Bloomfield, Conn. – Police looking for clues in the year-long disappearance of a 15-year-old girl said they found her Wednesday, pale but alive, locked in a hidden room in a home owned by an acquaintance of her parents.
Bloomfield police went to the home Wednesday in nearby 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 Capt. 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.
It did not appear the girl had been living in the room, but she could not have gotten out on her own, Blatter said. It was not clear how long she had been inside.
West Hartford police Capt. 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 girl was sitting inside a room that was about 3 feet high and 4 to 5 feet deep. Police said they did not find bedding inside.
Other people were living in the house, including a 15-year- old boy, though it wasn’t clear whose child he was.
