A Clinton County woman recounts her ordeal in court today after police rescued her last week from a pit underneath her neighbor’s shed.
Jennifer Elliott, 30, testified during a preliminary hearing that 45-year-old Dennis Dunn kept her in a shallow hole dug in the dirt covered by a large plank behind his home on Center Avenue in Blanchester.
Elliott said she doesn’t member everything because she suffered an epileptic seizure.
“I just remember he said. ‘you’re mine.’ ”
When he closed the shed door he said, ‘I love you,’ ” she said. “I remember banging on the dirt and screaming.”
Neighbors and Elliott’s mother called police early on April 26 after hearing noises coming from the shed. Blanchester police Officer Mike Keller responded.
>>>RELATED: Police find woman held in shed, man arrested after standoff
Credit: Apple Cassidy
Credit: Apple Cassidy
“I went to the back of the shed and I could hear knocking a little louder and I yelled ‘Jennifer, if you’re in there knock twice.’ I heard two distinct knocks and then I heard a female voice that sounded in distress,” Keller testified.
The officer and Elliott’s ex-husband then went into the shed.
“We lifted up that plank and I saw a female crouched down into a hole in the very left corner of the shed,” Keller said.
Outside the courtroom, Dunn’s attorney Jim Hartke said his client claimed to have a romantic relationship with Elliott.
A Clinton County judge ordered the case to go before a grand jury and continued Dunn’s bond of $1 million and for him to have no contact with Elliott.
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