BLOOMFIELD, Conn. -- Investigators revealed more information Thursday about the investigation into the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl and what led them to three suspects.

Bloomfield and West Hartford police executed search warrants at 258 Newington Road on Wednesday morning when they found the girl, identified as Danielle Erica Cramer, 15, of Bloomfield, who disappeared on June 14, 2006.

Police arrested three adults when they found the teen locked in a small, hidden room in a West Hartford House.

Investigators said it took a year for them to gain access to search the West Hartford home because they didn't have the evidence to support their hunch.

"Eventually, with some luck, some hard work, we did obtain enough information that a judge felt we had sufficient cause to get his DNA and complete a cursory search of the house," Blatter told Eyewitness News shortly before the news conference.

A police report released in court Thursday morning detailed how police found Danielle in a small space under a staircase that was blocked by furniture.

"The dresser was cluttered with debris and had numerous items of clothing and boxes piled up against it as well as on top of it," a portion of the police report reads.

For the past year, Danielle had anything but a normal life, living in a home that the police report describes as "filthy and unkept. Its rooms were filled with trash, debris and scattered clothing. It had a foul odor, which was magnified by the fact that all of the homes and windows and doors appeared to have been covered and, generally, kept closed."

Charges against Adam Gault, 41, Ann Murphy, 40, and Katherine Cray, 26, were upgraded on Thursday to first-degree conspiracy to commit unlawful restraint, conspiracy to commit risk of injury to a minor and interfering with police.

Police Say Danielle Taken For Trips

Bloomfield police Capt. Jeff Blatter said Danielle was not kept in the house for the full year during her disappearance, and that she was compelled to assume a new identity.

"The dynamics of the relationship of all the people in the house is unclear, to say the least," Blatter said.

"An adult who takes a young child in his home and keeps her for a year, we know what we're dealing with here," said an attorney representing Danielle's family.

At the news conference Thursday, police said Danielle was not held against her will and that she was taken on trips out of state on multiple occasions. Police would not specify where they went and continue to investigate.

The FBI is assisting in the investigation, looking into the interstate travel. Blatter said investigators are looking into a number of complaints generated within Connecticut without.

"She was with Mr. Gault during those out-of-state leaves," Blatter said.

Blatter said police have conducted surveillance on the residence over a year, in addition to asking neighbors if they saw children and asking questions at area schools.

"No one had any information that that child was in the house," Blatter said.

Though she was free to leave, police said Danielle may have been brainwashed.

"We have to remember that what a 14-year-old says is voluntary may not be voluntary," Blatter said.

"Some of you out there are old enough to remember Patty Hearst. There may be similarities in this case and that's being reviewed at this point," said Hesse family attorney Marc Needelman, referring to the young heiress who was kidnapped in 1970s and believed to be brainwashed to commit armed robbery.

Danielle's Parents Speak Out

The parents, Jennifer and Jamie Hesse, who police said investigators are not considering as suspects in Danielle's disappearance, shared the podium on Thursday with police at the beginning of the news conference before leaving to see their daughter. To read more about what the parents had to say, click here.

"There have been no allegations that the parents have sexually abused their children," Blatter said. "There was an allegation that a family friend may have abused the victim, may have threatened the victim over a year ago, but there was insufficient evidence to support it as accurate. There are no facts that she was abused at home."

Police said they never imagined they would find Danielle alive.

"You thought she was dead?" Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Kara Sundlun asked Blatter.

"Absolutely," Blatter said.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Danielle represents the 12th child out of 340 missing child cold cases nationwide in which the child was found alive.

Click here to e-mail news tips to Eyewitness News, or dial: 860-244-1700. Refresh WFSB.com often and Channel 3 Eyewitness News for the latest news updates.