Vallejo kidnapping victim gives TV interview: 'I thought I was walking to my death'

Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn (right) leave a news conference with attorney Doug Rappaport in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016. Huskins and Quinn were victims in the bizarre Vallejo kidnapping case in March 2015. Matthew Muller has pleaded guilty to kidnapping the couple. less Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn (right) leave a news conference with attorney Doug Rappaport in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016. Huskins and Quinn were victims in the bizarre Vallejo kidnapping ... more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 44 Caption Close Vallejo kidnapping victim gives TV interview: 'I thought I was walking to my death' 1 / 44 Back to Gallery

Vallejo kidnapping victim Denise Huskins, who was falsely accused of faking a kidnapping three years ago, spoke Monday in an emotional interview with "Good Morning America."

"I don't know how to describe what it's like to sit back silently and watch the world have a conversation on the most horrific thing that you've lived through," Huskins told ABC News' Amy Robach.

Huskins, 32, was abducted from her now-fiancé Aaron Quinn's apartment in the middle of the night in March 2015. Her captor, a disbarred Harvard University-trained attorney, Matthew Muller, raped her multiple times before releasing her blindfolded from his car two days later outside her family's home in Huntington Beach.

"When he opened the car door, I thought this is it," Huskins said. "Either I'm going to hear a gunshot or get pushed off a cliff... I thought I was walking to my death. And then I heard a door close behind me, and I pulled off the blindfold and I thought, 'Oh, God, he is going to release me.'"

ALSO, Vallejo to pay $2.5 million to 'humiliated couple' accused of hoax in real kidnapping

Quinn was also interviewed, and he talked about how when he initially approached police about his then-girlfriend's abduction, they accused him of carrying out a hoax. Police likened the story to the book "Gone Girl," in which a woman goes missing and then lies about being kidnapped when she reappears.

"Everything was accusatory," Quinn says. "Fairly quickly, the detective said, 'I don't believe you.' And they started saying, 'You killed Denise.' I knew they were going to see me as a suspect. That is actually what they should do. I was the last person to see her. If she didn't get the kidnappers to let her go, I would still be behind bars."

In the interview, Huskins reveals how she had conversations with Muller and tried to convince him to release her.

"My only hope was to maybe show him the human that is in front of him," she said. "He spoke to me a lot. He shared with me that he had a difficult time in his life. I shared with him something that happened when I was younger, hoping that knowing that I'd already been assaulted he wouldn't to add to it."

Huskins and Quinn reached a $2.5 million settlement with the city of Vallejo on Thursday.

Police realized the couple were telling the truth after Muller was implicated in another crime and was tied to the abduction. He pleaded guilty to the kidnapping and is serving a 40-year prison term.

Quinn's mother, Marianne Quinn, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the settlement in the lawsuit was reached.

Vallejo police had apologized after discounting the kidnapping.

Muller used a drone to spy on the couple before he broke into their home with a fake gun, tied them up and made them drink a sleep-inducing liquid, prosecutors said. They were blindfolded while Muller played a recorded message that made it seem as if there was more than one kidnapper.

He put Huskins in the trunk of his car, drove her to his home in South Lake Tahoe and held her there for two days. Investigators said they found videos of Muller arranging cameras in a bedroom and then recording himself twice sexually assaulting his victim.

During and after the kidnapping, Muller used an anonymous email address to send messages to a San Francisco reporter claiming that Huskins was abducted by a team of elite criminals practicing their tactics.

Muller was arrested in an attempted robbery at another Bay Area home. Authorities said they found a cellphone that they traced to Muller, and a subsequent search of a car and home turned up evidence, including a computer Muller stole from Quinn, linking him to the abduction.

Huskins sued police, and a judge ruled last year that the lawsuit could proceed.

"The conduct plaintiffs allege goes beyond defendants being skeptical, investigating alternate theories, and expressing skepticism," U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley wrote in his 22-page decision, adding that, "A reasonable jury could find that defendants engaged in conduct that was extreme and outrageous."