‘American Nightmare’: The grim truth behind the so-called ‘Gone Girl’ case

globalnews.ca:

There are times when life imitates art to a degree that it’s almost impossible to explain it away as coincidence.

It’s not difficult to understand why, when Denise Huskins went missing in 2015, the world was quick to draw parallels between her case and the movie Gone Girl, which had premiered in theatres just six months earlier.

For the uninitiated, Gone Girl stars Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck as married couple Amy and Nick. Nick is having an affair, then after a break-in at their home leads to Amy’s disappearance, Nick becomes the prime suspect. Spoiler: Amy returns home after some time, armed with a tale of an abusive kidnapping and rape. The suspicions and questions only grow from there.

Now, a new Netflix documentary, titled American Nightmare, is primed to take a deeper look into Huskins’ story, how accusations of a hoax nearly ruined her life, and what happens when police operate under their own biases and fail to take victims seriously.

On March 23, 2015, Huskins vanished from her California home, where she lived with her boyfriend Aaron Quinn.

Quinn called police the next day to report her as missing, claiming a man in a wetsuit and other assailants broke into their home in the middle of the night, drugged them both, forced Huskins to tie Quinn up and kidnapped Huskins.

Quinn told police the attackers said they were part of a well-organized, highly trained group that was seeking US$8,500 ransom from Quinn for Huskins’ return.

He also told authorities the kidnappers said they would give him 48 hours to complete numerous tasks via email and phone, including calling in sick to work for both of them. He said he was ordered to pay the ransom and not call police. The assailants told him they had installed cameras in