Kimberly Sullivan, Waterbury, Connecticut woman charged with keeping her 32 year old stepson prisoner in small room, for 20 years with victim attaining freedom after setting fire to his room. House of horrors episode raises troubling questions.
Why hadn’t anyone come to his rescue? A Connecticut woman has been accused of holding her stepson captive for 20 years in a situation so dire the ‘house of horrors’ victim set fire to his room in a last-ditch effort to escape.
Kimberly Sullivan, 56, of Waterbury, CT, was arraigned on Wednesday on a litany of charges, including assault, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, cruelty and reckless endangerment.
Her 32-year-old stepson, who has not been named, set fire to a tiny upstairs bedroom of his on February 17, in a final desperate act before his eventual escape. The man alleges being held captive in the room for 20 years since he was 11 years old.
32 year old Connecticut victim was found weighing just 68 pounds
When first responders arrived to put out the blaze, they found the emaciated man, weighing just 68 pounds. Prosecutors said he was ‘akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s death camp’ at the time of his rescue.
According to CDC data, an ‘average’ 32-year-old American male should weigh just under 200 pounds.
Whilst being treated for smoke inhalation, the emaciated step-son confided in rescue crews that he set intentionally set fire to the room as a desperate means to escape.
‘I wanted my freedom,’ the man allegedly told police.
He said he had been held captive since he was about 11 years old in an 8-foot-by-9-foot room with no heat or air conditioning.
According to WFSB, the victim ‘lit a fire with some hand sanitizer [and] some paper from a printer.’
Victim held in captivity for 20 years suffered enduring prolonged abuse, starvation, neglect & inhuman treatment
A thorough investigation has now led authorities to believe the man ‘had been held in captivity for over 20 years, enduring prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect, and inhumane treatment.’
During that time, he had received no medical treatment or dental care.
Chief Fernando Spagnolo said: ‘The suffering this victim endured for over 20 years is both heartbreaking and unimaginable.
‘This case required relentless investigative effort, and I commend the dedication of our officers and the Waterbury State’s Attorney’s Office.
‘Their unwavering commitment ensured that justice is served, and the perpetrator is held fully accountable for these horrific crimes.’
Sullivan is being held with a $300,000 bond following her arraignment on Wednesday.
Her attorney, Ioannis Kaloidis, said Sullivan intends to ‘vigorously defend the charges.’
‘She’s adamant she did not do the things that she’s accused of,’ Kaloidis reiterated.
Victims’ sibling knew of abuse along with former principal who reached out to authorities no less than 20 times but to no avail
Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Don Therkildsen described the ‘facts of the case’ as, ‘quite frankly, something out of a horror movie’.
‘That’s without exaggeration,’ he added.
Prosecutors told the court during Sullivan’s arraignment that the man ‘lit that fire very well knowing he could die.
‘But he had been locked in the room for 20 years, and for 20 years he’d been trying to get out of that room.
‘He was… akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s death camp.’
According to a warrant for Sullivan’s arrest, the victim’s living conditions deteriorated when his father died last year.
Like any other day, the victim alleged, he spent the vast majority of his hours dead-bolted in his 8-by-9-foot room — eating just two sandwiches and a snack, court documents made public on Wednesday detailed.
He told authorities he was given two cups of water a day, but was sometimes forced to drink out of the toilet.
In one incident, the victim recalled allegedly being let out briefly at about 7 p.m. to try to fix a light bulb in the kitchen only to be quickly locked back up again by his stepmom, when he failed.
The victim told investigators he’d found the lighter stashed in a jacket pocket a year earlier when his father died and he was allowed to keep a few of his clothes. It was the lighter which he used along with the hand sanitizer and some papers to start the blaze in his room which led to his eventual escape.
During his rescue, the victim recalled his sister and her boyfriend arriving at the home around the same time as fire crews — and that his stepmom allegedly shouted for them to ‘get a screwdriver to get the locks off of the door.’
It remained unclear why the sister never approached authorities about her brother’s alleged plight. Authorities did not indicate whether charges would also be forthcoming against the victim’s sibling(s).
The man’s elementary school principal Tom Pannone told NBC ‘the tragedy of the whole thing’ is that school authorities alerted police when the boy stopped attending classes.
‘We knew it. We reported it. Not a damn thing was done,‘ he said.
Pannone said he and his staff at the since-closed school noticed the boy appeared thin, and when probed he told teachers he wasn’t allowed food at home.
‘Everyone really was concerned with this child since he was five years old. You knew something was wrong. It was grossly wrong,’ he said.
Teachers would even bring lunches for the boy after seeing him steal food or eat out of trash cans, Pannone said, revealing he and his team called the Department of Children and Families (DCF) at least 20 times.
Pannone said he hadn’t seen the alleged victim since the early 2000s, when he was in the forth grade.
After the boy stopped attending classes, Pannone was initially told he transferred to Wolcott Public Schools, but later heard he was being homeschooled.
