US: Missing girl found in hidden room

Police investigating the year-long disappearance of a 15-year-old American girl said they found her yesterday, pale but alive, locked in a hidden room in a home in Connecticut owned by an acquaintance of her parents.

Bloomfield police went to the home in West Hartford to serve search warrants for DNA and other evidence and found the girl locked inside a tiny room hidden underneath a staircase and blocked from view by a dresser.

Authorities did not identify the girl, but said she had sometimes run away from home before she vanished last June.

“She is a child from troubled circumstances and found what she believed to be a friend,” Bloomfield Police Captain Jeffrey Blatter said.

Police arrested Adam Gault, 41, an animal trainer from West Hartford, and 40-year-old Ann Murphy, described by police as Gault’s common-law wife.

Police said they also arrested a third person who lived in the house, but no other details were available.

Gault was charged with second-degree unlawful restraint, second-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree custodial interference, interfering with an officer, risk of injury to a minor and second-degree forgery.

Murphy was charged with conspiracy to commit second-degree reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit second-degree custodial interference and risk of injury to a minor.

It did not appear the girl had been living in the room, but she could not have got out on her own, Blatter said. It was not clear how long she had been inside.

Blatter said the girl was pale and was being examined by medical personnel.

“We can all assume that a 14-year-old under the influence of a 40-year-old has been harmed in some way,” he said.

West Hartford Police Captain Lori Coppinger said the girl was scared and timid, crying quietly as she left the house.

An officer found her when he slid the dresser back to reveal a locked door.

The officer said, “Lieutenant, you better get in here,” Blatter said.

The girl was sitting inside a room that was about 3 feet (less than one metre) high and 4 to 5 feet 4 (1.2 to 1.5 metres) deep. Police said they did not find bedding inside.

Other people were living in the house, including a 15-year-old boy, though it was not clear whose child he was.

The boy’s case has been referred to the Department of Children and Families, which will also decide if the missing girl should be returned to her parents.

Neighbours said Gault and Murphy had lived in the white two-storey house for five or six years, posting signs in the yard advertised puppies for sale.

An empty chain-link dog kennel with two doghouses could be seen in the back yard.

Another woman who lived in the home, 26-year-old Kimberly Cray, was also arrested.

Cray was charged with reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit custodial interference, risk of injury to a minor and conspiracy to commit unlawful restraint, police said.

All three were in custody last night and are scheduled to appear in Hartford Superior Court today.

Investigators said she was pale and may have been indoors for some time, and that they found nothing to indicate anyone in the area had seen her outside.

Her parents had not seen or heard anything from her during the year she was missing.

The girl was in protective custody last night and was undergoing medical and psychological examinations.

Police had already established that Gault knew the girl, and said he and the girl’s parents had some sort of undisclosed business transaction in the year before she disappeared.

Officers had questioned Gault several times, but he always denied any involvement in her disappearance.

Without a search warrant, investigators never got past Gault’s front door - until yesterday morning.