Vallejo police Lt. Kenny Park said late Wednesday that investigators now believe the reported abduction early Monday of Denise Huskins — who later was found safe more than 400 miles away in Huntington Beach — was a hoax that forced rescue agencies to expend valuable resources.

But Huskins’s boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, has hired Vallejo criminal attorneys Amy Morton and Dan Russo, who asserted their client “is not involved in any form of a ‘hoax.'”

Russo said Thursday that Quinn was bound and forced to drink something by at least two kidnappers who broke into his home in the 500 block of Kirkland Avenue, Vallejo, then abducted Huskins. That’s why Quinn didn’t report the crime until 1:55 p.m., about 10 hours after it happened, Russo told reporters.

He said police questioned Quinn for 17 hours, and that he gave them a blood sample, his cell phone and permission to search his home. While the attorneys denied the incident is a hoax, Russo admitted, “The details of this abduction are absolutely bizarre.”

Quinn’s lawyers are certified by the California State Bar as criminal attorneys. In 2013, Morton represented Kimble Goodman, the former treasurer of the Benicia Old Town Theatre Group who has been accused of embezzling the performance company’s funds; Goodman has since changed attorneys several times and currently is represented by a Solano County public defender.

Russo and Morton released a news statement Thursday, saying they sought to “dispel the misinformation that has been widely reported to date. It is our intent to set the record straight about the terrible events that took place on Monday, March 23.”

The statement continued that “there should continue to be concern until law enforcement has finalized a full and thorough investigation leading to the arrest and conviction of those personally responsible.”

But Vallejo police were just as insistent.

“This event appears to be an orchestrated event and not a kidnapping,” Lt. Park said late Wednesday. “There is no indication that this was a random act of violence.”

He said Huskins, 29, her family and Quinn, with whom she was staying and with whom she worked at Kaiser Permanente, had stopped talking to investigators hours after she was described as safe after being dropped off in Huntington Beach blocks away from her father’s home.

The woman, who had been living in Vallejo since last June, had been the subject of a massive hunt that included more than 40 detectives and 100 other searchers and multiple law enforcement agencies at local, state and federal levels, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Park said.

At one point, divers were deployed to investigate an object about the size of an adult human seen in the waters off the Mare Island shoreline in Vallejo. Nothing suspicious was found.

Once the abduction for $8,500 ransom was announced, Huskins’s family raced to Vallejo. On Tuesday the San Francisco Chronicle released a recording linked to an email, in which a woman said she was Huskins and that she was kidnapped but OK. Her father, Mike Huskins, confirmed the voice was that of his daughter.

Wednesday morning, Mike Huskins said he received a voicemail message from her that she had been dropped off near his home in Huntington Beach, her former home town. Huntington Beach police officers raced to the scene around 10:30 a.m., Park said, and found Huskins safe.

By late Wednesday, Park said Vallejo police no longer believed Huskins had been kidnapped.

“Today, there is no evidence to support the claims that this was a stranger abduction or an abduction at all,” he said Wednesday night.

He said one of the turning points was when Vallejo police sought to bring Huskins back to Northern California.

“There was some initial indication that she would be cooperative and speak with investigators from the Vallejo Police Department,” Park said. “Through family members, Ms. Huskins promised to meet with Vallejo police detectives and provide additional details.”

Vallejo detectives and the FBI arranged transportation to fly Huskins to Northern California for an interview, Park said, but then authorities lost contact with the family. The woman didn’t show for the flight, developments Park called “disheartening” and “disappointing.” They also learned Huskins had hired an attorney.

An uncle, Jeff Kane, who spoke to other news outlets, disputed the police version of the story and said of Huskins, “She needed to decompress” from an experience he said was “more horrific than anyone is imagining.”

But Park said investigators were never able to substantiate Quinn’s statements, and that by late Wednesday Huskins, her family and Quinn had broken off contact with police.

“As of this moment, detectives have been unable to contact either Ms. Huskins or family members,” Park said. “Ms. Huskins has since retained an attorney, and detectives are unaware of her location.”

Meanwhile, the FBI is examining financial records of both Quinn and Huskins. One FBI spokesperson, Gina Swankie, said the FBI knows Huskins is no longer in Southern California, but would not disclose the woman’s location.

Park has called the search for a supposedly kidnapped Huskins “a wild goose chase” that squandered valuable resources and created unnecessary fear among neighbors.

He promised that if evidence shows Huskins and Quinn committed a criminal act, Vallejo police will pursue state or federal charges.

“If anything, it’s Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins that owe this community an apology,” he said.

In a related matter, thieves broke into a Solano County Salvation Army support vehicle being used Tuesday night during the search for Huskins. Several pieces of valuable electronic equipment were stolen, Salvation Army Capt.Jonathan Harvey said.

The vehicle took several months to purchase and equip, using donations, bequeaths and other contributions, Harvey said.
> He said it was deployed just this week to help feed those searching for Huskins, and had been stationed at Kroc Center, Suisun City, when thieves broke in and took a laptop, copier-printer, monitor and wireless communication equipment.