Kriti Mehrotra
As a documentary series living up to its title in every way conceivable, Netflix’s Bernadette Higgins and Felicity Morris-directed ‘American Nightmare’ can only be described as utterly haunting. That’s because it delves deep into the 2015 so-called ‘Gone Girl’ case wherein victims of a home invasion turned kidnapping — Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn — were actually falsely blamed for it. Yet for now, if you simply wish to learn more about the alleged intended victim of this offense, the latter’s very recent ex-fiancée Andrea Roberts, we’ve got the necessary details for you.
Who is Andrea Roberts?
It was reportedly back in 2014 when Andrea’s world turned upside down as she was caught cheating on her long-term partner as well as co-worker Aaron, bringing their engagement to an end. The truth is their split was really messy, especially since she only moved into his spare bedroom at first and then had to continue working alongside him plus his new girlfriend, Denise Huskins. They all served as physical therapists at a local Vallejo, California hospital at the time, but it was the latter’s lingering feelings despite months having gone by that made things worse for this trio.
“I mean, we – – we get along okay at work,” Andrea told the police on March 23, 2015. “It’s been sad, but you know, I asked [Aaron] to stop coming into my office. He would want to hug me, and you know, sometimes he would try to kiss me, but I told him that wasn’t okay, and um, he knew it.” Nevertheless, in February, the duo had discussed the possibility of reconciling over text messages, which obviously caused significant trouble in his relationship with Denise once she found out. As for the personal bond between these two women, the former said, “I would [initially] say hi to her, and then she like would – – she would like, pretend I wasn’t there. Nothing big.”
It thus goes without saying a lot of emotions were involved for each of these individuals at every step of the way, yet as per Denise and Aaron, they’d decided to start afresh together on March 22. Little did they know the former would end up getting kidnapped from her boyfriend’s bed mere hours later despite the perpetrator clearly stating, “This was intended for Andrea; we have the wrong intel.” It turns out someone had broken into Aaron’s home, tied him up, and drugged him with the intent of abducting his ex for ransom, just to allegedly go with the next best thing when they couldn’t find her.
But alas, Aaron wasn’t believed once he contacted the authorities upon waking up the following morning, and neither was Denice following her release from brutal captivity around 48 hours later. We say brutal because she was reportedly sexually abused twice in this window, with her assaulter making her “perform” under indirect threats as well as fear of going after her immediate family next. It’s actually never been clear why this attacker — later identified as Matthew Muller — targeted Andrea, yet both his victims have vehemently maintained he did repeatedly name her during the incident.
We should also mention that the FBI Special Agent involved in this investigation to soon blame Denise and Aaron for staging everything for personal gain was David Sesma, who’d dated Andrea years prior. According to many records, this should’ve been considered a “clear conflict of interest,” yet his actions were deemed “unproblamatic” even after the former’s defense attorney raised a complaint. It’s also imperative to note another one of Andrea’s exes is Stephen Ruiz, a police officer she’d been dating while engaged, and he was fired shortly before the March 23 kidnapping for allegedly misusing resources — though there’s no proof he misused his resources again to have a hand here or if he was even ever involved.
Where is Andrea Roberts Now?
In the end, all we know for sure is that Matthew Muller abducted Denise, sexually assaulted her twice, and released her in Huntington Beach with explicit instructions not to speak to authorities. He was actually arrested in June 2015 in relation to an unrelated attempted abduction/rape of a 22-year-old, which then led the Dublin Police Department to connect him to this believed hoax case. Therefore, it was only in July that Denise as well as Aaron’s names were cleared for good, by which point Andrea had seemingly chosen to keep her distance well away from the limelight in order to maintain her privacy. And from what we can tell, that’s the way this alleged intended victim prefers to remain to this day; in other words, it’s uncertain precisely what this trained physical therapist Southern California native is up to at the moment.
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