BLOOMFIELD, Connecticut — Police say the man charged in the disappearance of a teenage girl found hidden in his home this week may have had an inappropriate relationship with her and other girls.Other girls may have experienced “something very similar to what’s going on right now with this young girl” who was found Wednesday, West Hartford police Capt. Lori Coppinger said yesterday.

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

Authorities said the girl, who vanished last June, had a history of running away from home. The Associated Press is not identifying her because police are investigating if she was sexually abused.

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. “There are obviously greater suspicions that are being pursued.”

Gault, a dog trainer, was arrested with two women who lived in the house. They were being held on $1 million bond each pending a hearing. It was unclear if Gault had a lawyer.

Gault 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.

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

“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 three feet high and four to five 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 CNN yesterday. “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.

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.

A 15-year-old boy was also living at the house, though it was not 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.

Neighbours said Gault and Murphy had lived in the white two-story house for five or six years, posting signs in the yard advertising puppies for sale. An empty chain-link dog kennel with two doghouses could be seen in the back yard.