ramon and held them hostage until one of them paid “tens of thousands of dollars” in ransom to free the three in the new case, which was not reported to the police at the time.
Prosecutors say Muller, a former immigration lawyer, Marine veteran, and Harvard alumnus, stole the money and fled. Prosecutors claim the victims still want to stay unidentified because they were so terrified that they never called the police.
According to a representative for Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton’s office, Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges obtained a confession from Muller in yet another strange turn of events in a case that has been filled with them for years, despite the fact that the victims never called the police.
The couple at the center of Muller’s federal abduction case had been asked by Borges to give a talk about how police question victims and collect evidence.
A Netflix documentary on the horrific “Gone Girl” case included them. Following their encounter, Borges wrote to Muller because he believed he had committed other offenses.
“That’s when Muller began confessing to additional crimes beginning in in 1993 when he was 16,” Ted Asregadoo, the DA’s public information officer stated. “Over the course of their communication with Muller, a 2015 unreported kidnapping and ransom incident in Contra Costa County was mentioned by Muller.”
The accusations were issued this week as a result of Borges providing Contra Costa authorities with the information.
“The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office has filed three felony charges of kidnapping for ransom against Matthew Daniel Muller, a convicted kidnapper and rapist currently serving a 40-year federal prison sentence,” the DA’s office stated on Monday.
“These new charges stem from a previously unreported 2015 crime in San Ramon, where Muller unlawfully held three victims captive and demanded tens of thousands of dollars for their release. This revelation came to light in 2024 after Muller confessed to multiple crimes in Northern California, including this incident in Contra Costa County.”
In the San Ramon case, Becton’s office filed three counts of kidnapping for ransom.
Last month, her Santa Clara County counterpart stated that Muller is now accused of two 2009 home invasions. In both cases, detectives found him thanks to cutting-edge forensic DNA testing, according to officials.
However, prosecutors claim that Muller also admitted to all three of the recently disclosed offenses in letters he sent to law enforcement.
“After learning of Muller’s confession, detectives from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office initiated an investigation, despite the lack of a reported crime in 2015,” Becton’s office stated. “The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office joined the investigation on December 13th, 2024, which included a meeting with Muller.”
He may spend the rest of his life behind bars if found guilty of the most recent charges.
He will likely travel to California to be charged on the new accusations, but for now, he is serving his sentence in a federal prison in Arizona. A court date was not specified by Becton’s office.
Muller drugged a lady and her boyfriend after breaking into their home in the Vallejo case.
The female victim was sexually attacked by him after he bound her up and took her to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe. After two days of holding her, he drove her to Southern California and released her.