BLOOMFIELD, Connecticut — Police looking for clues in the yearlong disappearance of a 15-year-old girl said they found her yesterday, pale but alive, locked in a hidden room in a home owned by an acquaintance of her parents.Bloomfield police went to the home yesterday 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.

Gault 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.

Murphy 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.

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 officer said, "Lieutenant, you better get in here," Blatter said.

The girl was sitting inside a room that was about three feet high and four to five 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.

The boy's case has been referred to the Department of Children and Families, which will also 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 advertised puppies for sale. An empty chain-link dog kennel with two doghouses could be seen in the back yard.