Content warning: This article describes extreme child abuse. Please take care while reading.
A Connecticut man says he set a fire in his room to escape a 2o-year-imprisonment at his stepmother’s house, according to the Waterbury, CT police department in a statement on social media. The man’s stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, is now in custody, facing cruelty, kidnapping, and related charges.
According to Waterbury police, a fire broke out at a Waterbury home around 8:40 p.m. Feb. 17 this year, and was quickly extinguished. Two people were inside the house: Kimberly Sullivan, 56, who safely evacuated, and a man, later determined to be Sullivan’s 32-year-old stepson, whose name has not been reported in the press.
Sullivan’s stepson was rescued from the second floor of the home and treated for smoke inhalation. Once safe, he told emergency first responders he set the fire intentionally, using printer paper, hand sanitizer, and a lighter, according to CNN. The reason he did so, he said: “I wanted my freedom.”
A 20 year tale of abuse
As the victim, now referred to as Male Victim 1, went on to explain, he’d been locked in his room since he was around 11 years old, and fed only two sandwiches and two cups of water each day. Male Victim 1 reportedly weighed just 68 pounds when he was rescued, and had received no medical or dental care in decades. A Connecticut prosecutor described the man as “akin to a survivor of Auschwitz’s death camp,” Hartford’s WFSB reported.
When the man was younger, he recalled sneaking out of his room at night for food and water, asking others for help, and searching the garbage for food. Around the same time, he said his stepmother, Sullivan, started locking him in his room in the fourth grade.
School officials alerted local authorities that the boy seemed malnourished, and social workers checked on him. But Sullivan allegedly instructed Male Victim 1 and the boy’s father to tell them he was okay, as she did, and Sullivan eventually pulled him out of school. The man said he last left the property when he was around 15 years old.
According to an official police affidavit, viewed by Hartford’s WFSB, “[The man] stated that it got to a point where the only time he would ever be out of the house once his father died was to let the family dog out in the back of the property. Stating it was only about 1 minute a day. Essentially, [he] was locked in his room between 22 to 24 hours a day.”
“Everyone really was concerned with this child”
“Quite frankly the facts are something out of a horror movie.”
— Amanda Callahan (@_AmandaCallahan) March 13, 2025
56 year old Kimberly Sullivan was arrested today, accused of abusing her stepson for more than 20 years at their house in Waterbury.
What neighbors are saying about the “boy in the window” at 11 on @WFSBnews pic.twitter.com/UT9PHSMDiN
NBC Connecticut spoke with Male Victim 1’s former principal, Tom Pannone, at Waterbury’s now-closed Barnard Elementary School, who recalled concern for the boy, and said he and his colleagues reported the suspected abuse to Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) at that time.
“Everyone really was concerned with this child since he was 5 years old. You knew something was wrong. It was grossly wrong,” Pannone said. “We knew it. We reported it. Not a damn thing was done. That’s the tragedy of the whole thing,” he added.
“I hope the student remembers the staff at Barnard School and how much they really loved him,” Pannone said. “Sorry we couldn’t do more. Because you went through more than any of us ever will go through with our lives.”
As for Sullivan, she’s currently held on a $300,000 bond, and charged first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons, and first-degree reckless endangerment. According to her lawyer, Ioannis Kaloidis, she denies Male Victim 1’s allegations.
“He was not locked in a room. She did not restrain him in any way. She provided food,” Kaloidis said. “She provided shelter. She is blown away by these allegations … My client maintains her innocence and looks forward to clearing her name.”
Published: Mar 13, 2025 01:03 pm