If the movies Rear Window and The Burbs have taught us anything, it’s that you never know what your neighbors really are. They may wear a sweet, polite and simple face in public, but in private they are very different. We all like to think that our neighbors are our friends, that they are wonderful, kind people who will help us and protect us from the “real world” elements.
Gayle, on the other hand, had no idea that her 30-year-old daughter had gone away in the middle of the night. She never imagined or expected someone so close to her to be so nasty. Nobody wants to believe that the “devil” lives down the street. As she pursued her research and tore back the curtains of wickedness, she was unprepared for what she would find…
Gayle, the mother, lives in a posh small house on a somewhat quiet street with her daughter and grandson. Gayle went to bed at ten or eleven o’clock that night. Gayle hadn’t seen Jennifer since they’d gone to bed that night, and she was growing concerned that something was wrong with her.
Gayle abruptly awoke at 1:30 a.m. from a deep slumber. Gayle had an odd sensation, like a mother’s intuition, that something wasn’t right. She woke up and went to check on her kid, but she was nowhere to be found. She then searched all of the bedrooms for Emily, but she was not to be found. Gayle was becoming very concerned.
Gayle frantically searched the house and began phoning Jennifer’s phone in the hopes that she would answer and say she was staying with friends. Jennifer had never done anything like that before, but she was trying to remain hopeful. She went through each room, each bathroom, and turned the house inside out.
She couldn’t figure out where Jennifer was. She then walked outside to search her garage, backyard, and front yard, but Jennifer was nowhere to be seen. Gayle was correct; her daughter had simply vanished in the middle of the night and had not been seen since.
Gayle, who was growing increasingly concerned at this point, felt compelled to dial 911. She was well aware that making that call would set off a sequence of events, but she thought it was important. She paused, fearful that Jennifer might appear and that phoning 911 would make her look like a crazy mother.
Gayle eventually made the correct decision and called 911 to report her daughter missing. The 911 operator urged her to calm down and that the cops would be on their way to her house immediately away. She hoped she wasn’t mistaken, but her mother’s intuition told her it was a race against time to find her.
Officers were on the site nearly instantly after receiving the call. They worked swiftly to calm Gayle down and asked her to explain the issue so they could assist her in finding her kid. Several of them dismissed it as her daughter simply not returning home that evening, but given the mother’s agitation, they kept an open mind.
Gayle revealed that she hadn’t seen her daughter since going to bed earlier that night. Her daughter was nowhere to be found when she awoke in the middle of the night. It was uncharacteristic of her daughter to simply vanish, and she had never done anything like it before. She wasn’t answering her phone or responding to texts, and she sensed something wasn’t right…
The police began their search in the neighborhood, looking for Emily in the streets and surrounding blocks. They couldn’t locate any trace of Emily and began to fear the worst. They had exhausted all potential leads by the next day’s lunchtime and felt hopeless in their search for Jennifer.
The police decided that declaring Jennifer missing was the wisest course of action at this point. The police would then have more resources to assist them in their search for her. This case has officially escalated from a girl who did not return home one evening to a legitimate missing person investigation.
Gayle decided she would not sit around while the police waited for reinforcements, and she would go out on her own to look for Jennifer. After all, it was her kid, and no one cared as much as she did about finding her.
Gayle Rowe went out on her own to look about the neighborhood. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she had a sense Emily was around. What Gayle didn’t realize was how close she was to learn the truth about her daughter’s abrupt abduction….
Her friend Tracy eventually joined her in the search to assist and support her. Tracy thought her friend was in severe need of her assistance and agreed to accompany her on her hunt for her kid.
Tracy assumed they would simply walk around the area, waiting for the cops and their equipment to arrive and assist them. It was the furthest thing from her mind that she and Emily’s mother would be the ones to blow the case wide up. Tracy had done everything she could to prepare herself for what was about to happen…
After hours of hunting, Gayle and Tracy decided it was time to come home and recover so they could search later that day with more energy. They started heading back to Gayle’s house in a solemn tone.
Gayle stated she heard a scream coming from the direction of her house while they were walking and Tracy was consoling her. Tracy was promptly summoned to come over to where she was standing to see whether she had also heard the scream.
Tracy did not hear anything while standing beside Gayle and informed Gayle she must be hearing things. Gayle insisted she had heard something and instructed her to simply hush and listen… They were both silent as they waited for a sound…
Then they heard a faint voice coming from afar as the wind blew and the birds chirped. Tracy couldn’t believe her ears when she heard what sounded like a scream emanating from an abandoned shed not far from Gayle’s house. They both dashed over to the shed in a rage…
Tracy warned Gayle to be cautious as they approached. They had no idea what was inside or who was looking at them. “Jennifer, if you’re in there, peck again so we know you’re in there, we’ll get you out…” the desperate mother yelled as she dashed to the shed.
They sat and listened for a while. “Jennifer, is that you, are you in there Jennifer, Mommy is here to assist,” Gayle said after a few more bangs. They heard a weak weeping whine say, “‘eeeh, heeelp…” after what seemed like an eternity. Someone needed their help, even if it wasn’t Jennifer…
Gayle and Tracy dashed to the shed door to try to unlock it, but it was securely secured. They continued to pound on the shed and ran around it, trying for any way in. The shed was run-down and battered, but it was locked up as if it held a million dollars.
They realized they couldn’t go into the shed by themselves and requested assistance from the authorities. They reasoned that this was a severe problem that should be handled by an officer.
When police got on the site, they discovered the shed was padlocked. They thought it was strange that the shed was so firmly locked, given its appearance.
They pulled the bolt cutters out and went to work, but it was hard work. The bolt cutters were initially ineffective, but they were eventually able to remove the padlock and peer into the shed.
The shed’s doors finally swung open, and to everyone’s amazement, it was empty. There was no one inside, and there was no trace of Jennifer in the shed.
The cops began to suspect Gayle was listening in on the conversation. Tracy, Gayle’s friend, told the officers that she had heard the screams as well, and that there was someone within the shed somewhere.
The cops began searching the inside of the shed. They removed everything from the shed in order to show Gayle that there was nothing there. Emily was not to be found.
One of the officers thought that they should attempt ripping up the floorboards just to show Gayle that there is nothing in this shed at all. Despite the fact that this was not their property, they felt compelled to help.
The officers tore up the floorboards, hoping to find something hidden beneath them and, at the very least, to calm Gayle, who was becoming increasingly agitated by the circumstances.
They saw something weird after ripping up a few boards, as though there was a hole in the earth. This didn’t seem right, so the officer summoned additional officers to investigate.
They spotted a massive hole excavated into the ground and saw what appeared to be a body crawling up inside of it. The cops introduced themselves and reached down carefully…
The officers realized there was a person in the hole at that point. The 30-year-old Jennifer was eventually rescued from the pit. The officers couldn’t believe what they were hearing — Gayle was correct!
It had been covered with boards and heavy things, despite the fact that it was only around 3-and-a-half feet deep and 2 feet in diameter. Emily, being a small woman, would never have been able to move such objects on her own.
Officers were immediately perplexed as to why she was down there. Is it possible that someone placed it there? What happened to this girl that she ended up imprisoned in a shed? These queries would be answered soon…
Jennifer was approached by the officers who wanted to know what had transpired. Jennifer was unable to talk when she was discovered; she was shocked and practically apoplectic.
Thankfully, there was no visible evidence of physical harm, but whatever he had done to her had to have been painful. Jennifer was not yet out of the woods, despite her rescue…
One of the officers speculated that her astonishment and quiet could indicate a seizure. He was correct, as it proved out. He was correct, as it proved out. Jennifer had suffered from seizures for practically her whole childhood.
The officers summoned an ambulance to transport Jennifer to the hospital right away. She was in and out of seizures the entire journey to the hospital.
Once at the hospital, the officers were keen to learn what had happened to Jennifer so they could apprehend the perpetrator and bring him to justice.
“Every time she would wake up from a seizure, she would try to run and cry, ‘No!’…
Gayle’s friend Tracy described her as “terrified.” Jennifer was not yet in a position to speak with officers.
Jen eventually recovered completely and the seizures ended. At that moment, the cops expressed a strong desire to speak with her and asked Gayle if she would allow them to do so.
Jennifer finally told the cops who had put her in the hole and caused all of this to happen after she was safely gone. The cops couldn’t believe who she named as the perpetrator.
Jennifer said that her next-door neighbor, Dennis Dunn, was the one who abducted her. Dennis was the owner of the shed Jen was confined in, according to the police officers.
With this fresh information, the cops set out to apprehend Dennis Dunn. They wanted to know why he abducted her, what his plans were, and how it all went down.
At 8:00 a.m., police officers went out to arrest Dennis Dunn, 45. They had to be extra cautious since they suspected he was armed and dangerous, and they needed to be cautious.
According to officers on the scene, he approached the door with a casual demeanor, as if nothing was wrong. Officers thought this was strange conduct.
Dennis Dunn’s criminal record was far from perfect. In 2007, 2008, and 2009, he was detained three times for narcotics possession, as well as a slew of traffic-related offenses.
These transgressions, however, paled in comparison to the escalation he displayed when he kidnapped Jennifer. How did he go from being a minor criminal to becoming a monster?
Dennis Dunn and Jennifer Elliott have a history of incidents, according to the local sheriff’s office. Emily reported to the police in October 2016 that her next-door neighbor was harassing her with phone calls and text messages.
She didn’t press charges since she thought Dennis was scary but harmless at the time. Jennifer’s decision would prove to be a fatal one.
When he kidnapped her, the abuse continued. Dunn would vary between uncommon politeness and outright insults, according to Emily.
“When he shut the shed door, he said, ‘I love you,’” Jennifer explained. “He would threaten me and call me a ‘piece of s—,” according to Dunn, who has a history of mental illness…
Neighbors said Dunn was screaming and brandishing a firearm in his yard a few months before the incident. Officers were dispatched when they dialed 911.
Without resorting to violence, he was disarmed and talked down, but he was later committed to Clermont Mercy Hospital for a psychological evaluation.
Dunn was clearly in need of inpatient mental health treatment, but he was released from the hospital with a clean mental health record after only a brief stay.
His paranoia intensified after he was released when he claimed intruders were trying to break in four times in a month. Dennis required assistance but was unable to obtain it.
Following the incident, Emily Noe, who represented herself as Dunn’s best friend, spoke out about him. She was astounded and scared to learn that someone she had known for years was capable of kidnapping and imprisoning someone else.
“He was a kind person,” Emily said. It’s absolutely terrifying to think that I’ve known someone for five years and have never seen anything like that…
Friends and neighbors couldn’t believe such a thing could happen in their community. “Jennifer and her family are the finest folks you’ll ever meet,” said Lisa Crawford, a neighbor.
Continued Lista “Thinking about that gives me the goosebumps.” I have three children. “I have no idea.” Dunn’s father weighed in after his imprisonment…”
Later that morning, Dunn’s elderly father arrived at the site to apologize to the officers for having to deal with his son. He apologized profusely for the entire affair.
Dunn, meantime, has been charged with kidnapping and will appear in front of a grand jury. If convicted, he may face a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
When it was all said and done, Gayle Rowe said of her daughter, “I’m just lucky we found her because if we hadn’t discovered her, she’d be dead.” Jennifer’s drive to find her daughter not only saved her own life, but also that of her kidnapper.
Jennifer’s seizures would have almost certainly resulted in her death and a life sentence or worse for Dennis Dunn if she hadn’t found her so fast.
