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A 32-year-old man, standing five feet nine inches tall and weighing just 68 pounds, was forced to live in an 8-by-9-foot room for 20 years.
All because his 56-year-old stepmother said so, Waterbury police said.
Kimberly Sullivan was arrested this week and charged with first-degree assault, second-degree kidnapping, first-degree unlawful restraint, cruelty to persons, and first-degree reckless endangerment, police said. She was released from jail on Thursday after posting a $300,000 bond.
At a press conference Thursday, March 13, Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo called the treatment "unfathomable" and said the man's living conditions were "worse than a jail cell."
"In 33 years of law enforcement, this is the worst treatment of humanity I’ve ever witnessed," he told reporters.
The unnamed man was rescued on Feb. 17 after he set his home on fire using a lighter, printer paper, and hand sanitizer.
"I wanted my freedom," he told police.
Since then, he has described decades of abuse to police and the harrowing ways he stayed alive.
The man said the abuse began in childhood. When he was caught sneaking food, his father and stepmother locked him in his room and starved him. Desperate, he stole other children’s lunches at school and ate from trash cans, authorities said.
Teachers and administrators at Waterbury’s now-closed Barnard Elementary School noticed his behavior and repeatedly reported it to the Department of Children and Families, according to Tom Pannone, the former principal.
"We knew it. We reported it. Not a damn thing was done," he told NBC Connecticut.
DCF Commissioner Jodi Hill-Lilly said in a statement Thursday that the department purges records every five years and has no information on those reports.
The Department of Children and Families has looked extensively at our current and historical databases and, to date, has been unable to locate any records pertaining to this family, nor any records connected to the names of those who indicated they made reports to our department. She added that, under state law, reports of neglect and abuse that were investigated but not substantiated are expunged five years after the case is closed—unless additional reports emerge.
Waterbury police said investigators found two reports tied to the victim’s Blake Street address. The first was a welfare check ordered by DCF in 2005. The second was a complaint from Kimberly Sullivan, alleging that DCF was harassing their family.
Officers went to the home but reported finding no "cause for alarm," Spagnolo said. After speaking with the victim, they said the house "appeared normal."
The victim’s parents withdrew him from school in the fourth grade following the DCF reports. That was the end of his formal education, he told police.
He said he received only three or four books a year and relied on a dictionary to learn new words.
The victim told police his biological mother left when he was about 2 years old. His father, who allegedly participated in the abuse, died in January 2024, Spagnolo said.
The man also has two sisters who were allowed to go to school and have friends, he told police. However, they were forbidden from bringing friends home to protect the family’s "secret."
Few people ever saw him during his alleged 20 years of captivity.
A neighbor told the NY Post they exchanged a wave when she saw him in a window years ago. She thought he was a little boy because of his size, but he would have been in his early 20s.
On rare occasions, when his stepmother took his sisters out for the weekend, his father would let him watch TV in the living room. But that privilege ended when his father fell ill years ago.
Family members who asked about him or tried to check in were shut out. His uncle, Kurt Sullivan, told investigators that he visited the home on Christmas Eve in 2004 and 2005. But after that, he and his wife were cut off.
He said he was stunned when he saw his nephew in the hospital after the fire.
"I was shocked," he said. "He looks like a Holocaust survivor."
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