Summary
American Nightmare and Unbelievable highlight the police’s tendency to accuse victims of lying, ignoring any evidence to the contrary. The police’s failures to investigate properly in both cases allowed the perpetrators to continue their crimes, resulting in a miscarriage of justice. Watching both series reveals that policing has not made much progress in addressing these issues, as officers still rely on flawed theories and fail to communicate between departments.
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for American Nightmare.
Netflix’s American Nightmare serves as a reminder to rewatch Unbelievable – an eerily similar, emotional Netflix miniseries from 2019. Released on January 17, American Nightmare tells the true story of a couple named Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn, who got drugged by an intruder. This man then kidnapped Huskins in a bizarre manner, leading to the police accusing her of faking her disappearance in a Gone Girl-type scenario. The Denise Huskins case has understandably elicited outrage from viewers.
Based on all the information in American Nightmare, the Vallejo Police Department failed miserably in investigating the kidnapping, directly accusing Huskins and Quinn of making up the story during a press conference. This kind of police misconduct isn’t exclusive to American Nightmare and the Huskins case, though. In 2019, Netflix released a miniseries called Unbelievable, based on the true story of an 18-year-old woman named Marie who was raped in 2008 and faced negative consequences after reporting it to the police department. Viewers of American Nightmare may find themselves reeling from the thematic and story similarities when rewatching Unbelievable.
In both Unbelievable and real life, Marie is the mononymous pseudonym of the victim who has chosen not to identify herself publicly.
American Nightmare And Unbelievable Focus On Victims Being Accused Of Lying
Aaron Quinn, Denise Huskins, And Marie Were All Called Liars By The Police
The biggest similarity between American Nightmare and Unbelievable is the focus on the police accusing victims of lying. As shown in American Nightmare, the police suggested to Aaron Quinn that he killed Denise Huskins and lied about the intruder despite the fact that he was threatened and drugged, making him a victim. When they received proof of life, they took the angle that Denise Huskins was a liar and manipulator. When she returned, the police publicly accused her of fabricating a story about the kidnapping and rape. Both these victims should’ve been treated as victims unless evidence shows otherwise.
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The police act very similarly in the case of Marie’s rape, as shown in the Unbelievable adaptation. Marie attempted to report it to the police, and they grilled her, making her repeat the story over and over again. The officers took any small detail that didn’t align as a sign that she was making up the story. This belief ignores the fact that memory is a reconstructive function of the brain that’s heavily influenced by emotions, a presumption of guilt, and other cognitive biases (via Law Enforcement Bulletin). Additionally, memory gets less accurate over time, making discrepancies inevitable.
In both real-life cases, the police threatened to bring charges against the victims. Huskins presumably didn’t get charged because they couldn’t find any proof that she faked the intrusion, kidnapping, and rape. In the case of Marie, the police coerced her into recanting her report, giving them the ammunition to charge her with false reporting. As a result, in one of the most astounding but true parts of Unbelievable, Marie was forced to attend counseling, go on probation, and pay a fine of $500 to make up for the state’s court costs.
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Both Netflix Series Tell A Real-Life Miscarriage Of Justice
The Perpetrators Could’ve Been Caught If The Police Did Their Job
On top of the accusations against victims, there’s another connecting thread between American Nightmare and Unbelievable. In both circumstances, the police’s tunnel vision allowed serial attackers to continue their spree, making for a serious miscarriage of justice. Denise Huskins’ kidnapper and rapist, Matthew Muller, wasn’t found until he tied up another couple and attempted to kidnap their daughter. He’s suspected of numerous other crimes before and after Huskins’ kidnapping. On the other hand, it took three years for Marie’s rapist, Marc O’Leary (called Chris McCarthy in Unbelievable), to get arrested. In that time, he raped at least five other women.
In both cases, the perpetrator could’ve been stopped sooner had the police done their job. Muller said he would call Aaron’s phone and did. Had they listened to the victim, they could have tracked him down, saving Huskins and future victims. In Marie’s case, the police were contacted about a possible connection between the victims in Colorado and Washington but dismissed it since the police deemed the case a false report.
The police retraumatized all the victims because they didn’t understand how trauma impacts the brain and the proper way to speak to someone who experienced a traumatic experience.
What Watching Unbelievable After American Nightmare Reveals
When watching Unbelievable after American Nightmare, two devastating facts become abundantly clear. Firstly, there hasn’t been very much progress in policing over time. Marie was accused of false reporting back in 2008 due to officers getting stuck on a theory instead of properly investigating. By the time Muller kidnapped Huskins in 2015, many societal ideas around victims had changed, which should’ve impacted policing. Yet, the police did a shoddy police investigation, accusing Huskins and Quinn instead of looking at the facts of the case. Moreover, neither set of detectives received any kind of reprimand for their roles in the case.
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Secondly, watching Unbelievable and American Nightmare together proves that police systems, as a whole, are woefully inadequate. In both cases, the attacker committed crimes across multiple jurisdictions, and the police didn’t catch onto the pattern because different departments didn’t communicate with one another. Additionally, the police retraumatized all the victims because they didn’t understand how trauma impacts the brain and the proper way to speak to someone who experienced a traumatic experience. A psychologist would’ve been better equipped to interview both sets of victims about the crimes, not a police officer.
Source: Law Enforcement Bulletin