(CALIFORNIA) — The man who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Northern California woman in a case that became known nationwide as the “Gone Girl” kidnapping has now been charged with other break-ins and assaults from years earlier, prosecutors announced on Monday.
Matthew Muller — who pleaded guilty in the 2015 kidnapping and sexual assault of Denise Huskins — has now been charged in connection with two other home invasions from 2009, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office said.
In the first attack, on Sept. 29, 2009, Muller allegedly broke into a woman’s home in Mountain View, tied her up, forced her drink a mix of medications and told her he was going to rape her, prosecutors said. The woman “persuaded him against it,” and Muller then allegedly suggested she get a dog and fled the scene, prosecutors said.
Weeks later, on Oct. 18, 2009, Muller allegedly broke into a home in Palo Alto, bound and gagged a woman and forced her to drink NyQuil, prosecutors said. “He then began to assault her, before being persuaded to stop,” prosecutors said. “Muller gave the victim crime prevention advice, then fled.”
Muller faces two felony counts of committing a sexual assault during a home invasion, prosecutors said.
Muller, who is currently in a federal prison in Arizona, is expected to be arraigned Monday.
On March 23, 2015, Muller broke into a home in Vallejo, where he drugged and tied up Huskins and her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, prosecutors said.
He kidnapped Huskins and took her to a cabin in South Lake Tahoe, where he sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.
Quinn went to the police, who started to consider him a suspect.
After two days held captive, Muller drove Huskins to Southern California and released her.
Once Huskins was freed, the couple was then accused of a hoax, and the case set off a media firestorm fueled by suggestions that the case mirrored the book and movie “Gone Girl.”
Muller was arrested for Huskins’ kidnapping in June 2015 when he was identified as a suspect in a home invasion in Dublin, California.
Muller pleaded guilty in 2016 to Huskins’ kidnapping and in 2022 to her sexual assaults, prosecutors said.
The case became the subject of the Netflix documentary “American Nightmare” released earlier this year.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The FBI has issued a formal warning to sports leagues about organized theft groups targeting professional athletes.
The warning follows a rash of burglaries, beginning in September, at the homes of professional athletes while they were playing games or traveling.
“These homes are targeted for burglary due to the perception they may have high-end goods like designer handbags, jewelry, watches, and cash,” the FBI said in a Liaison Information Report obtained by ABC News.
The report stated that “organized theft groups allegedly burglarized the homes of at least nine professional athletes” between September and November 2024.
“While many burglaries occur while homes are unoccupied, some burglaries occur while residents are home. In these instances, individuals are encouraged to seek law enforcement help and avoid engaging with criminals, as they may be armed or use violence if confronted,” the report further stated.
In a string of robberies, burglars have recently targeted the homes of Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, along with Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and, most recently, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić. In addition, the homes of NBA guard Mike Conley Jr. and Bobby Portis have been burglarized. The FBI report does not specifically note or refer to any of these incidents.
According to the FBI, organized theft groups from South America conduct physical and technical surveillance in preparation for these burglaries, using publicly available information and social media to identify a pattern of life for a prospective victim. They often know in advance where valuables are kept in a home.
“These preparation tactics enable theft groups to conduct burglaries in a short amount of time. Organized theft groups bypass alarm systems, use Wi-Fi jammers to block Wi-Fi connections and disable devices, cover security cameras, and obfuscate their identities,” the FBI report said.
The FBI encouraged more reporting by athletes of suspicious activity and suggested athletes keep records of valuables, inventorying items and their whereabouts, employ additional security and use caution on social media, to include refraining from posting pictures of valuables, the interior of one’s home, and real-time posts when on vacation.
(NEW YORK) — Shares of Boeing fell in early trading on Monday, one day after a Boeing model 737-800 was involved in the Jeju Air plane crash in South Korea that killed scores of passengers.
The stock price dropped more than 4% at the open of trading on Monday morning. The slide came hours after South Korea’s transportation ministry announced it would investigate the crash and conduct a full inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in use in South Korea.
All but two of the 181 people on board died Sunday in what authorities said was the deadliest plane crash in South Korea in decades.
The only survivors, a man and a woman, were among the six crew members onboard the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 when it skidded along a runway, crashed into a wall and burst into flames on Sunday morning, officials said.
In a statement posted on X on Sunday, Boeing said the company had established communication with Jeju Air about the incident.
“We are in contact with Jeju Air regarding flight 2216 and stand ready to support them,” Boeing said. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and our thoughts remain with the passengers and crew.”
Boeing did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Jeju Air said it would not suspend operations of its 737-800 aircraft.
“There are no plans to suspend operations, but they will examine those parts once more and check them thoroughly during the inspection process,” said Song Kyung-hoon, head of Jeju Air’s Management Support Division.
As the aircraft approached South Korea’s Muan International Airport at 8:54 a.m. local time, the control tower gave it permission to land on a south-to-north runway, according to an official timeline by the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.
Three minutes later, the flight control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the transport ministry said. About two minutes after that warning, a pilot sent a distress signal, saying, “Mayday, mayday, mayday, bird strike, bird strike, going around,” the ministry said.
An official cause of the crash is under investigation by South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board.
The fatal crash and ensuing stock slide mark the latest setback for Boeing, which sought to put a series of scandals behind it last month when it struck a deal with a union representing thousands of West Coast factory workers, who had undertaken a seven-week strike.
The labor action began days after Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth without its crew due to mechanical issues, and months after a door plug blew out of the company’s 737 Max 9 aircraft mid-flight, which itself happened five years after Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft were first grounded worldwide following a pair of tragic crashes.
The losses for Boeing on Monday coincided with a broader decline in the stock market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 700 points in early trading, dropping the index about 1.5%.
The S&P 500 slid 1.5% in early trading on Monday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq also declined 1.5%.
ABC News’ Joohee Cho and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.
(SEOUL) — A 33-year-old flight attendant, one of just two survivors of the Jeju Air plane crash in South Korea that killed 179 people, is awake and talking to medical staff, according to a hospital official.
The survivor, who was only identified by his surname Lee, told doctors he had “already been rescued” when he regained consciousness following Sunday’s fiery crash at the Muan International Airport, Ju Woong, director of the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, said during a news conference on Monday.
Lee and another flight attendant on Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, who was identified by her surname Koo, were the only ones aboard the aircraft to live through what authorities said was South Korea’s deadliest plane crash in decades and one of the worst in aviation history.
The 25-year-old Koo is reportedly in stable condition at a different hospital than the one where Lee is being treated. Koo suffered injuries to her ankle and head, medical staff at the hospital told the Yonhap News Agency. The medical staff treating her declined to answer further questions about her condition.
Ju said Lee is being treated in the intensive care unit for multiple fractures.
He said Lee is “fully able to communicate.”
“There’s no indication yet of memory loss or such,” Ju said.
The hospital director said Lee is under special care due to the possibility of total paralysis.
Ju said he did not question Lee about the details of the crash, saying he didn’t believe it would be helpful with the patient’s recovery.
Lee was initially taken to a hospital in Mokpo before being transferred to the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital.
The crash unfolded just before 9 a.m. local time on Sunday at the Muan International Airport after the air traffic control tower gave the flight crew permission to land on a south-to-north runway, according to an official timeline by the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.
Three minutes later, the flight control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the transport ministry said. About two minutes after that warning, a pilot sent a distress signal, saying, “Mayday, mayday, mayday, bird strike, bird strike, going around,” the ministry said.
The plane ascended and made a 180-degree turn before descending from the north side, crash-landing and slamming into a wall at 9:03 a.m., the ministry said.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, skidded along a runway, crashed into a wall and burst into flames, officials said. A total of 181 people were onboard.
The flight had originated before dawn Sunday at the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracker.
An official cause of the crash is under investigation by South Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board.
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday threw his support behind Speaker Mike Johnson amid a fight over the House gavel that will culminate in a vote at the end of the week.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man,” Trump wrote at the end of a lengthy social media post. “He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement.”
In the same post, Trump boasted about his successful 2024 White House run, praising Republicans for running a “legendary” campaign while railing against President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
He urged Republicans to “not blow” an opportunity for a “relief” from the outgoing administration — calling for Republicans to support Johnson.
Johnson, who faced pushback from members of his own party over his leadership during the recent government shutdown fight, thanked Trump for his endorsement.
“I’m honored and humbled by your support, as always,” Johnson wrote on X. “Together, we will quickly deliver on your America First agenda and usher in the new golden age of America. The American people demand and deserve that we waste no time. Let’s get to work.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — It’ll be a rainy New Year’s Eve in New York City, but dry and warm for much of the country.
Here’s what you need to know:
Rain will hit the Ohio River Valley on Tuesday and then push into the Northeast in the evening.
Detroit and Cleveland will see snow and Pittsburgh can expect rain by the evening.
For those heading to watch the ball drop at Times Square in New York City, intermittent showers are expected throughout the evening. By midnight, there will likely be a drizzle and breezy winds around 20 mph.
But temperatures in Times Square will be much warmer than usual, hovering around 50 degrees.
Portland, Oregon, and Seattle will also see rain on New Year’s Eve, but it’ll be mostly dry for the rest of the country.
Temperatures will be above average across the east on Tuesday, with highs forecast to reach 81 degrees in Miami, 66 degrees in Atlanta, 62 in Washington, D.C., 53 in Boston and 39 in Chicago.
Los Angeles will reach the mid-60s, while the temperature will climb above 70 in Phoenix. Denver will be chilly with highs in the mid-30s.
(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court on Monday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn a jury’s verdict last year that found he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s.
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided “Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings” and “has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.”
The jury in the civil case held Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s, and determined that, in 2022, he made defamatory statements about her. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.
A different jury, in a separate civil trial, ordered Trump to pay Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, $83 million in damages. Trump’s appeal of that verdict is pending.
In the first trial, Trump claimed District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan erred by allowing two women, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, to testify about Trump’s alleged sexually assaults of them. Trump denied the claims of those two women.
Trump also faulted Kaplan’s decision to allow part of the now-infamous “Access Hollywood” tape into evidence. In the 2005 recording, Trump is heard describing to then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush how he kissed and grabbed women without first obtaining their consent.
The appellate court, in Monday’s opinion, decided the tape was admissible “as evidence of a pattern” of alleged behavior by Trump.
“The jury could have reasonably concluded from those statements that, in the past, Mr. Trump had kissed women without their consent and then proceeded to touch their genitalia,” the opinion said.
(WASHINGTON) — The funeral for former President Jimmy Carter, who died on Sunday at the age of 100, will be held on Jan. 9 at Washington National Cathedral.
Carter, the son of a peanut farmer who was elected the nation’s 39th president, passed away surrounded by family at his home in Plains, Georgia, just months after he became the longest-lived former chief executive in U.S. history.
President Joe Biden, who praised Carter as a “man of principle, faith, and humility,” has also marked Jan. 9 as a National Day of Mourning for the former Democratic president.
Biden said in March 2023 that Carter had asked him to deliver his eulogy. Their relationship spans decades, back to when Biden endorsed Carter for the presidency during Biden’s first term as a senator in 1976.
In remarks on Sunday evening, Biden spoke about Carter’s support for him and his family after his son Beau died of cancer. Carter was later diagnosed with metastatic melanoma.
“I think that what Jimmy Carter is an example of is just simple decency, simple decency,” Biden said as he reflected on that time in his life. “And I think that’s what the rest of the world looks to America for.”
Washington National Cathedral, situated just miles north of the White House, has been the site of several state funerals for former presidents, including Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush.
Carter is expected to be buried in Georgia next to his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, who died last year at the age of 96. Carter, who had been in hospice care, made a rare public appearance to attend his wife’s memorial service.
The couple previously spoke about being laid to rest together at their family residence, near the edge of a pond on the property where they fished together.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(SEOUL and LONDON) — The two survivors of South Korea’s deadliest plane crash in decades were recovering at separate hospitals in Seoul on Monday, as investigators began far-reaching probes into both the fatal crash and the country’s broader aviation operations.
The only survivors, a man and a woman, were among the six crew members onboard the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 when it skidded along a runway, crashed into a wall and burst into flames on Sunday morning, officials said. A total of 181 people were onboard.
The man who survived, who was receiving treatment for fractures in an intensive care unit, was alert and speaking with medical staff, Ju Woong, director of the Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital, said at a press conference on Monday.
The man, a flight attendant identified only by his surname, Lee, had “already been rescued” when he woke up, the hospital official said. “(Lee’s) fully able to communicate,” Woong added. “There’s no indication yet of memory loss or such.”
The woman, 25-year-old flight attendant named Koo, was also recovering, though not in intensive care, hospital staff and officials with the Korean Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport said. Neither survivor had life-threatening injuries, the ministry said, adding that both had awoken in the hospital without a clear recollection of what had happened after they heard a blast during the landing.
Authorities were working on Monday to confirm the identities of more than three dozen of the 179 people who were killed when the plane crash-landed. The bodies of 141 people had been identified through their fingerprints or DNA, but 38 of the dead remained unidentified, local officials said.
Officials had recovered the flight’s data recorders from the wreckage and were releasing information. The acting president, Choi Sang-mok, who has been leading the country since Friday, ordered an emergency safety inspection of South Korea’s entire air fleet and operations.
The transport ministry said it will conduct a full inspection of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft in use in South Korea. Six low-cost airlines operate a total of 101 of that model aircraft, including the 39 operated by Jeju Air. But the airline said it would not suspend operations of those planes.
“There are no plans to suspend operations, but they will examine those parts once more and check them thoroughly during the inspection process,” said Song Kyung-hoon, head of Jeju Air’s Management Support Division.
Flight 7C2216 had taken off from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand before dawn on Monday, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracker.
As the aircraft approached South Korea’s Muan International Airport at 8:54 a.m., the control tower gave it permission to land on a south-to-north runway, according to an official timeline by the transport ministry.
Three minutes later, the flight control tower issued a warning of a possible bird strike, the transport ministry said. About two minutes after that warning, a pilot sent a distress signal, saying, “Mayday, mayday, mayday, bird strike, bird strike, going around,” the ministry said.
The plane ascended and made a 180-degree before descending from the north side, crash-landing and crashing into the wall at 9:03 a.m., the ministry said.
The official death toll, provided by the National Fire Agency, climbed steadily in the hours after the crash. By nightfall on Sunday, local officials said all but two of the 181 people onboard had died in the crash.
The aircraft’s voice and data recorders, or “black boxes,” were recovered from the wreckage, the Air and Railway Investigation Committee said. The flight data recorder was found partially damaged and the cockpit voice recorder was collected intact, officials said.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday it would send an investigative team — which was to include members from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration — to assist South Korean officials. The results of that investigation will be released by the Republic of Korea’s Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board, or ARAIB.
Efforts were being made to speed up the identifications of the remaining 38 people who died, but some bodies were too damaged for their fingerprints to be used.
Others were the bodies of minors, whose prints were not on file to compare, authorities said. According to the flight manifest, the youngest passenger on board was 3 years old. The manifest recorded five children under 10 years old on the flight.
Jeju Air, which operates an all-Boeing fleet, is a popular low-cost carrier in South Korea. The airline operated about 217 flights a day and carried more than 12 million people during 2023.
More than 68,000 Jeju Air tickets have been canceled since the crash, according to Jeju Air. All will be fully refunded, the airline said.
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Hakyung Kate Lee, Jack Moore, Will Gretsky, Victoria Beaule and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
(SEOUL) — South Korean investigators are seeking an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived imposition of martial law, according to the Yonhap news agency.
A joint investigation team reportedly announced on Monday they sought the warrant on insurrection and abuse of power charges after Yoon ignored three summonses to appear for questioning.
Under South Korea’s constitution, if a sitting president is accused of insurrection, the police have the authority to arrest him while he is still in office.
A court will decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Yoon, which would mark the first presidential arrest in the country’s history.
Yoon declared martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country’s liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government.
The move sparked protests, and hours after the declaration, the National Assembly voted to demand that the president lift the martial law order. A majority of parliament — all 190 members who were present, out of the 300-person body — voted to lift the decree — requiring that it then be lifted, under the South Korean constitution.
Following the National Assembly’s vote, Yoon said he withdrew the troops that had been deployed to carry out martial law and “will lift martial law as soon as we have a quorum in the cabinet.” The State Council then convened to vote to officially lift it.
The country’s Democratic Party called on Yoon to resign following what it called the “fundamentally invalid” declaration of martial law. Without Yoon resigning, the opposition party worked to enact impeachment proceedings against the president.
Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14, when the National Assembly voted for his impeachment in a 204-85 vote.
Earlier this month, however, Yoon vowed to “fight until the last moment” and said that he had never intended to disrupt the “constitutional order” when he ordered hundreds of troops into the National Assembly on Dec. 3.
The public reaction has been complex and varied, reflecting the deep political, social, and generational divides in South Korea. But overall there is a mass consensus that putting the country under martial law was an inexcusable action, no matter what motivated the president to do so.
“It was an unthinkable, unimaginable situation,” Seo Jungkun, a professor at Kyunghee University in Seoul, previously told ABC News. “President Yoon attempted to suspend the functions of the national assembly. He ordered the removal of lawmakers, therefore he could be charged with treason,” Seo explained, referring to a testimony by Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-geun, who oversaw the special forces dispatched to the National Assembly on the night of the martial law declaration.
ABC News’ Joohee Cho and Hakyung Kate Lee contributed to this report.
