Missing girl found hidden under staircase

A 15-year-old girl who had been missing for nearly a year was found
Wednesday, locked in a small hidden room under a staircase in a West
Hartford, Connecticut, home, police said.

The discovery was
unexpected, but "of great relief to investigators, who feared the worst
based on the evidence compiled to date," Capt. Jeffrey L. Blatter of
the Bloomfield, Connecticut, Police Department said in a written
statement.

At an afternoon news conference, Blatter refused to identify the girl, who he said had been missing since June 16, 2006.