I'm Rebecca LaVoy, and this is You Can't Make This Up.

You Can't Make This Up is the podcast where we uncover the true stories behind your favorite Netflix documentaries and films.

On today's episode, we take a look back at one of our favorite documentaries from 2024,

the Netflix series American Nightmare.

I believe him and I believe him in my heart, but nobody in fucking North America is going to believe this story.

Today we're talking to filmmakers Felicity Morris and Bernadette Higgins.

When Aaron Quinn reported his girlfriend had been kidnapped in an outrageous home invasion,

police suspected he was covering up a crime.

Then, when Denise Huskins turned up at her parents' doorstep days later, telling an even

more elaborate tale about her abduction, they accused the couple of creating a hoax, one straight out

of Hollywood. But miles away, a detective investigating an unrelated case discovered a single

strand of hair that will tie the sensational cases together. In American nightmare,

Denise and Aaron tell the story of the crime they suffered, the humiliation they endured,

and their quest for justice. It unravels the consequences of our cultural rush to judgment,

and what happens when law enforcement decides the truth can't possibly be true.

There has not been one discrepancy in her story.

How can you possibly believe she's lying?

And he says to me, haven't you seen the movie Gone Girl?

I don't know. girl. And I'm joined by filmmakers Felicity Morris and Bernadette Higgins. Welcome to You Can't Make This Up. Thank you. Thank you. So you have extensive interviews with Aaron Quinn and Denise Huskins about their experience in this story. I'm curious. How did you convince them to participate? Were they initially reluctant or were they excited to tell their story? Felicity?

I think that, you know, Denise and Aaron had written a book in the years after all of this happened. And so, you know,

they've always been very keen for their story to be told, for what they experienced at the

hands of the Vallejo police to be out there in the world. And so when Raw, the production company that we were working for,

...