Netflix documentary - American Nightmare - is adapted from a real case in 2015 (the real incident happened in the Bay Area). This case tells the story of a couple who were kidnapped in the middle of the night. The police believed that the couple wasDirected and acted to cause trouble, the case was full of twists and turns until the end.
A young couple was involved in a home invasion and kidnapping, but their version of the crime was so far-fetched that the police couldn't believe it.Why did the victim look so peaceful?Is this all a scam?This three-part documentary from the filmmakers of Tinder Scam King reveals the consequences of our habitual rash judgment and the price we pay when law enforcement decides the truth is false.
The protagonists of the story are Denis huskin and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn.
On March 23, 2015, her boyfriend Aaron Quinn (a physical therapist) reported to the police that his live-in girlfriend and colleague Denise Huskins had been kidnapped by one or more intruders who demanded a ransom of $17,000.
So a detective questioned Quinn for several hours, at times hinting at his possible involvement in Huskins' disappearance.Because based on police experience it’s always the boyfriend, they listed him as the first suspect instead of the kidnapping victim.Quinn then took a lie detector test, and FBI agents told him he failed. They also accused him of participating in the murder of his girlfriend and asked him to reveal the location of the body.
Two days later, Huskins showed up, unharmed (and that's the point), outside her father's apartment in the Southern California beach where she said she had been transported.After the police intervened in the investigation, on March 25, 2015, a police spokesman, a lieutenant, gathered the media and announced that the whole affair was a hoax.“ the whole affair to be a hoax.”
Because the official said so and the media reported it on a large scale, the lives and futures of these two young people were ruined.Large-scale online violence and being secretly photographed in daily life are the main themes of their lives.
Police said Huskins wasted valuable police resources and had countless staff searching for her around the clock, and she needs to apologize to the community.He also stated that he would be prosecuted for deceiving judicial personnel.
Just when the whole society thought that the couple were liars full of lies, the kidnapper became angry. He claimed to be the murderer in an anonymous email and asked the police to apologize to the couple because what she said was true and the kidnapping was not a scam., we would rather risk giving the police information that might lead them to catch us than live in a world where two good people like Mr. Quinn and Ms. Haskins could be subjected to a horrific crime and then wonderful's life was ruined.
(It sounds like this murderer is quite righteous, but he may be an extreme narcissist and needs to show the society that he successfully planned a kidnapping, rather than, as the police said, there was no kidnapping at all.)
The kidnapper said that if the police did not apologize to Huskins, he would immediately plan a new kidnapping case exactly as it was to let the police know that she was not lying and that everything she said was true.
The San Francisco police refused to admit their mistakes. They had already claimed that this was a scam, so they ignored all the evidence provided in the kidnappers' emails and testified about all the testimonies of the parties. They still believed that this was part of a scam.He refused to accept it and refused to apologize to Huskins, the kidnapping victim.
The kidnapper committed another crime a few months later in a city 400 miles away from Huskins' home, and was successfully captured by the local police.
Netflix《American Nightmare》Plot introduction
The kidnapper's name is Muller. He graduated from Harvard Law School. He participated in the war as a soldier and left behind PTSD. After retiring, he worked as a lawyer in California.He drugged Heskins that night, put her in the trunk of his car, drove her to his family's vacation home in South Lake Tahoe, then held her captive for two days and raped her, twice., and then dropped her off near her parents' home.
During the process of solving the case, the local police discovered that there were traces of other victims in Muller's home. They were curious, who was the woman who left the long hair? Is she dead or alive?After searching for a period of time, it was highly related to the Huskins case.
The local police contacted the San Francisco police many times. What is very strange is that the San Francisco police still ignored, ignored, kicked the ball, and were unwilling to admit that this was not a scam.What they decided was not going to change.
Finally, the local female police officer saw the news four months ago and found that Huskins had been greatly wronged. She had to seek justice for her. She contacted insiders many times and finally got the opportunity to hold a meeting and re-investigate the kidnapping of Huskins.
The evidence was conclusive and the truth came out. She was indeed wronged. She was not a hoaxer, she was a real victim. She told the room full of male officers the details of her rape over and over again. What she got was: YouWhy not run?Not screaming?Not resisting?
Because she cooperated with the kidnapper, because she was obedient, and because she did not want to anger the kidnapper and cause her to be deprived of her life, she was unscathed.Therefore, she did not meet the characteristics of a perfect sexual assault victim: her lower body had no tears, no stems and leaves, and no traces of injury.
Because she was given sedatives every day, her whole body was out of body and groggy, so she was more like a doll than a victim who would violently resist.
The group of male police officers, when she asked for a rape test, did not take her to the hospital immediately. Instead, they said, "You must tell me every detail. You tell me what happened, and then I can take you to the hospital."
After she told those details, they just felt that she was directing and acting on her own, because she didn't look like a victim at all. She was too calm. How could she be so calm?
Huskins said, I must be detached to survive. If my body and soul cannot be separated, I don’t know how to have the will to live. Every second is too painful. I can only float my soul to the sky and watch all this happen to a woman.It seems like it has nothing to do with me and I can't do anything to help her.
She said that the police should know the victim's psychology most, rather than: Why are you so calm?You don't look like you've been injured.
She said that just because I didn't have any trauma to my private parts, I wasn't a sexual assault victim, so my words had no credibility.
The police think that you must be physically disabled or turned into a female corpse to be convincing. As a victim, you cannot appear unscathed.
She explained why she seemed unharmed because the kidnappers trained her to be a good girl. If she obeyed, she would be returned unharmed in 2 days.
The kidnapper demanded that she show willingness, enjoyment, and cooperate with his needs as if she had sexual consent.He wanted sex like a couple, not lying on the bed like a dead fish like last time.
The female police officer who connected the two cases was ignored by the San Francisco authorities many times, but she still refused to give up and insisted on seeking justice for the heroine, because she said that she chose to be a COP because her friend had been violated.She realized that there must be a woman in the judiciary, a woman who could listen to the voices of the victims, see their pain, and fight for fairness and justice for them.
It is precisely because of her persistence that the heroine Huskins can finally reveal the truth and clear her grievances. Instead of hiding in hiding, she can stand up and tell all this.
She said that if her words had been trusted by the police and they had hunted down the murderer immediately, the subsequent victims would not have happened and there would not have been so many subsequent victims.
She told so much key information, including the characteristics of the murderer, the fact that the vehicle was a sports car, and the sound of the engine.This group of middle-aged white men insisted that she was seeking attention.
The documentary disclosed the evidence at the end. In fact, if the male police officer spent a little effort to investigate the CCTV, he would have discovered that what she said was true and what her boyfriend said was also true.
If they had traced the address of the phone based on the information they had, they would have located the location of the vacation home where Huskins was kidnapped.She won't experience a second rape.
All of this could be less bad, if only they would give up their misogyny, if only they would give up their own arrogance and try to find the message that comes out of their mouths.
I have been wondering why the female victim would make men think that she is a liar who directed and acted herself and told lies if she does not appear as a corpse?
Why can't she be considered to have survival wisdom and try to avoid violence and cruelty in extreme situations?
Why not be happy that she is safe?
Without the sensitivity and persistence of a female police officer, the heroine would have been a liar in the eyes of the public throughout her life. At the same time, she would have to deal with the pain as a survivor of a kidnapping and sexual assault victim behind closed doors.
In the end, she sued the authorities and was awarded more than two million U.S. dollars in compensation.
However, none of the male police officers who treated her were punished. Instead, they were promoted and won the title of Police Person of the Year.
