Amid kidnapping investigation, anonymous emails threaten police

Emails to the San Francisco Chronicle sent anonymously from those identifying themselves as the abductors of Denise Huskins suggested Vallejo police could come to harm if the department didn’t issue an apology by noon Tuesday for calling her reported abduction “an orchestrated event” and not a kidnapping.

But neither Vallejo police spokesperson Lt. Kenny Park nor the department in general offered to take back the description Park offered last week of the strange case.

“I’m sorry but we’re not commenting on this case as the matter is still under investigation,” Park said Tuesday after the deadline passed.

“We will not be updating for the forseeable future until this matter is concluded.”

Huskins, 29, was reportedly forcibly abducted early in the morning March 23 from the home in the 500 block of Kirkland Avenue on Mare Island, Vallejo, that she shared with her boyfriend and Kaiser Permanente coworker, Aaron Quinn, 30.

Quinn’s car also was taken, but was found later in Vallejo.

Through his attorney, Dan Russo, Quinn said he had been bound and given a drugged liquid which prevented him from reporting the abduction until shortly before 2 p.m. that afternoon. The kidnappers told him they wanted $8,500 in ransom, the attorney said.

About 40 investigators and 100 others searched for Huskins, and her family traveled to Vallejo from Huntington Beach when they learned about the case.

Soon after, an email was sent to the San Francisco Chronicle containing a link to a voice recording Huskins’s father said was his daughter’s voice. In the message she said she had been kidnapped, but was all right.

Then, on the morning of March 25, Huskins called her father, saying she had been dropped off in Huntington Beach, not far from his home.

But when the Federal Bureau of Investigation arranged a flight to transport Huskins back to Vallejo and went to pick her up, the woman was gone.

Vallejo police said Huskins and her family, and Quinn as well, had broken off contact with investigators.

Huskins hired her own attorney, Doug Rappaport of San Francisco, and returned Thursday to speak with authorities.

Rappaport said his client had been “the victim of a very serious assault,” and both he and Russo denied their clients were involved in any hoax.

Neither attorney responded by press time to requests for additional information.

Meanwhile, both the Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times received emails from those who described themselves as Huskins’s abductors.

Among those sent to the Chronicle was one that demanded Vallejo police apologize by noon Tuesday for saying the kidnapping was a hoax or “I/we may be the direct agent of harm.”

Both the Chronicle and the Times received lengthy emails of 15 to 19 pages each in which details of the break-in were described, from drilling holes in Quinn’s home to using laser pointers taped to toy guns and strobing flashlights during the abduction.

The emails said the perpetrators put headphones and played soothing music to keep Huskins and Quinn calm before they put Huskins in the trunk of Quinn’s car and drove away.

The emails indicated the incident was a case of mistaken identity and a preparatory event for larger kidnappings by a trio of core members that described itself as “gentlemen criminals” comparable to the fictitious caper-pulling band depicted in the “Ocean’s Eleven” movies.

The messages explained the low ransom amount, saying that the perpetrators wanted to keep it below $10,000, a withdrawal amount that requires federal notification.