Scientology Crime Syndicate - The Marianne Coenan Kidnapping/Torture

Subject: Marianne Coenan stories
From: arsccnews@my-deja.com
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 01:52:57 GMT

Metro; PART-B; Metro Desk D.A. Won't File Charges Against Man Who Kept Wife Locked Up JOHN H. LEE

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has decided not to file criminal charges against the husband of a mentally distraught woman who was kept isolated in a cell-like bedroom for two months, a prosecutor in Pomona said Tuesday.

Edwin Coenan, 41, was arrested Dec. 5 after Pomona police found his wife incoherent, bruised and confined in a boarded-up room at a residence in the Phillips Ranch area.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Hayes said the case was being "kicked back to police detectives for further investigation." Detective Carolyn Lundstrum said Coenan has refused to discuss the case with police. She added that the wife's father and stepmother, Floyd and Audrey Twede, who live at the house, also refused to answer police questions. The Twedes were not arrested.

Attorneys for the husband and the Twedes told investigators that Marianne Coenan, 31, was isolated so she could safely recover from a mental breakdown suffered in October. When police and Los Angeles County mental health workers found Coenan, she was locked behind a door into which a small, square window was cut and steel bars had been inserted.

"Generally speaking, the family was not under obligation to report (the confinement)," Hayes said. "Our decision not to file charges was based on insufficient information to support the case. From what I read between the lines, these people actually thought they were benefiting this woman." The family, which belongs to the Church of Scientology, apparently adhered to beliefs espoused by the church's late founder, L. Ron Hubbard- particularly, a disdain for psychiatric treatment.

Coenan 's confinement was consistent with the method of treating mental breakdowns described in Scientology literature that police requested and reviewed while investigating the case, Lundstrum said.

"Based on the report we submitted, the (district attorney's) office was not convinced that any criminal activity took place," the detective said.

Prosecutor Hayes said the investigation will continue until additional relatives and friends of the woman are questioned.

"We want the police to conduct a few more interviews," Hayes said.

"I don't think the wife has been questioned yet," he said. "I believe her condition has improved greatly, though. The detectives will talk to her when she is able to handle an interview." --

NEWS LOS ANGELES BRIEFLY

01/31/1990 The Orange County Register EVENING Page a03

...

No charges: Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John Hayes on Tuesday said officials had insufficient information to file any charges against Edwin Coenan, 41, of Pomona, the husband of a mentally distraught woman who was kept isolated in a bedroom for two months. Police arrested Coenan on Dec. 5 after they found his wife incoherent, bruised and confined in the boarded-up room.

Hayes said the case has been returned to police for further investigation. The woman reportedly has improved greatly since she released from the isolated room.

...

Metro; PART-B; Metro Desk Captivity Case May be Tied to Faith Investigation: Church teachings may explain why a mentally ill woman was kept locked up in her Pomona home, police say.

JOHN H. LEE; JOHN JOHNSON

Pomona police said Friday they are investigating whether beliefs espoused by the Church of Scientology led a family to confine a mentally disabled woman in a cell-like bedroom at a Phillips Ranch house.

While stressing that neither the church nor its beliefs are under investigation, police said they want to know if Scientology practices could explain why the woman was kept in confinement.

Police and Los Angeles County mental health workers discovered Marianne Coenan, 31, locked in a sparsely furnished room with a boarded-up window after they entered the residence on Jan. 5.

The woman was incoherent and had bruises and scratches on her legs, wrists and neck, police said. She was kept behind a door into which a small, square opening was cut and steel bars had been inserted, police said.

Her husband, Edwin Coenan, 41, was arrested the same day and booked on suspicion of false imprisonment and endangering a dependent adult. He has been released on $5,000 bail, and no charges have been filed.

The woman's father and stepmother, Floyd and Audrey Twede, as well as the victim's half-brother, Steven, are also under investigation, police said. The Twedes rented the house on Rolling Hills Drive where the woman was confined.

Police said they saw Scientology printed material in the house and plan to review documents written by Scientology's late founder L. Ron Hubbard that describe how to treat mental breakdowns. In the documents, Hubbard recommended isolation as a treatment and also warned his followers to avoid conventional psychiatric care.

"During talks with attorneys representing the (husband and the Twedes), it has always been a given fact that they are Scientologists," Pomona Police Detective Carolyn Lundstrum said.

"The family also made statements to the effect that they didn't believe in some forms of medicine and psychiatric help," Sgt. Elias Valdez said. "We are trying to determine what connection the beliefs had with the false imprisonment." Investigators said other relatives and friends of the woman said she had been kept in the room for at least eight weeks after suffering a mental breakdown in October.

"Attorneys for the husband and parents have said that Marianne became so violent, she was hurting herself," Lundstrum said. "So they created a space where she could not harm herself. They said they did it for her own safety." The woman's confinement came to the attention of authorities after Cathy Speer of Hillsboro, Ore., said her sister failed to arrive in Oregon for the Christmas holidays, Lundstrum said. Speer asked police to go to the Phillips Ranch home to check on her, the detective added.

After Edwin Coenan 's arrest, a relative called the Church of Scientology and was referred to Timothy Bowles, whose Los Angeles law firm represents the church on various matters. Bowles told The Times that he had been briefly involved in the case, but is not defending Coenan.

Church spokeswoman Shirley Young confirmed Friday that the Coenans and Twedes are Scientologists but added that the care of Marianne Coenan "was not a church matter... nor did the church take any stand with relationship to her treatment." Specifically, police said they will review a "technical bulletin" authored in 1974 by Hubbard, in which he describes the "Introspection Rundown"-a process for treating people with mental breakdowns.

He wrote that people suffering severe mental anguish, or a "psychotic break," should be isolated and "destimulated" to protect them and others from possible harm. During the process, Hubbard added, the "muzzled rule is in force," meaning that no one should speak to the troubled person or talk within earshot.

The document also articulates Hubbard's understanding of psychosis and his disdain for psychiatry.

Asked if the family was using a church-approved treatment for psychosis, church spokeswoman Young said Coenan 's isolation was "a medical matter" and added that "the church takes no official stand on it." However, church officials, relatives and police said Coenan had been under medical supervision during the two months of confinement.

Young, asked whether the family was applying the "Introspection Rundown," said, "I'm just becoming abreast of the situation. So far as what they did, this is a sad and unfortunate case." Detective Lundstrum, meanwhile, said the bulletin "may help explain what the people were doing, but the information has absolutely no legal bearing on the case." Detectives visited Marianne Coenan several times this week at a private psychiatric hospital in Pomona, Lundstrum said. Coenan appeared to be in fair physical condition, and "she had some lucid moments, but she still has not been able to concentrate," the detective said.

"I haven't talked to her yet about the case," Lundstrum said. "She is not ready to be questioned. She says things to herself, most of which I couldn't understand." Relatives told police that her condition deteriorated over the past year, during which time she had been taken to several doctors. One of those physicians was James R. Privitera, a Covina nutritionist and allergist. Coenan was brought to his office two months ago, and he recommended a CAT scan, which is a medical imaging procedure, Privitera said.

The doctor declined to discuss the case in detail, citing the need to protect the patient's privacy. Privitera said he told the police investigators he would discuss the case with them if they obtained a court order.

Privitera was placed on medical probation in 1980 after prescribing the controversial drug laetrile to cancer patients. In 1987, the state moved to revoke his probation and end his practice. Privitera has denied the allegations, and the case against him is pending.

Privitera said he has no connection to Scientology and the church has never steered patients to his practice.

Detectives said charges against Edwin Coenan must be formally filed by Thursday.

At that time, charges against any other suspects will be filed, if there are any, Lundstrum said.

Metro; PART-B; Metro Desk Family of Woman Locked in Cell-Like Room Will Be Questioned CAROL McGRAW

The father and stepmother of a mentally ill woman found locked in a cell-like room in the Phillips Ranch area of Pomona lived in the rented house with her and will be questioned as to why she was being kept a virtual prisoner, police said.

No charges have been filed against the couple or their two grown children, who also lived at the house, police said. A spokesman for the Pomona Police Department said investigators expect to interview all four, whom he refused to identify by name, as to why the frail-looking woman was locked away.

The couple's son-in-law, Edwin Clemens Coenan, 41, was arrested Friday for allegedly imprisoning his wife, Marianne Coenan, 31, at the four-bedroom, one-story home.

Edwin Coenan, who told police he is a truck driver and lives in Hendersonville, Tenn., is now free on $5,000 bail. He has refused to talk to police until he has an attorney present, Lt. Larry Todd said.

"We don't know what to assume happened yet, until we talk to everyone. But there are several theories," Todd said, including the possibility that the family "wanted to resolve the woman's problems on their own." A tip from a doctor who had examined the woman at the house led police to the discovery late Friday. The woman is now undergoing psychiatric evaluation at a Los Angeles County Mental Health Department facility in the Pomona area.

When found, she was incoherent and unable to talk to authorities, police said.

She had bruises on her legs and scratches on her neck and hands. A preliminary examination indicated Sunday that she is not ailing physically, although was very thin and frail when officers found her, police said.

Upon their arrival Friday at the home, located at 3 Rolling Hills Drive, officers and mental health workers said they found that the door to one of the four bedrooms had been bolted shut. According to their account, steel bars had covered a 5-inch- square peephole which had been cut in the door. The only window in the bedroom had been covered with plywood; carpeting had been removed to expose a concrete floor. The room's light switch had been rewired so it could be operated only from outside in the hallway. The furniture in the room included a mattress, blanket and dishpan.

But when police returned to the house Saturday with a search warrant, they found that someone had tidied up the room, Todd said. A new door had been installed, plywood had been taken off the window, and carpeting had been placed in the room. However, investigators said they found the old door and plywood in the garage and confiscated them for evidence. "We don't know who made the changes, whether it was the people living there or the landlord," Todd said.

METRO Incoherent woman found locked in "cell' Confined in bedroom of affluent suburban home

01/07/1990 San Francisco Examiner THIRD Page B-4 (Copyright 1990) POMONA - A bruised, incoherent and possibly mentally ill woman was found locked in a "cell" fashioned from a bedroom of an affluent suburban home, police said Saturday. Her husband was arrested.

The 31-year-old woman, whose name was withheld, was placed in a psychiatric facility for observation, said police Lt. Larry Todd.

Her husband, Edwin Coenan, 41, was arrested and booked for investigation of false imprisonment and cruelty to a dependent adult, Todd said. He posted $5,000 bail and was released from custody.

The relationship and roles of three other adults who appeared to also live at the house remained under investigation.

Police officers accompanied by a mental health evaluation team went to the home in the Phillips Ranch neighborhood about 6:30 p.m. Friday and found the woman locked in the room.

"We received information from a physician who had seen her," Todd said.

"Someone took her to this location and he felt she was either mentally incapacitated or physically incapacitated, and the people took her away before he could treat her. He called us. We went out basically to check on her safety." The woman was locked in a "cell-type" bedroom, he said.

The room was secured from the outside by a bolt lock on the door. A 5-inch by 5-inch hole had been cut in the door as an observation port and covered by a grate. The only window in the room had plywood nailed over it.

A mattress, blanket and plastic dishpan were the only furnishings.

"She was on the concrete slab floor," Todd said.

The woman was incoherent and the mental health evaluators declared her gravely disabled. Police took custody of her under state welfare law.

Bruises on her legs and arms were examined at a hospital and found to not be serious injuries, clearing her for transfer to a psychiatric facility for a 72-hour observation period allowed by law.

After 72 hours, Los Angeles County mental health authorities must decide whether she can be released or requires further care.

The house was in "excellent shape," Todd said, and the investigators' report indicated the confinement room was clean.

Police did not know what caused the woman's bruises.

Investigators also did not know how long she had been confined "other than it took someone some time to modify that room," Todd said.

Coenan was placed under arrest at the hospital where his wife was first taken for examination.

"He invoked his rights so he didn't really tell us a lot about what had occurred," Todd said.

NEWS HUSBAND ARRESTED AFTER WIFE FOUND IN `CELL' Associated Press

01/07/1990 Los Angeles Daily News Valley N7 (Copyright 1990) A bruised, incoherent and possibly mentally ill woman was found locked in a "cell" fashioned from a bedroom of an affluent suburban home, police said Saturday. Her husband was arrested.

The 31-year-old woman, whose name was withheld, was placed in a psychiatric facility for three days of observation, said police Lt. Larry Todd.

Her husband, Edwin Coenan, 41, was arrested and booked for investigation of false imprisonment and cruelty to a dependent adult, Todd said. He posted $5,000 bail and was released from custody.

Police officers accompanied by a mental health evaluation team went to the home in the Phillips Ranch neighborhood about 6:30 p.m. Friday and found the woman locked in the room.

"We received information from a physician who had seen her," Todd said.

"Someone took her to his location and he felt she was either mentally incapacitated or physically incapacitated, and the people took her away before he could treat her. He called us. We went out basically to check on her safety." The woman was locked in a "cell-type" bedroom, he said.

A mattress, blanket and plastic dishpan were the only furnishings.

"She was on the concrete slab floor," Todd said.

The woman was incoherent and the mental health evaluators declared her gravely disabled. Police took custody of her under state welfare law.

Bruises on her legs and arms were examined at a hospital and found to not be serious injuries, clearing her for transfer to a psychiatric facility for a 72-hour observation period allowed by law.

After 72 hours, Los Angeles County mental health authorities must decide whether she can be released or requires further care.

The house was in "excellent shape," Todd said, and the investigators' report indicated the confinement room was clean.

NEWS Woman freed by police // She was found in makeshift `cell' :The Associated Press

01/07/1990 The Orange County Register EVENING Page a03 A bruised, incoherent and possibly mentally ill woman was found locked in a "cell" fashioned from a bedroom of an affluent suburban home, police said Saturday. Her husband was arrested.

The 31-year-old woman, whose name was withheld, was placed in a psychiatric facility for three days of observation, police Lt. Larry Todd said.

Her husband, Edwin Coenan, 41, was arrested and booked for investigation of false imprisonment and cruelty to a dependent adult, Todd said. He posted $5,000 bail and was released from custody.

The relationship and roles of three other adults who appeared to also live at the house remained under investigation.

Police officers accompanied by a mental-health evaluation team went to the home in the well-to-do Phillips Ranch neighborhood about 6:30 p.m. Friday and found the woman locked in the room.

"We received information from a physician who had seen her," Todd said.

A mattress, blanket and plastic dishpan were the only furnishings.

"She was on the concrete slab floor," Todd said.

The woman was incoherent and the mental-health evaluators declared her gravely disabled. Police took custody of her under state welfare law.

Bruises on her legs and arms were examined at a hospital and found to not be serious injuries, clearing her for transfer to a psychiatric facility for the 72- hour observation period allowed by law.

After 72 hours, Los Angeles County mental-health authorities must decide whether she can be released or requires further care.

The house was in "excellent shape," Todd said, and the investigators' report indicated the confinement room was clean.

Police did not know what caused the woman's bruises.

Investigators also did not know how long she had been confined "other than it took someone some time to modify that room," Todd said.

Coenan was placed under arrest at the hospital where his wife was first taken for examination.

"He invoked his rights, so he didn't really tell us a lot about what had occurred," Todd said.

The Police Department will take the case to the district attorney, he said.

NEWS The World/Nation... in brief Captive wife is freed

01/07/1990 The San Diego Union- Tribune UNION; 1,2 Page A-23 (Copyright 1990) POMONA -- A mentally ill woman was rescued from a cell-type bedroom where her husband allegedly held her captive, police said yesterday.

Edwin Coenan, 41, was booked on suspicion of false imprisonment and endangering a dependent adult after officers discovered his wife locked in the bedroom of their home Friday evening, Lt. Ron Frazier said. Coenan was released after posting $5,000 bail.

Police were notified after a doctor examined the woman earlier in the day.

Details about her mental and emotional condition were not immediately available, but Lt. Larry Todd described her as "gravely disabled and unable to care for herself." United Press International

Metro; PART-B; Metro Desk Man Held Mentally Ill Wife Captive in Home, Police Say DAVID FREED; EUGENE AHN

A mentally disabled woman who apparently had been kept locked away in a stark, cell-like bedroom in Pomona was under psychiatric observation Saturday while her truck driver husband was free on bail after being arrested for allegedly imprisoning her.

Authorities said they could not immediately determine how long or why Marianne Coenan, 31, had been kept in the room. They described her as incoherent when police officers and Los Angeles County mental health workers found her late Friday.

"Her husband didn't want us in there, but we went in anyway," said Pomona Police Lt. Larry Todd. Police had been tipped off by a doctor who had examined the woman earlier in the day. It was not immediately clear why the woman had been examined or by whom.

When officers and mental health workers arrived at the one- story, wood-frame house, located at 3 Rolling Hills Drive in the Phillips Ranch area, they found that the door to one of four bedrooms inside had been bolted shut. Steel bars covered a 5-inch square opening in the door.

The only window in the bedroom had been covered with plywood. The carpeting had been removed, leaving a bare concrete floor. The only furnishings, Todd said, were a mattress, a blanket and a plastic dishpan. A naked light bulb shone from the ceiling.

"She was incoherent, rambling on" when authorities opened the door, Todd said.

"The (mental health) people evaluated her as being psychologically...

disabled." Marianne Coenan, Todd said, was wearing a shirt and pants but no shoes. Her legs were bruised, and scratches covered her wrists and neck, but she was otherwise uninjured.

She was taken to Pomona Valley Medical Center for evaluation, then placed by county health officials in an unidentified psychiatric facility in the Pomona area for a 72-hour observation period.

Todd said the husband, Edwin Clemens Coenan, 41, a truck driver from Hendersonville, Tenn., refused to answer any questions without an attorney present. He was arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment and endangering a dependent adult.

Coenan was booked into the Pomona jail and released a few hours later after posting $5,000 bail, Todd said.

On Saturday, a man with graying brown hair who identified himself as Marianne Coenan 's husband answered the door of the house but declined to discuss the case with a reporter.

"A lot of people have been asking me about this, and we just don't have any comment," he said.

The exterior of the house offers no hint of the prison-like conditions that police said they found inside.

The house and grounds are not well- maintained compared to other homes on the street, some of which have elaborate front yards adorned with shrubs trimmed in perfectly shaped geometric forms.

At least three other adults live in the house where Marianne Coenan was found, according to officers, but neither police nor neighbors knew whether they were friends or relatives.

No one questioned Saturday was sure how long the Coenans had lived there.

"One of the things I noticed was... they're never out doing yard work," said next-door neighbor Roger Sparkman. Neighbors, including Sparkman, 34, said they had little, if any, contact with the Coenans.

PHOTO: Inside the house at 3 Rolling Hills Drive is a stripped- down room with a door that bolts shut, police say. They claim Edwin Clemens Coenan kept his wife captive there. / ADRIENNE HELITZER / Los Angeles Times

January 31, 1990, Wednesday, Home Edition

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 3; Column 2; Metro Desk

LENGTH: 393 words

HEADLINE: D.A. WON'T FILE CHARGES AGAINST MAN WHO KEPT WIFE LOCKED UP

BYLINE: By JOHN H. LEE, TIMES STAFF WRITER

BODY: The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has decided not to file criminal charges against the husband of a mentally distraught woman who was kept isolated in a cell-like bedroom for two months, a prosecutor in Pomona said Tuesday.

Edwin Coenan, 41, was arrested Dec. 5 after Pomona police found his wife incoherent, bruised and confined in a boarded-up room at a residence in the Phillips Ranch area.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Hayes said the case was being "kicked back to police detectives for further investigation."

Detective Carolyn Lundstrum said Coenan has refused to discuss the case with police. She added that the wife's father and stepmother, Floyd and Audrey Twede, who live at the house, also refused to answer police questions. The Twedes were not arrested.

The family, which belongs to the Church of Scientology, apparently adhered to beliefs espoused by the church's late founder, L. Ron Hubbard -- particularly, a disdain for psychiatric treatment.

Coenan's confinement was consistent with the method of treating mental breakdowns described in Scientology literature that police requested and reviewed while investigating the case, Lundstrum said.

"Based on the report we submitted, the (district attorney's) office was not convinced that any criminal activity took place," the detective said.

Prosecutor Hayes said the investigation will continue until additional relatives and friends of the woman are questioned.

"We want the police to conduct a few more interviews," Hayes said.

"I don't think the wife has been questioned yet," he said. "I believe her condition has improved greatly, though. The detectives will talk to her when she is able to handle an interview."

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

January 13, 1990, Saturday, Home Edition

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 3; Column 4; Metro Desk

LENGTH: 1010 words

HEADLINE: CAPTIVITY CASE MAY BE TIED TO FAITH; INVESTIGATION: CHURCH TEACHINGS MAY EXPLAIN WHY A MENTALLY ILL WOMAN WAS KEPT LOCKED UP IN HER POMONA HOME, POLICE SAY.

BYLINE: By JOHN H. LEE and JOHN JOHNSON, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

BODY: Pomona police said Friday they are investigating whether beliefs espoused by the Church of Scientology led a family to confine a mentally disabled woman in a cell-like bedroom at a Phillips Ranch house.

While stressing that neither the church nor its beliefs are under investigation, police said they want to know if Scientology practices could explain why the woman was kept in confinement.

Police and Los Angeles County mental health workers discovered Marianne Coenan, 31, locked in a sparsely furnished room with a boarded-up window after they entered the residence on Jan. 5.

"During talks with attorneys representing the (husband and the Twedes), it has always been a given fact that they are Scientologists," Pomona Police Detective Carolyn Lundstrum said.

"The family also made statements to the effect that they didn't believe in some forms of medicine and psychiatric help," Sgt.

Elias Valdez said. "We are trying to determine what connection the beliefs had with the false imprisonment."

Investigators said other relatives and friends of the woman said she had been kept in the room for at least eight weeks after suffering a mental breakdown in October.

The woman's confinement came to the attention of authorities after Cathy Speer of Hillsboro, Ore., said her sister failed to arrive in Oregon for the Christmas holidays, Lundstrum said.

Speer asked police to go to the Phillips Ranch home to check on her, the detective added.

After Edwin Coenan's arrest, a relative called the Church of Scientology and was referred to Timothy Bowles, whose Los Angeles law firm represents the church on various matters. Bowles told The Times that he had been briefly involved in the case, but is not defending Coenan.

Specifically, police said they will review a "technical bulletin" authored in 1974 by Hubbard, in which he describes the "Introspection Rundown" -- a process for treating people with mental breakdowns.

The document also articulates Hubbard's understanding of psychosis and his disdain for psychiatry.

However, church officials, relatives and police said Coenan had been under medical supervision during the two months of confinement.

Young, asked whether the family was applying the "Introspection Rundown," said, "I'm just becoming abreast of the situation. So far as what they did, this is a sad and unfortunate case."

Detective Lundstrum, meanwhile, said the bulletin "may help explain what the people were doing, but the information has absolutely no legal bearing on the case."

Detectives visited Marianne Coenan several times this week at a private psychiatric hospital in Pomona, Lundstrum said. Coenan appeared to be in fair physical condition, and "she had some lucid moments, but she still has not been able to concentrate," the detective said.

"I haven't talked to her yet about the case," Lundstrum said.

"She is not ready to be questioned. She says things to herself, most of which I couldn't understand."

Relatives told police that her condition deteriorated over the past year, during which time she had been taken to several doctors.

One of those physicians was James R. Privitera, a Covina nutritionist and allergist. Coenan was brought to his office two months ago, and he recommended a CAT scan, which is a medical imaging procedure, Privitera said.

Privitera was placed on medical probation in 1980 after prescribing the controversial drug laetrile to cancer patients.

In 1987, the state moved to revoke his probation and end his practice. Privitera has denied the allegations, and the case against him is pending.

Privitera said he has no connection to Scientology and the church has never steered patients to his practice.

Detectives said charges against Edwin Coenan must be formally filed by Thursday. At that time, charges against any other suspects will be filed, if there are any, Lundstrum said.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

January 7, 1990, Sunday, Home Edition

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 1; Column 2; Metro Desk

LENGTH: 534 words

HEADLINE: MAN HELD MENTALLY ILL WIFE CAPTIVE IN HOME, POLICE SAY

BYLINE: By DAVID FREED and EUGENE AHN, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

BODY: A mentally disabled woman who apparently had been kept locked away in a stark, cell-like bedroom in Pomona was under psychiatric observation Saturday while her truck driver husband was free on bail after being arrested for allegedly imprisoning her.

"She was incoherent, rambling on" when authorities opened the door, Todd said. "The (mental health) people evaluated her as being psychologically... disabled."

Marianne Coenan, Todd said, was wearing a shirt and pants but no shoes. Her legs were bruised, and scratches covered her wrists and neck, but she was otherwise uninjured.

She was taken to Pomona Valley Medical Center for evaluation, then placed by county health officials in an unidentified psychiatric facility in the Pomona area for a 72-hour observation period.

Coenan was booked into the Pomona jail and released a few hours later after posting $5,000 bail, Todd said.

On Saturday, a man with graying brown hair who identified himself as Marianne Coenan's husband answered the door of the house but declined to discuss the case with a reporter.

"A lot of people have been asking me about this, and we just don't have any comment," he said.

The exterior of the house offers no hint of the prison-like conditions that police said they found inside.

The house and grounds are not well- maintained compared to other homes on the street, some of which have elaborate front yards adorned with shrubs trimmed in perfectly shaped geometric forms.

At least three other adults live in the house where Marianne Coenan was found, according to officers, but neither police nor neighbors knew whether they were friends or relatives.

No one questioned Saturday was sure how long the Coenans had lived there.

GRAPHIC: Photo, Inside the house at 3 Rolling Hills Drive is a stripped-down room with a door that bolts shut, police say. They claim Edwin Clemens Coenan kept his wife captive there. ADRIENNE HELITZER / Los Angeles Times

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

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