American Nightmare: What happened to Andrea Roberts?

Following the release of the Netflix true crime documentary American Nightmare, here’s everything you need to know about Andrea Roberts, the ex-girlfriend of Aaron Quinn.

American Nightmare centers on the so-called “Gone Girl kidnapping,” a term used to describe and discredit the experience of Denise Huskins, who was kidnapped from her California home and held hostage for two days in 2015. 

The Vallejo Police Department faced intense scrutiny after the docuseries released in January for how its detectives, including Mat Mustard, handled the investigation. Huskins’ partner, Aaron Quinn, was initially treated as a suspect before the pair were accused of being hoaxers — despite substantial evidence to suggest otherwise. 

One of many odd details include the involvement of Quinn’s ex-fiancée Andrea Roberts, who the kidnapper said was the intended target. Here’s what we know about what happened to her. 

American Nightmare: What happened to Andrea Roberts?

Right now, Andrea Roberts is keeping a low profile, but it’s reported that she’s likely still a physical therapist in California. American Nightmare creators Felicity Morris and Bernadette Higgins explained that they let Andrea know the documentary was being made, but that her connection to authorities was nothing more than a coincidence. 

Andrea came into question after the release of the true crime series after it’s revealed that the kidnapper, Matthew Muller, told Quinn and Huskins that she was the intended target – but we never find out why. 

Before Huskins was returned, police believed Quinn was the perpetrator. While under questioning, he admitted to having relationship issues with Huskins, saying that he also worked as a physical therapist with his ex. Police interrogation footage shows Andrea being questioned by Vallejo PD officers, and when asked about their relationship, she says they “broke up” and that they ended on “very bad terms.”

It’s later revealed that Andrea dated David Sesma, the FBI agent who overtook Huskins’ case and refused to believe the couple’s account of events. “Almost by accident, we find out that the lead case agent, David Sesma, used to date my ex, Andrea, who was the intended target for this whole thing,” says Quinn. 

Defense attorney Doug Rappaport explains: “There’s absolutely no way Sesma should be on this case. It’s a clear, unequivocal, black and white conflict of interest. So I write to the office of Inspector General, explain the situation. Their response: ‘The appropriate authorities found this conduct ‘unproblematic.’”

Speaking to Variety about if they ever asked Andrea to appear on American Nightmare, Higgins says: “We let Andrea know that the series was being made… I think she probably was dragged into it more than she ever wanted to be in the first place. We obviously knew that she had nothing to do with it. It was just a terrible set of coincidences.”

Higgins and Morris agree that while it’s a conflict of interest, “there’s no reason to believe that David or Andrea had anything to do with anything that happened. That was an unfortunate set of coincidences, but nonetheless, there should be a bar when it comes to integrity and that clearly was not reached on many, many occasions during this investigation.”

They were more interested in speaking to the police officers who handled the case. “We reached out to all the police and FBI involved,” adds Higgins. “We would have loved to have interviewed them. 

“There’s a real missed opportunity here for law enforcement to be humble, and admit that they made mistakes and share with us how they’re trying to remedy these kinds of errors so that they don’t happen again. Unfortunately, they didn’t take that opportunity.”

American Nightmare is available to stream on Netflix now. For more true crime, check out all the documentaries heading to streaming this month.