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Missing Vallejo woman found safe: ‘Everyone’ is a person of interest

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Investigators in Vallejo are traveling to interview a woman who was reportedly kidnapped from her boyfriend’s home, held for ransom, then found safe Wednesday, 420 miles south in Huntington Beach, authorities said.

Denise Huskins, 29, was found in “good condition” at a relative’s house, said Huntington Beach police Officer Jennifer Marlatt.

UPDATE: Woman who police say faked her kidnapping is missing again

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Vallejo police said Wednesday afternoon that they are continuing to investigate the case as a kidnap-for-ransom.

“We’re confident we’re going to be able to piece this puzzle together and get a better picture of what really occurred once we speak to Ms. Huskins,” Vallejo Police Department spokesman Lt. Kenny Park said.

“There’s nobody that’s a person of interest at this point. Everyone is.”

Huskins told her father by a voicemail left Wednesday morning that she was at her mother’s house in Huntington Beach and walking to her uncle’s house nearby.

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The message, according to Huskins’ cousin Amy Mattison, said: “Daddy, I’m OK. They dropped me off at mom’s house but she’s not there so I’m walking to your house right now.”

Mike Huskins contacted family members in Huntington Beach, who were on the way to his apartment. Meanwhile, another tenant in the building called Mike Huskins to report that she was with him.

The neighbor told the woman’s father, “I’ve got her, I’m calling 9-1-1,” Mattison said.

Later Wednesday, the San Francisco Chronicle released an audio recording of a woman identifying herself as Denise Huskins who said she had been abducted.

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“My name is Denise Huskins and I’m kidnapped, otherwise I’m fine,” the woman says calmly on the recording, which the Chronicle obtained Tuesday.

The woman establishes a time frame in the recording by referring to the deadly Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps. She also provides personal details about herself and talks about the first concert she attended.

Her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, told police that Huskins was kidnapped early Monday and a ransom demand was communicated during the abduction, authorities said.

Huskins was allegedly abducted sometime between midnight and 5 a.m., but Quinn didn’t contact police until almost 2 p.m. He has not been identified as a suspect -- only as a victim and a witness to the incident, Park said.

Quinn, 30, told police he saw her “forcibly taken against her will” from his home, Vallejo police said. A car registered in Quinn’s name was also taken from the home and later found elsewhere in the city.

Quinn and Huskins are physical therapists at Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center. Huskins’ father said the pair met about seven months ago. Huskins had been living on her own in Vallejo for the last year, police said.

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Times staff writer Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.

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