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Man denies abduction involvement; Newspaper gets emails from 'kidnapper'

The San Francisco Chronicle said it has received emails from someone claiming to be one of the kidnappers of Denise Huskins.

By Doug G. Ware

VALLEJO, Calif., March 26 (UPI) -- The boyfriend of a California woman who claims she was kidnapped earlier this week -- a story police do not believe -- is adamant that he was not at all involved in her disappearance, his lawyers said Thursday.

Denise Huskins, 29, disappeared in the Bay Area city of Vallejo Monday -- triggering a massive police response to find her -- and turned up safe two days later near Los Angeles. She had told police she was abducted from her boyfriend's home, was bound and gagged, and taken by two kidnappers to Southern California.

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The boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, told investigators Huskins was taken from his Vallejo home and her abductors demanded a ransom of $8,500 for her release.

After Huskins turned up safe, police said they believed the entire ordeal to be an orchestrated hoax. Thursday, Quinn attorneys said he was not involved in either a kidnapping or a hoax.

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"Our client has no responsibility for this kidnapping," an attorney said in an ABC News report. "He is in terrible shape -- mental and physical."

"(Quinn) has basically died and gone to hell," Sacramento's KCRA-TV reported attorney Daniel Russo as saying.

Investigators said there are numerous reasons they don't believe a crime has occurred. One, they said, is that officers had a hard time believing some of the details in Quinn's story.

Russo said Huskins' abductors gave a drugged drink to Quinn during the kidnapping, which is why their client didn't contact authorities until hours later. Russo also noted that Quinn has been entirely cooperative with investigators and has submitted DNA and blood samples.

"There is something very, very off about this investigation," attorney Amy Morton, also representing Quinn, said.

Vallejo police Lt. Kenny Park said Wednesday that it is possible Huskins and Quinn could face criminal charges, if the kidnapping is a hoax. The decision to file such charges will be made following the investigation.

"Filing a false police report can result in local charges for doing so, an additional charge of delaying a police officer in his duties, and conspiracy to commit a crime can also be filed," Jennifer Marlatt, of the Huntington Beach Police Department, said in a report by the Orange County Register.

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If they violated the law, police say, perpetrators of the hoax may also be ordered to pay some of the costs of the authorities' large scale search. Vallejo police were joined in the search efforts by Solano County officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Police have said Huskins has yet to give them a detailed account of her ordeal, despite the fact that they arranged to fly her to Northern California to do so.

Huskins' uncle, Jeff Kane, who is an attorney, has criticized police for declaring the kidnapping a hoax.

"She's a good girl, not into any bad things," he said.

In an unusual twist to this story, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday that it has received email correspondence from an anonymous person who claims to be one of the kidnappers. In the message, the Chronicle said, the writer said they want Huskins to be cleared of all suspicion that she orchestrated a hoax.

The Chronicle said it received a different email from the same person on Tuesday. In that communication, the purported kidnapper said Huskins would be released unharmed. The following day, she was.

The Chronicle has been unable to authenticate that the emails were written by someone involved in the case, and it reported that police have not yet commented on the emails.

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