Police link captor to other girls

Police said Adam Gault, 41, was associated with at least two or three other girls before police earlier this week served a search warrant and found the missing 15-year-old locked in a hidden room in his house.

Other girls may have experienced "something very similar", said West Hartford police captain Lori Coppinger.

The girl, who vanished last June and is not being named while authorities investigate any sexual abuse, had a history of running away from home.

"There are obviously greater suspicions that are being pursued," said Bloomfield police captain Jeffrey Blatter.

Gault, a dog trainer, was arrested with two women who lived in the house. They were being held on 500,000 bail bonds yesterday. He 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.

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

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

Mobile-phone records showed that Gault and the teenager talked often before she vanished, Capt 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," he said.

Officers had questioned Gault several times, but he always denied any involvement in her disappearance. They served a search warrant on his home on Wednesday morning, seeking a DNA sample and other evidence.

"We have some mixed signals at this point," Capt Blatter said. "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."