That is so creepy. I wonder what else, if anything, they found, because they think it was for confinement.
My honest first thought was drug trafficking. If somebody had millions of dollars worth of drugs they would probably want to lock it up like Ft Knox too.
I like that thought better than a dungeon. :toocreepy:
I agree, except I don't believe it was a million dollar operation. Anything that big would have a more secure, more expensive, less suspicious location.
I think it was one or two individuals who decided this was a good place to start a small marijuana grow-up. Not the professional kind we read about where an entire house is rented for huge numbers of plants, but an amateur one.
Back in the 70s, I was acquainted with a couple of people who did the same thing in their basements. Only a few plants were started and then, either used for their own consumption or transplanted outdoors when they were big enough.
The bench would have been to place the potted seeds/small plants on. The locks were to keep people out and the window covered to prevent anyone from looking in and to keep the light contained to the room. The water was for ... well, watering them. Light and water is pretty much all they need. The chains look identical to what I saw back then that held the hanging grow lamp. They looked similar to this and were purchased separately from the stand you see here:
Of course, they would have needed either electricity or a small generator to work the light. It wouldn't take much.
Why would they leave the water bottles, but not a bucket or something for human waste? No evidence of anything really to show human occupancy. I think LE and the media jumped to conclusions too quickly. It's exciting and dramatic to think this room was used to hold a captive, but I'm more likely to believe that it was a small-time grow-op.
JMO
ETA: Another thing that I saw decades ago: If the plants were left to grow to a large size (several feet), indoors or out, the chains for the grow light were used on which to hang the harvested plants upside down to dry. But since this room hadn't been there very long before the fire, I don't think it ever came to that here.