A Pennsylvania mother traced her daughter to a New Hampshire restaurant before officers arrived for a welfare check.

NEWINGTON, N.H. — A mother who tracked her daughter’s phone to an Olive Garden helped police find a crying and injured woman who said a man had threatened her family, forced her into marriage and held her at gunpoint for several days.

The June 6 encounter brought Daniel Ouellet, 47, into custody and opened an investigation that crossed state and town lines. Police said the woman’s account included threats in Pennsylvania, a marriage ceremony in Lee, travel through Maine and an injury inflicted hours before officers reached the restaurant. Ouellet denied forcing her to marry him during his first court appearance.

The case began to break open from hundreds of miles away. The woman’s mother contacted Pennsylvania State Police after becoming concerned about her daughter and locating her phone at the Olive Garden in Newington, according to police and court records. Pennsylvania authorities then asked Newington police to conduct a welfare check. Officers reached the restaurant shortly before 11:30 a.m. June 6. The location sits in Newington’s heavily traveled commercial district, where restaurants, shopping centers and major roads draw far more people each day than the town’s small resident population. Police cruisers arriving there would have been visible amid the regular Saturday traffic. When the woman saw them, she ran from the restaurant in tears. Officers reported seeing what appeared to be cigarette burns on her legs. She asked for an emergency protective order against Ouellet, police said, and the order was granted.

Ouellet initially described the woman as his wife and offered officers a different explanation for her distress. He said her mother was trying to force her into a religious cult in Pennsylvania and that she was tired of dealing with the dispute, according to an arrest affidavit. He identified the supposed group as “the Stars and the Free Masons” and told police that he and the woman had married June 1. Ouellet also described himself as a “really safe guy.” Police said his manner changed when they told him he could not speak with the woman while they investigated. He became nervous, the affidavit said, and gave inconsistent answers about why the pair had stayed in several places instead of remaining at his trailer in Lee. Officers separated the two so they could compare their statements without allowing either account to shape the other.

The woman told police that Ouellet had contacted her more than a week earlier and threatened to travel to Pennsylvania and hurt her family unless she came to New Hampshire. Authorities have not publicly explained how the two knew each other or why Ouellet contacted her. After she arrived in New England, she said, he displayed a .45-caliber handgun and told her they were going to Lee Town Hall to get married. She said he warned that he would “make her pay” if she refused. Police said Ouellet took control of her phone, limiting her ability to communicate even as the device continued to provide a location that her mother could follow. The woman said she went through a marriage ceremony June 1 and then stayed with Ouellet at a campground trailer in Lee until June 5. Authorities have not publicly identified the official who handled the ceremony or released the marriage documents.

On June 5, the woman said, Ouellet made her drive through parts of New Hampshire and Maine while he sat in the passenger seat with a loaded handgun pointed toward her. She told investigators that he claimed religious cults were following them. Their route and stops have not been fully disclosed, but the account placed them in more than one jurisdiction before they returned to New Hampshire. The following morning, according to the affidavit, Ouellet used a box cutter to slice the woman’s hand during what she described as a “satanic ritual.” Police later searched his vehicle and reported finding a copy of “The Satanic Bible,” along with a sweatshirt and a bag. The presence of the book does not by itself establish a crime. Investigators included it among the objects they said were relevant to checking the woman’s account of the events before her escape.

The final stop placed the pair in one of the busiest parts of a town with about 800 year-round residents. Newington covers just over eight square miles of land, but its commercial and industrial areas serve the wider Seacoast region. Town figures say the area east of the Spaulding Turnpike and the nearby Pease Tradeport supports about 15,000 workers and receives more than 5,000 shoppers on a typical day. Roughly 70,000 vehicles travel the turnpike daily. The town shares access to New Hampshire’s only deep-water port and sits near Portsmouth International Airport at Pease. That mix gives Newington two distinct identities: a historic residential community near the Piscataqua River and a regional retail center filled with chain stores, parking lots and steady traffic. The Olive Garden welfare check unfolded in the public-facing half of that divide.

The mother’s ability to locate the phone became the key connection between a private allegation and a police response. The woman told officers that Ouellet had taken the device, but its location still pointed her family to the restaurant. Police have not said whether the mother could see the phone’s movements during the preceding days or whether the Olive Garden was the first stable location she found. They also have not released the woman’s name, age or hometown, a common step in cases involving alleged domestic violence. No restaurant employee or customer has been publicly identified as a witness. The available court account instead focuses on the moment officers arrived and the woman ran toward them. Her visible distress, reported injuries and request for protection gave police immediate reasons to separate the pair and continue the inquiry.

Newington police arrested Ouellet on a charge alleging that he used a deadly weapon to prevent someone from reporting a crime or injury. Other reports identified the case as involving domestic violence and possession of a deadly weapon. Police Chief Michael Bilodeau said additional charges were likely, including possible charges connected to events in Lee. Different portions of the woman’s account could fall under different police departments because the alleged threats, ceremony, confinement, travel and injury did not all occur in the same place. The investigation therefore required agencies to determine where each alleged act happened and which department or prosecutor had authority over it. Ouellet was taken to the Rockingham County Department of Corrections and held under preventive detention after his initial court proceeding.

At his June 8 video appearance, Ouellet directly rejected the central allegations. “If you talk to anybody that knows me, I’m not a physical man,” he told the judge. He also said that forcing someone into marriage violated his religious belief in free will and denied being aggressive toward the woman in the ways described in the court papers. His statements were not testimony tested through cross-examination, and the case had not reached a trial. The allegations in an arrest affidavit represent investigators’ basis for a charge, not a finding of guilt. Prosecutors would still need to present admissible evidence and prove any filed charge beyond a reasonable doubt. A defense lawyer could challenge the statements, searches, timeline and interpretation of the physical evidence.

The marriage itself may also become part of the legal review. A ceremony and paperwork can document that a marriage was recorded, but the woman’s allegation centers on whether her consent was obtained through threats and a displayed gun. Police have not said whether they seized a marriage certificate, interviewed a clerk or reviewed security footage from Lee Town Hall. They also have not said whether investigators recovered the .45-caliber handgun or the box cutter described by the woman. The affidavit publicly reported the book and other objects found in Ouellet’s car, but early news accounts did not provide a complete inventory of seized evidence. Those unanswered questions matter because prosecutors must connect physical records and witness statements to particular criminal allegations.

Authorities also had to address the trailer and any weapons believed to be there. Police activity connected to Ouellet led to a shelter-in-place order in Lee during the weekend, according to local reports. The order was later lifted after Ouellet was taken into custody in Portsmouth. Officials did not initially explain every step that led to the warning, though reports said police had learned that Ouellet possessed weapons. Lee is west of Newington and has a more rural character, with wooded roads and campgrounds that contrast with the shopping district where the arrest occurred. The movement between those settings added another layer to the investigation, requiring officers to examine a trailer, vehicle, town hall, restaurant and possible travel route rather than a single scene.

The woman remained protected by an emergency order as police continued reviewing her account and considering further charges. Initial reports did not announce a trial date or disclose a full schedule for later hearings. Ouellet remained accused, not convicted, and the central claims awaited review in court. The next milestones were expected to include charging decisions from the agencies handling events in Newington and Lee, along with the collection of phone, vehicle, marriage and weapons evidence.

Author note: Last updated July 11, 2026.