Missing Conn. girl found in hidden room

AP on Yahoo ^ | 6/6/07 | AP - Beverly Hills

[NormsRevenge]

BLOOMFIELD, Conn. - A 15-year-old girl missing for nearly a year was found Wednesday locked in a small hidden room under the staircase of a West Hartford home, and two people who live there were arrested, police said.

Bloomfield police said they found the girl alive in a room blocked from view by a cabinet. They had gone to the home with West Hartford police to serve search warrants for DNA and other evidence.

Adam Gault, 41, 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. He was being held on $500,000 bond.

Ann Murphy, 40, was charged with conspiracy to commit second-degree reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit second-degree custodial interference and risk of injury to a minor. She was held on $100,000 bond.

Police said they expect to make additional arrests. The girl was in protective custody and being examined by medical personnel.

[SUSSA]

very true

[null and void]

the story is not clear.

Precisely.

[hershey]

We need to micro-chip our children, with GPS capability.

[nyconse]

Generally, a kid that age can choose which parent they wish to live with. There is more to this story.

[Frank_2001]

If that was “second-degree” unlawful restraint, what in the world would they consider “first-degree”?

[metmom]

Agreed. Capturing women and children and using them as sex slaves makes me want to puke. IMO, that warrants the death penalty.

I wonder what led them to the place though. Any clue?

[Joe 6-pack]

That's one hook I'll never bite on. We just need parents who take better care of them, a justice system that gets draconian with those proven to have abused them, and a society that doesn't tolerate them being sucked down a sink.

Microchipping kids only leads to adults who don't mind being microchipped.

[MrEdd]

First degree may be when the kid doesn't want to be there. I don't think we have the whole story on this one.

My hunch is we have a runaway who came back to a non custodial parent when being on her own got too tough.

[montag813]

Death penalty for them both.

If I were the girl's father, I would make sure to arrange just that. If that TV show "Oz" is accurate, it is not difficult to get someone killed in prison.

[montag813]

That poor girl. Only God can heal her.

Only the torturous screams of the perps would heal me, if this were my daughter. Let God deal with them once I end their lives after hours of agony.

[metmom]

No, we don’t.

Stories like this are bad but micro-chipping *for the children* in several years results in an entire population of micro chipped, easily tracked adults who have no say in the matter. It would allow total governmental tracking of everybody, all our freedom would be lost.

If they tried micro-chipping adults now, there would be a big fight because people would recognize it for what it is. But do it *for the children* and the battle is won without complaint. It would just take a little longer, but the result would be the same.

[tsmith130]

John Gibson will be covering this story after the break...

[Mr. K]

"Adam Gault, 41, was charged [...] second-degree custodial interference"

Having been through the ringer with he court system myself I am more than willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt

My idiot ex was a diagnosed psychopath with a 15 year history of child abuse and neglect- the courts own doctor recommended not only should i have sole custody but that mother should not even be allowed overnight visitation... the children were HOSPITALIZED DURING THE TRIAL from her neglect...

end result: NYState Supreme Court Judge John O'Donnell TOOK THEM FROM ME and GAVE THEM TO HER

Trust me - I was willing to go kidnap them and hide out. Then the psycho nutcase got herslef into an accident and took care of the situation for me. Thank GOD the kids were not with her.

[Eva]

Unlawful restraint sounds to minor a charge to indicate any real evil intent. It sounds as though a non-custodial parent restrained the girl from going where she wanted to go, but maybe not with the intent of harming her. It doesn’t indicate that she has been kept in that space under the stairs for any length of time. It doesn’t say unlawful imprisonment or any other kind of abuse. It could be that they hid her there only when they thought that someone was coming to look for her. Maybe she had run away and was living on the streets. Maybe she was doing drugs and was being restrained in order to keep her off the drugs. There just isn’t enough information, and the charges don’t sound like the police have much to charge the people with.

It’s possible that she was already a ward of the state and in a situation that the parent thought was worse than the home that she was removed from. I’ve seen that happen, a thirteen year old girl sent to a foster home with a fourteen year old foster boy, with whom she immediately began a sexual relationship.

[null and void]

We need to micro-chip our children, with GPS capability.

Silly rabbit, chips are for sheep.

[null and void]

You said it better.

[null and void]

Well DUH!

YOU, chum, are a GUY and are therefore INCAPABLE of being a parent.

[Uriah_lost]

Exactly the reason that we should show a little restraint until we have more facts, but when have we let something like facts interfere with a little self-righteous chest pounding around here?

[GOPJ]

Death penalty for them both. I am so sick and tired of these demented creatures hurting children.

You're right. If these two don't get the death penalty, it's time to change the law...

[null and void]

It’s customary to hear the charges before the trial, and it’s also customary to have a trial before turning the case over to the jury, as an aside, most judges will even let the jury decide guilt or innocence before scheduling a double execution...