Attorneys are defending a couple accused by northern California police of orchestrating a fake ransom demand, in part of a bizarre case involving a 29-year-old woman who was reported missing but later turned up at a relative’s home before disappearing again.
Denise Huskins was reported kidnapped from her boyfriend’s home in Vallejo on Monday, with a ransom demand for $8,500. The report set off a large-scale search, combining officers from several California law enforcement agencies.
On Wednesday, Huskins appeared 400 miles away, in Huntington Beach, where she said she was dropped off unscathed by her kidnappers. After some hours, police said they began to question whether a kidnapping had taken place.
Then Huskins disappeared again. Vallejo police said the FBI arranged a jet to fly her to northern California for an interview, but she never boarded the flight.
On Thursday, authorities said they had located Huskins but refused to divulge her whereabouts. The FBI in Los Angeles told the LA Times she was no longer in southern California.
The Vallejo police department said the kidnapping was “not real” and called it an “orchestrated event” that could lead to charges against the couple. Lieutenant Kenny Park said the search for Huskins had placed a huge financial burden on the department, and said the couple owed the community an apology.
“If you can imagine devoting all of our resources, 24 hours a day, on what I would classify as a wild goose chase, it is a tremendous loss,” a visibly angry Park said during a press conference on Wednesday.
At a news conference on Thursday, Huskins’s attorney, Douglas L Rappaport, told reporters his client truly had been kidnapped and denounced the police’s account, calling it “absolutely wrong”.
“A lot of people said the world was flat as well,” he said, defending his client’s version of events. He said considering Huskins a “suspect” in her own kidnapping was making an already traumatizing situation worse.
“She is simply a victim,” he said. “Now she is being more victimized. I can understand why women who are victims of violent crimes are reluctant to come forward when they are re-victimized by the police department.”
If police find that the kidnapping was a ruse, Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, could face charges, police said.
Quinn’s attorney, Dan Russo, said the kidnapping took place in the early hours of Monday morning, and the ransom deadline was noon on Wednesday. Quinn didn’t report Huskins missing for 10 hours after her alleged disappearance, and said he was prepared to pay the $8,500 ransom when Huskins turned up. Quinn’s attorney said Quinn didn’t report Huskins missing immediately because he was bound and drugged by the kidnappers.
“There seems to be a stream of blatant lies about our client, about the victim and about what is going on,” Russo said at a news conference on Thursday.
Quinn’s attorney said he had submitted to “17 hours” of interrogation by Vallejo officers and the FBI during seven separate visits. Russo said his client provided fingerprints, blood and DNA samples, allowed access to all of his password-protected computer devices, and voluntarily consented to to a search of his home, which he reportedly shared with Huskins.
As of Thursday, however, Huskins did not appear to be cooperating with police, behavior Quinn’s attorneys said they could not speculate about.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle has received two emails in as many days from an anonymous person purporting to be behind the kidnapping and looking to clear Huskins of wrongdoing.
This first email came on Tuesday afternoon. The sender said Huskins would be safely returned on Wednesday, and included an audio file of a woman identifying herself as Huskins, the Chronicle reported. In the clip, she referred to a contemporary event, the Germanwings plane crash, to show she was still alive. Her father verified that it was her voice, the paper said.
A second email came on Thursday. The sender reported wanting to clear Huskins of suspicion, the Chronicle reported, though the paper said it could not verify the authenticity of the message.
Huskins and Quinn are both physical therapists in California.
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