 Mother hears missing daughter's cries coming from abandoned shed. If the movie's rear window or the burbs taught us anything, it's that you never really know what your neighbors are actually about. They may put on a nice pleasant and perfectly normal face in public, but be entirely different in private. We would all like to think that our neighbors are our friends, good and nice people that are going to help and protect us from the real-world elements. But when Gail's 30-year-old daughter went missing in the middle of the night, she had no idea that foul play was involved. She could never expect or thought that someone so close can be so evil. Nobody ever wants to think that the devil is living next door. She ultimately wasn't prepared for what she would uncover as she pressed further in her investigation and tore back the curtains of evil. Gail, who is the mother, lives with her daughter and her grandson in their tiny little house on a relatively quiet street. That evening, Gail went to sleep around 10 or 11 pm in the evening. Gail hadn't seen Jennifer since they went to bed that night and started to become increasingly worried that something was the matter with her. At about 1.30 am, Gail suddenly woke up out of a dead sleep. Gail was hit with a strange feeling, calling a mother's intuition that something was the matter. She got up and checked on her daughter, but she wasn't there. She then checked all the bedrooms, but Emily was nowhere to be found. Now Gail was really starting to get worried. Gail searched the house frantically and began calling Jennifer's phone in hopes she'd answer and say she was staying at a friend's house. It was unlike Jennifer to do that, but she was trying to be optimistic. She checked every room, every bathroom and turned the house upside down. She just couldn't imagine where Jennifer was. She then went outside to check her garage in the backyard and front yard, but still no sign of Jennifer anywhere. Gail's intuition was right. Her daughter simply vanished in the middle of the night and was nowhere to be found. Gail, who at this point was becoming increasingly worried, felt that she needed to call 911. She knew that once she made that call, it would kick off a chain reaction, but she felt it was necessary. She hesitated thinking that maybe Jennifer would show up and she'd look like a crazy mom by calling 911. Gail ended up making the right decision and called 911. She told them that her daughter was missing. The 911 operator told her to calm down and that they'd send the police over right away to her house. She hoped she wasn't wrong, but her mother's intuition kicked in and she knew it was a race against time to find her. Officers were on the scene almost immediately after the call. They quickly worked to calm Gail down and asked her to explain the situation so they could help her find her daughter. Several of them wrote it off as her daughter just not coming home that evening, but with the mother as frantic as she was, they kept an open mind. Gail explained that she'd not seen her daughter since she went to sleep that night. She woke up in the middle of the night and her daughter was nowhere to be found. It was very unlike her daughter to just disappear and she'd never done this before. She wasn't answering her phone or her texts and she knows, she just knows something is wrong. The police checked the neighborhood first, combing the streets and nearby blocks for any sign of Emily. They were unable to find any sign of her and began thinking the worst. By lunchtime the next day, they'd exhausted all possible leads and felt hopeless in finding Emily. At this point, the police felt the best thing to do was to declare her a missing person. Once the police did that, they'd have more resources to help them find her. This is now officially gone from a girl who didn't come home one evening to a true missing person case. Gail decided she wasn't going to sit around and wait while the police waited for reinforcements and felt that they'd go out and search for Emily on her own. After all, it was her daughter and nobody would care to find her as much as she would. Gail Rowe began searching the neighborhood on her own. She couldn't explain it but she had a feeling that Emily was somewhere close. What Gail didn't realize was how close she really was and what she was going to find out about her daughter's sudden disappearance. Eventually, her friend Tracy accompanied her in the search to help and lend support. Tracy felt that her daughter desperately needed her and that she would accompany her on her search for her daughter. Tracy figured they'd just walk around the neighborhood and wait for the police and all their equipment to show up and help. The last thing she believed was that she and Emily's mom would be the ones to break the case wide open. Tracy couldn't have prepared herself enough for what was to come. Gail and Tracy were exhausted after hours of searching and decided it was time to return home to rest up so they could have more energy to search later on that day. They began walking back to Gail's house in a very somber mood. As they were walking and Tracy was consoling Gail, Gail said she heard a scream coming from the direction where her house was. She quickly told Tracy to come over to where she was standing to see if she heard the scream as well. As Tracy stood there with Gail, she didn't hear a thing and told Gail she must be hearing things. Gail insisted that she heard something and told her to just hush and listen. They both stood there in silence listening for a sound. Then as the wind blew and the birds chirped, they heard a faint voice coming from a distance. Tracy couldn't believe what she'd heard as she too now heard what sounded like a scream coming from an abandoned shed right next to Gail's home. They quickly ran over to the shed in a fury. As they approached, Tracy told her to be careful. They didn't know what was going on and who was watching. The desperate mother ran to the shed and began pounding on the side, shouting, Emily, if you're in there, yell again so we know you're in there. We'll get you out. They waited and listened. A few more bangs and Gail began to call out. Emily is that you? Are you in there Emily? Mommy is here to help. After what felt like a lifetime, they heard a faint whine saying, Uh, help. Even if it wasn't Emily, someone needed their help. Gail and Tracy immediately went to the door of the shed to get it open, but it was locked very tight. They kept pounding on the shed and ran around looking for any way possible to get in. The shed was old and beat up, but was locked as if a million dollars was inside. They decided that they could not get into the shed alone and called the officers to come help them. They figured this was a serious situation and it was best that an officer handled from there. Police soon arrived on the scene and found the shed was bolted shut with a padlock. They found this extremely odd given the look of the shed to have been locked so well. They broke out the bolt cutters and got to work. At first the bolt cutters were not working, but finally they were able to get the padlock off and took a look inside the shed. The doors finally swung open to the shed and to everyone's surprise the shed was empty. There was nobody inside and no sign of Emily in the shed at all. The police began to think that Gail might have been hearing things. Gail's friend Tracy told the officers that she heard the screams too and that someone inside the shed was somewhere. The police began searching all over inside the shed. They took everything that was inside the shed out in order to be able to show Gail that there was nothing inside. Emily was nowhere to be seen. One of the officers decided that they should try to rip up the floorboards just so they can show Gail there was nothing in the shed. This wasn't their property but they felt they should do it anyways. The officers tore up the floorboards thinking that perhaps something was hidden under it and at worst they can calm Gail down by now who is completely frantic over the situation. After they ripped up a few boards they saw something very suspicious as if there was a hole in the ground. This didn't look right and the officer called other officers to come have a look. They noticed a large hole dug in the earth and they saw something which looked like a body crawled up inside the hole. The officers identified themselves and slowly reached down. At that point the officers realized there was a person in the hole. They then pulled the 30-year-old Emily from the pit. The officers couldn't believe it. Gail was right. Though it was only about three and a half feet deep and two feet in diameter, it had been covered with boards and heavy objects. A slight woman like Emily would never have been able to shift those objects on her own. Officers immediately began wondering why she was down there. Did someone put her there? What happened that this girl got locked in a shed? Those questions would soon be answered. The officers approached Emily to find out what happened. Emily was completely unable to speak when she was found. She was in shock, almost apoplectic. Thankfully, there were no obvious signs of any sort of physical injury, but whatever he had put her through must have been traumatic. Despite being rescued, Emily was not out of the woods yet. One of the officers observed that her silence and shock might actually be some form of seizure. As it turned out, he was right. Emily had battled seizures nearly all her life. The officers immediately called for an ambulance to take Emily to the hospital. The entire way to the hospital, she was in and out of the seizures. Once at the hospital, the officers desperately wanted to find out what had happened to Emily so they could catch the culprit who had did this to her and bring him to justice. Every time she would wake up from the seizure thing, she would try to run and she's screaming, no, she was terrified, said Gail's friend Tracy. Unfortunately, Emily was not in a position to talk to officers yet. Eventually, Emily made a full recovery and the seizures stopped. At that point, the officers really wanted to speak with her and ask Gail if they could. Once Emily was properly away, she finally told the police who had put her in the pit and caused this all to happen. The police couldn't believe who she fingered as the culprit. Emily told them that her neighbor, Dennis Dunne, was responsible for taking her. The police officers were able to find out that the shed Emily was kept in was owned by Dennis. With this new information at hand, the police headed out to arrest Dennis Dunne. They wanted to know the reason why he kidnapped her, what his plans were, and how did all this happen? Police officers at 8am headed out to arrest the 45-year-old Dennis Dunne. They had to be extra careful as they felt he may be armed and dangerous and must take precaution. According to officers at the scene, he came to the door in a nonchalant manner, acting as if nothing at all was wrong. The officers felt this was very odd behavior. Dennis Dunne's criminal record wasn't exactly squeaky clean. He was arrested for drug possession at three separate incidents in 2007, 2008, and 2009, not to mention a string of traffic-related charges. Yet, these misdemeanors were nothing compared to the escalation he exhibited when taking Emily. How did this man go from a petty criminal into a monster? The local sheriff's office reported a history of incidents involving Dennis Dunne and Emily Elliott. In October 2006, Emily reported to police that her next-door neighbor had been harassing her with phone calls and text messages. At the time, she thought Dennis was just creepy, but harmless and declined to press charges. That would end up being a fateful mistake she made. The abuse continued when he kidnapped her as well. According to Emily, Dunne would alternate between uncharacteristic pleasantries and downright abuse. When he closed the shed, he said, I love you, explained Emily. He would make threats and call me a piece of shit. Dunne's history of mental illness would explain his behavior as well. Several months before the incident, neighbors reported that Dunne was in his yard, screaming and brandishing a pistol. They called 911 and officers arrived on the scene. He was disarmed and taken down without any violence occurring, but was subsequently admitted to Claremont Mercy Hospital for psychological evaluation. It was clear that Dunne was in real need of inpatient mental health, but he was released from the hospital with a clean bill of health after only a short stay. His paranoia worsened after he was released, when he called police four times in a month, claiming intruders were trying to break in. Dennis needed help, but he was unable to get it. Emily No, who identified herself as Dunne's best friend, spoke out about him afterwards. She was shocked and terrified that someone she had known for years was even capable of kidnapping and imprisoning another person. She said he was a good guy. It's just really scary knowing that I've known somebody for five years and wouldn't see something like that. Friends and neighbors couldn't believe that anything like this could happen in their neighborhood. Emily and her family are the sweetest people you'd ever want to meet, said neighbor Lisa Crawford. Lisa continued, I get chills thinking about it. I've got three kids. I can't imagine after his arrest, Dunne's father weighed in. Dunne's elderly father showed up at the scene later that morning to apologize to police for having to deal with his son. He was very apologetic that the whole situation happened. Meanwhile, Dunne was charged with kidnapping and will go before a grand jury. If he's guilty, he could face up to 30 years in prison. I'm just lucky we found her because if we wouldn't have found her, she'd be dead. Gail Rowe said of her daughter when all was said and done. Her determination to find her daughter not only saved Emily's life but her abductors as well. Indeed, if she hadn't found her so quickly, Emily's seizures would have surely resulted in her accidental death and a life sentence or worse for Dennis Dunne.