Inset: Daniel Ouellet at his first court appearance on June 8 (WMUR). Background: News footage of the Olive Garden in Newington, N.H. (WMUR).
A New Hampshire man was arrested after police were alerted to a woman being held against her will at an Olive Garden parking lot.
Daniel Ouellet, 47, is currently behind bars at the Rockingham County Department of Corrections, where he is being held following his arrest on June 6. According to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime, Ouellet was taken into custody by the Newington Police Department after authorities were alerted about a woman who claimed she was being held against her will.
Police said the case started when Pennsylvania State Police were contacted by a woman who said she tracked her daughter”s phone to an Olive Garden restaurant in Newington, New Hampshire.
Pennsylvania authorities requested a welfare check on the woman, who was inside the Olive Garden when Newington police officers arrived around 11:30 a.m. Police said that when the woman saw the police cruisers, she ran out of the restaurant crying and had cigarette burns on her legs.
According to the affidavit, Ouellet referred to the woman as his “wife” and told police that “her mother was attempting to force her to join a religious cult back in Pennsylvania, and she was fed up with dealing with it.” This was why she was crying, he told police. After telling police he was a “really safe guy,” he named the “cult” as the “Stars and the Free Masons.” He told police that he and the woman had gotten married on June 1.
Police said that when Ouellet was told he could not speak to his “wife,” he became “nervous.” Officers pressed him about why they had been staying in various locations since their marriage and not in his trailer home, and Ouellet reportedly provided inconsistent explanations.
When police spoke to the woman, she had a very different account of what was happening. According to police, the woman said Ouellet reached out to her and threatened to harm her family if she did not come to New Hampshire to meet with him. When she arrived, Ouellet produced a .45-caliber handgun and told her that they were going to the town hall in Lee, New Hampshire, to get married. If she did not marry him, he said “he will make her pay.” Ouellet also allegedly took the woman’s phone. She said she stayed with Ouellet in his trailer at a campground in Lee until June 5.
According to the affidavit, Ouellet told the woman that “the religious cults were following them” while she drove them around on June 5, including to Maine, as he pointed his gun at her from the passenger seat. They eventually ended up back in New Hampshire. On Saturday morning, the woman said, Ouellet sliced her hand with a box cutter as part of a “satanic ritual.”
Police said they found a copy of the Satanic Bible and other items in Ouellet’s car. He was arrested at the Olive Garden on June 6 and charged with using a deadly weapon to prevent someone from reporting a crime. The woman also told police she wanted an emergency protective order against Ouellet, which was granted. Newington police said additional charges would likely be filed.
When Ouellet appeared via video in court on Monday, he told the judge, “If you talk to anybody that knows me, I’m not a physical man.” He added, “I’m very pristine and, you know, forcing her into marriage, that’s completely against my religious belief. I totally believe in free will, and I have never been aggressive with her in ways that were described on that paper.”
Ouellet is being held at the Rockingham County Department of Corrections on preventive detention. His next court date was not publicly available.
