More Girls Involved In Hidden Teen Case?

Other girls may have experienced "something very similar to what's going on right now with this young girl" who vanished a year ago and was found hidden in a room in a Connecticut home Wednesday, West Hartford police Capt. Lori Coppinger said.

Police said Adam Gault, 41, was associated with at least two or three other girls before police found the 15-year-old Wednesday.

Authorities were investigating whether Gault had inappropriate relations with any of the girls.

The cases involving the other girls have not been prosecuted because the frightened girls were reluctant to give statements necessary to pursue the cases. Police said they will be interviewed and additional charges may be filed against Gault.

"The case is definitely ongoing," Bloomfield Police Capt. Jeffrey Blatter said Thursday. "There are obviously greater suspicions that are being pursued."

The girl assumed a new identity that made her part of his family, authorities said Thursday.

Gault, a dog trainer, was arrested Wednesday with two women who lived in the house, 40-year-old Ann Murphy and Kimberly Cray, 26. The three were arraigned Thursday, charged with conspiracy to commit unlawful restraint, conspiracy to commit risk of injury to a minor and interfering with police.

Gault's bond was set at $1 million. Murphy, who police described as Gault's common-law wife, was held on $750,000 bond. Cray's bond was set at $500,000. It was unclear if Gault had a lawyer.

Gault had been a person of interest for some time in this case, reports CBS News' Alison Harmelin. But it took police some time to get the search warrant needed to get inside his home — and when they did, what they found was not what they expected: a missing 15-year-old girl locked in a hidden closet-like room in his house.

Investigators believe the girl sometimes traveled out of state and assumed a new identity while living with Gault, of nearby West Hartford, Blatter said.

"She was compelled to use a new name, to assume a new identity," Blatter told The Associated Press. "She did assume a name that would suggest she was part of that family."

The news media, including CBS and CBSNews.com, are not identifying the girl because police are investigating if she was sexually abused. Authorities did not say how she altered her name.

Authorities said the girl, who vanished last June, had a history of running away from home.

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.

Blatter said the girl remained in protective custody Thursday so investigators could continue talking with her.

"In reality, even in the best of circumstances it might not be in the child's best interest to go back immediately to their family," he said.

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.

Cell phone records showed that Gault and the teen talked often before she vanished, Blatter told a television interviewer.

"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 Wednesday morning, seeking a DNA sample and other evidence.

The girl was held in a locked tiny room, about 3 feet high and 4 to 5 feet deep. The doorway was hidden by a bureau.

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.

"We have some mixed signals at this point," Blatter told a television network Thursday. "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.

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.

"It's scary, it's scary, really scary, knowing this is so close. You don't think it happens in your neighborhood," neighbor Louise White told CBS News.