NEWINGTON, New Hampshire — A mother’s decision to track her daughter’s phone led police straight to an Olive Garden parking lot — and to one of the most disturbing cases Newington officers say they have encountered in recent memory.
Daniel Ouellet, 47, was arrested on June 6 and is now being held at the Rockingham County Department of Corrections on preventive detention.
How Police Found the Woman
Pennsylvania State Police received a call from a mother who said she had tracked her adult daughter’s phone to an Olive Garden restaurant in Newington, New Hampshire.
She was worried. She asked for a welfare check.
When Newington police arrived around 11:30 a.m., they did not have to look far. The moment the woman inside spotted the police cruisers through the window, she ran out of the restaurant in tears.
Officers noticed she had cigarette burns on her legs.
What the Suspect Told Police
Ouellet was at the scene and immediately began offering explanations.
He referred to the woman as his “wife” and told officers her mother was trying to force her into a religious cult back in Pennsylvania — that was why she was upset, he said.
He identified the supposed cult as the “Stars and the Free Masons.”
He told police he and the woman had married on June 1.
Then he looked at officers and said he was a “really safe guy.”
When told he could not speak to her, Ouellet became noticeably nervous. Police pressed him on why the two had been moving between different locations since the wedding instead of staying at his trailer home. His answers, according to the affidavit, did not add up.
What the Woman Told Police
The woman’s account was completely different.
She told officers that Ouellet had contacted her and threatened to harm her family if she did not travel to New Hampshire to meet him. When she arrived, he pulled out a .45-caliber handgun and told her they were going to the town hall in Lee, New Hampshire, to get married.
If she refused, he told her, “he will make her pay.”
Ouellet also took her phone.
She stayed with him at a campground trailer in Lee until June 5. During that time, she said, he told her that “religious cults were following them” while directing her to drive — with his gun pointed at her from the passenger seat.
They drove to Maine and back before returning to New Hampshire.
On Saturday morning, she told police, Ouellet cut her hand with a box cutter as part of what he described as a “satanic ritual.” Officers later found a copy of the Satanic Bible and other items inside his car.
His Day in Court
When Ouellet appeared via video at his court hearing Monday, he denied the allegations directly.
“If you talk to anybody that knows me, I’m not a physical man,” he told the judge. “I’m very pristine and, you know, forcing her into marriage — that’s completely against my religious belief. I totally believe in free will.”
He was charged with using a deadly weapon to prevent someone from reporting a crime. The woman was granted an emergency protective order against him. Newington police said additional charges are expected to follow.
Ouellet remains in custody at the Rockingham County Department of Corrections. His next court date has not been made public.
Does a case like this change how you think about safety in your own community? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
