A Connecticut man, who was allegedly held captive by his stepmother for more than 20 years, was subjected to abuse and starvation until he started a fire as his way to escape, police say.
Kimberly Sullivan, 56, was arrested Wednesday and charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful restraint and intentional cruelty to persons, the Waterbury Police Department said in a statement.
“Thirty-three years in law enforcement, this is the worst treatment of humanity that I have ever witnessed,” Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said in a news conference on Thursday, which incidentally is the same day Sullivan posted the $300,000 bail set by a judge in Waterbury Superior Court.
Firefighters responding to a Feb. 17 fire at the Waterbury home found the stepson inside “in a severely emaciated condition.”
Detectives determined he had endured “prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect, and inhuman treatment,” police alleged.
The five-foot-nine man weighed just 68 pounds when authorities found him, according to an affidavit shared by WFSB and confirmed by the Waterbury state’s attorney for the Waterbury Judicial District.
He told officers that he had been held captive by Sullivan since he was about 11 years old, but getting locked in his room began at the age of three, when his family caught him sneaking to get food and water because he was hungry, the affidavit said.
He recalled having to drink water from the toilet because he was only getting about two cups of water a day.
He was locked in his room only during the evenings, at that point, but was pulled out of school during fourth grade when the school contacted the Department of Children and Families after noticing he appeared to be always hungry, asking others for food, stealing food and sometimes eating out of the garbage, he said, according to the affidavit.
DCF visited the family’s home twice, but Sullivan instructed him to say everything was fine.
Once out of his school, “his weekday routine and captivity became brutally consistent for the rest of his life,” the affidavit states.
The room he was locked in was more of a “back storage space” that had no heat in the winter and no air conditioning in the summer.
He had no access to a bathroom and was forced to come up with ways to dispose of his waste, including using a series of straws that led to a hole in a window.
Pieces of his teeth would break off when he did get an opportunity to eat due to a lack of dental care, he said in the affidavit.
The lifetime of cruelty ended last month, when he used a lighter, hand sanitizer and paper to start the fire in the second-floor room because “I wanted my freedom,” the affidavit notes.
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He was treated for smoke inhalation and exposure to the fire.
Sullivan owns the home and was inside when her stepson started the fire, but was evacuated safely.
The man’s father and Sullivan’s husband died last year, according to the outlet.
Police are now trying to determine how this could have happened without anyone noticing and whether any warning signs were missed.
Investigators want to look at records from city schools and the state child welfare agency, Chief Spagnolo said.
Sullivan’s lawyer Ioannis Kaloidis told WFSB that his client denies any wrongdoing, insisting her stepson was not locked in a room or restrained in any way.
“She provided food and she provided shelter and she was blown away by these allegations,” Kaloidis said.
However, the prosecutor argued, “He was, without exaggeration, akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s death camp.”
Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury launched a GoFundMe campaign for the man, who now faces “the immense challenge of rebuilding his life after such a traumatic experience,” they said.
As of publication, more than $26,000 has been raised.