Three charged following finding of teen

Three people were arrested after a 15-year-old American girl missing for a year was found locked in a hidden room in a house in Connecticut, US authorities said today.

Police arrested Adam Gault and two women who live in nearby West Hartford, where police found the teenager while serving a search warrant looking for clues to her disappearance.

Gault, 41, and the girl frequently talked before she vanished in June 2006, Bloomfield Police Captain Jeffrey Blatter said.

"There was an inordinate amount of contact via cellular phone and then, during follow ups, there were a lot of other circumstances that led us to believe there was an inappropriate relationship," Blatter said today.

Authorities said the girl, who is not being identified because police are investigating if she was sexually abused, had a history of running away from home.

Gault, Ann Murphy, 40, and Kimberly Cray, 26, were due to appear in Hartford Superior Court today on multiple charges. Each were held on a $1m (€743,122) bond.

Police said today they were trying to determine if the girl was being held against her will and if she wants to go home. The girl was taken for medical and psychological exams, and was in protective custody.

Police already had 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.

Police served a search warrant on Gault's home yesterday morning, seeking a DNA sample and other evidence.

During the search, an investigator discovered a hidden doorway behind a bureau. The locked door led to a tiny room, about 3 feet high and 4 to 5 feet deep, where the girl was found.

"The outcome was phenomenal, and quite unexpected," Blatter told reporters yesterday.

Blatter said it did not appear the girl lived in the hidden room, and that police did not find bedding or other items that would suggest it was used as a living space.

"We have some mixed signals at this point," Blatter said today. "There's some speculation that she actually has been out of the house, possibly out of state a number of times, but it has clearly been a very interesting lifestyle from what we have seen so far, and definitely not very healthy.

Police were unsure how long she had been inside. They said she could not have opened the locked, barricaded door on her own.

The teen had no obvious external injuries. Investigators would not speculate on what she might have experienced during the past year or if she was held against her will.

A 15-year-old boy was also living at the house, though it was not clear whose child he was. The boy's case was referred to the Department of Children and Families, which also will 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 advertising puppies for sale. An empty chain-link dog kennel with two doghouses could be seen in the back yard.

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

Murphy, described by police as Gault's common-law wife, was charged with conspiracy to commit reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit custodial interference and risk of injury to a minor.

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