A Connecticut woman was arrested Wednesday after police said she had taken her son-in-law prisoner for more than 20 years.
On February 17, crew members responded to a fire at their home at KTLA sister station WTNH in Waterbury, Connecticut. A 32-year-old man, 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan and a 32-year-old man, who was later identified as her son-in-law, was inside the house at the time. Sullivan was able to evacuate safely, and the man was saved by a firefighter.
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While being assessed for smoke inhalation by EMS, the man told his first responder he “wanted his freedom” and so he set the purpose on fire in a room upstairs using light hand sanitizer and paper. He says Sullivan had been taking him prisoner since he was 11 years old, and when he was found, officials said he weighed only 68 pounds.
The man was taken to the hospital, where his condition deteriorated and he was listed in dangerous conditions due to inhalation of smoke.
Detectives later determined that the man had been taken prisoner for more than 20 years and that he had been treated inhumanely and endured “abuse, starvation and harsh neglect,” police said.
He was given “minimal” food and water and was in a “severe and debilitating condition,” police said, adding that he had not received medical or dental care for many years.
When he was found, his teeth appeared to be rotten and his hair was “very dirty and matte,” the Washington Post quoted police.
Detectives at the scene of the fire questioned Sullivan, who was in the car with his daughter and her boyfriend. According to the affidavit, Sullivan said she had taken the victim to a psychiatrist in the past and that he had not been locked up in his room. During the investigation, detectives discovered that the door to the victim’s room had a slide lock on the outside.
The detective attempted to contact Sullivan during the early part of the investigation, but she refused and said she would not talk to the lawyer and talk to the police.
Kimberly Sullivan (Waterbury Police)
During the interview, the man detailed his life as an abuser, saying that he was initially locked in his room only at night. He only received two glasses of water a day, so he recalls drinking water from the toilet.
He said the school kept asking students for food at lunchtime and then he was kicked out of school after school.
According to the affidavit, the room the victim lived in was a storage area 8 x 9 feet behind the house. He said the room had no air conditioning in the summer and no heating in the winter.
“It’s worse than prison cell phone situations,” Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said she reported at the post office.
My son-in-law ultimately said he usually just leaves the room to do chores, usually about 1-2 hours a day. He claimed he had no access to the toilet after a while, urinating into a bottle, defecating on paper, and was left to dispose of it in trash when he tried to do a chore.
According to the affidavit, his only connection to the outside world was the radio set outside of his bedroom, where he listened to local radio stations and used it as a way to track dates and years. He used a dictionary to educate himself by reading three books in the year he was allowed to have.
On the day he set the fire, the man told him to wash his face, so the firefighters claimed that others cried out to help her get the lock through the door, not to see his appearance.
Sullivan was accused:
Attack on First Degree First Degree First Degree Illegal Confinement PPRSONS Atrocity to Reckless Risk
Sullivan’s lawyer said this was not a complete story.
“He wasn’t locked up in the room. She never held him down, she provided food, she provided shelter,” said Ioannis Kaloyd, a lawyer for Waterbury. “She’s been blown away by these allegations.”
The Caloid said the man’s biological father lived there until recently.
“He was a biological father. He was the one who instructed how his son was raised. When evidence comes out, you know that she is not the villain she was created for,” Kaloyd said.
Sullivan was arrested and her bond was set at $300,000. She will be held in custody with the Connecticut Department of Corrections.
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