A New Hampshire man is behind bars after a Pennsylvania mother tracked her daughter’s phone to an Olive Garden, leading police to uncover allegations of a forced marriage at gunpoint and a knife attack.
Daniel Ouellet, 47, was arrested on June 6 and is currently being held on preventive detention at the Rockingham County Department of Corrections. The investigation began when Pennsylvania State Police contacted the Newington Police Department to request a welfare check. A woman had called them to report that she tracked her daughter’s phone to the restaurant in Newington.
According to WMUR, when local officers arrived at the Olive Garden around 11:30 a.m., they said the woman saw their cruisers and immediately ran out of the building crying. Police noted that she had cigarette burns on her legs.
Ouellet initially offered a vastly different explanation for the situation. He referred to the woman as his “wife” and claimed they had been married on June 1. According to the police affidavit, Ouellet told officers the woman was crying because “her mother was attempting to force her to join a religious cult back in Pennsylvania, and she was fed up with dealing with it.”
Identifying the cult as the “Stars and the Free Masons,” Ouellet insisted to officers that he was a “really safe guy.” However, police noted that he became nervous when told he was not allowed to speak to the woman. When pressed on why the couple had been staying in various places rather than at his trailer home, Ouellet provided conflicting answers.
Investigators soon interviewed the woman, who laid out a harrowing timeline. She told police Ouellet had threatened to harm her family if she did not travel to New Hampshire to meet him. Upon her arrival, she said he pulled out a .45-caliber handgun and announced they were going to the town hall in Lee, New Hampshire, to be married. She told officers he warned that “he will make her pay” if she refused.
Ouellet allegedly confiscated her phone and kept her at his campground trailer in Lee until June 5. On that day, the woman said she drove them around, crossing into Maine, while Ouellet sat in the passenger seat pointing his gun at her. He allegedly claimed that “the religious cults were following them.” The woman told police that on Saturday morning, Ouellet sliced her hand open with a box cutter to perform a “satanic ritual.”
During a search of Ouellet’s car, police found a copy of the Satanic Bible along with other items. He was taken into custody at the Olive Garden parking lot and charged with using a deadly weapon to prevent someone from reporting a crime. Newington police noted that additional charges are likely. The woman requested and was granted an emergency protective order.
Ouellet made a video appearance in court on Monday, denying the allegations to the judge.
“If you talk to anybody that knows me, I’m not a physical man,” Ouellet said during the hearing. “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.”
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