Girl found in hidden room; 3 arrested

2007-06-07 04:24:34

By STEPHANIE REITZ, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 7, 3:24 AM ET

BLOOMFIELD, Conn. - Officers fanned out inside Adam Gault's unkempt home, stepping around piles of debris in their search for clues in the yearlong disappearance of a teenage girl.

Already fearing the worst and with evidence of foul play in hand, one investigator pushed aside a nondescript dresser by the stairway to reveal a small, hidden door. He slid open the lock and peered inside.

"Lieutenant, you better get in here," he called out, incredulous, as a pale 15-year-old wordlessly peered up from the bare floor.

Expecting to leave the house with a DNA swab and perhaps other evidence Wednesday, police instead left with the teenager herself timid, silent and in tears, but alive.

Gault and two others who lived in the house in nearby West Hartford were in custody late Wednesday with bond set at $1 million each. They were scheduled to appear Thursday in Hartford Superior Court on multiple charges.

"The outcome was phenomenal, and quite unexpected," Bloomfield police Capt. Jeffrey Blatter said.

The girl was whisked away for medical and psychological exams, and was in protective custody Wednesday night. Police have not released her identity.

Police described the hidden room as about 3 feet high and 4 to 5 feet deep. They were investigating whether it was built intentionally to confine the girl, who vanished at age 14, or whether it was simply a convenient hiding place that already existed in the home.

The teen had no obvious external injuries. Investigators would not speculate on what she might have experienced during the past year.

"We can all assume a 14-year-old under the influence of a 40-year-old had been harmed in some way," Blatter said.

Gault, 41, was charged with unlawful restraint, reckless endangerment, custodial interference, interfering with an officer, risk of injury to a minor and forgery.

Ann Murphy, 40, 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.

Another resident, 26-year-old Kimberly Cray, was charged with reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit custodial interference, risk of injury to a minor and conspiracy to commit unlawful restraint.

Authorities said the girl had run away from her Bloomfield home several times before vanishing last June.

"She is a child from troubled circumstances and found what she believed to be a friend," Blatter said.

Initially, investigators worried she might have been the victim of a homicide. Blatter said they already had collected "bits and pieces of evidence that suggested foul play," which were the basis for the search warrants.

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 living space.

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

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.

Without a search warrant, investigators never got past Gault's front door until Wednesday morning.

A 15-year-old boy was also living at the house, though it wasn't 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.

Neighbors said Gault and Murphy had lived in the white two-story 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.